Kill Khalid - by Paul McGeough (Hardcover)

About the Book

In a headlong narrative--with high-speed car chases, negotiated prisoner exchanges, and an international scandal--acclaimed reporter McGeough uses extensive interviews with Khalid Mishal himself and the key players in Amman, Jerusalem, and Washington to tell the inside story of the rise of Hamas.

Book Synopsis

"Meticulously researched . . . This is the definitive chronicle of the Middle East crisis during the Clinton years and in the post-9/11 era" (Publishers Weekly).

"Providing a fly-on-the-wall vantage of the rising diplomatic panic that sent shudders through world capitals," Kill Khalid unfolds as a masterpiece of investigative journalism (Toronto Star). In 1997, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad poisoned Hamas leader Khalid Mishal in broad daylight on the streets of Amman, Jordan. As the little-known Palestinian leader slipped into a coma, the Mossad agents' escape was bungled and the episode quickly spiraled into a diplomatic crisis. A series of high-stakes negotiations followed, which ultimately saved Mishal and set the stage for his phenomenal political ascendancy.

In Kill Khalid, acclaimed reporter Paul McGeough reconstructs the history of Hamas through exclusive interviews with key players across the Middle East and in Washington, including unprecedented access to Mishal himself, who remains to this day one of the most powerful and enigmatic figures in the region. A "sobering reminder of how little has been achieved during 60 years of Israeli efforts in Palestine," Kill Khalid tracks Hamas's political fortunes across a decade of suicide bombings, political infighting, and increasing public support, culminating in the battle for Gaza in 2007 and the current-day political stalemate (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

"A pacey, riveting, and controversial book that has all the compulsion of a Le Carré novel." --John F. Burns, The New York Times

"[A] gem of leave-no-stone-unturned reporting." --Foreign Affairs

Review Quotes

"More than just a thriller with endnotes. The author's accumulated contacts over the years have given him rare access to most of the individuals at the centre of the Hamas story." --The Times Literary Supplement

"An incisive insider's history about one of the world's most intractable conflicts--and a ripping yarn to boot." --Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker

"Suspense-filled." --Vanity Fair

"McGeough's work reminds us what real journalism looks like. " --Firedoglake.com

"[A] riveting account of Israel's botched poisoning of Mishal." --Library Journal

About the Author

Paul McGeough is the chief foreign correspondent for and a former editor of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald and the author of several books on the Middle East, including Kill Khalid: The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas (The New Press), which won the 2010 Premier's Book of the Year award in Sydney, Australia. He has twice been named Australian Journalist of the Year and was awarded the Johns Hopkins University-based SAIS Novartis Prize for excellence in international journalism and eight Walkley Awards for his reporting on crisis and conflict. He lives in McLean, Virginia.