Customer Reviews

The Quest for the Red Prince: Israel's Relentless Manhunt for One of the World's Deadliest and Most Wanted Arab Terrorists

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I think that this is one of the best books written about Israel and Palestine conflicts. This book gives you the detailed history of the conflict between the two, starting as early as 1918. Michael Bar Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber's access to the top officials of Mossad, has given the true accounts of the incidents. The place, date, and other details are mostly accurate. Because both the authors have Israeli roots, some people have found the book one sided mostly praising the finesse of Israeli secret service agency Mossad. However, if you read the book carefully, you will see many events where Mossad failed to get Hassan Salameh, and later his son Ali Hassan Salameh (who was later known as Red Prince).

I bought this book to know more about the terrorist who planned the Munich massacre in 1972. Ali Hassan Salameh, formed the Black September group with support from Yasir Arafat and his militant group Fateh. Instead only focusing on Munich massacre, this book goes beyond and explains several events that many of us don't know about.

This is an important book and should be read by anyone wanting to know the real cause of conflict between Israel and Palestine. On almost every page there was a situation or fact described that had me amazed or terrified to imagine. This book is extremely readable and hard to put down, although you know the ultimate outcome.

This is an intriguing story. Very well written with excellent references and accuracy. Authors Bar-Zohar and Haber trace the history of Ali Salameh, a Palestinian who directed the Black September group from 1970 until the Mossad eliminated him in 1979. The Mossad rarely fail when they have decided to take an action.

Interestingly, the authors manage to put a human, mortal face on the Red Prince, a notorious terrorist. While it makes him recognizable, it also underscores his terrible malevolence and brutality. They also clearly show how Arafat created Black September to carry out the actions that the PLO wanted below the radar. That is reprehensible and precisely one of the reasons that so far no peace talks could ever succeed in the region.

I found nuggets throughout the story. Connections to world events that you may remember from the media coverage at the time. Now, you'll get the untold or unrealized story. I heartily recommend this book as a true crime, thriller genre story that will keep you turning pages to the end.

To all the Palestinian apologists out there, I say: Read this book. See how a "struggle for independence" turned into a savage and bloody international killing spree. Also witness the explicit cooperation of the Mufti of Jerusalem - you still don't think religious authorities don't condone terrorism, do you? Check out Arafat as well. All is double-talk is in open press now. Terrorism is a legitimate form of warfare for these people. They know they can't beat us head-on, so they kill non-combatants and wait for the apologists to condemn Israel and the US.

You apologists will also see how Ali Hassan Salameh and his family tried to brainwash his child as he himself was brainwashed. A murderer is a murderer is a murderer. Just because they have a "cause" behind them doesn't make it right.

These people whine and complain about wanting freedom, but look what they do to each other. Salameh and his father were criminals, extorting and robbing and murdering their own people and establishing criminal rackets. Zarqawi was the same in Jordan, as was Saddam in Iraq. Nobody stood up to them, and no one stands up for themselves in the Middle East. They are too used to being repressed. Sounds like Iraqis are starting to stand up to Al Qaeda. Hopefully they will drive them out and realize we have given them the best opportunity for freedom they could ever hope for.

An interesting book about the controversial decision by the Israeli government and Mossad to eliminate the individuals who perpetrated the Munich massacre. Some planned hits and targets are killed and ultimately the Red Prince is killed in a massive car bomb.

The Red Prince and his father led terrible lives. They may have been evicted from their homeland, but does that mean they can go out and blow up airplanes, and kill innocent sports figures. What surprised me about this book was the Red Prince's attitude toward the Lebanese Christians and his behind the scenes dialogue with the CIA. He was focused on terrorism against Israeli targets. His sons attitude toward Israel is also surprising.

This shows the ultimate fate awaiting terrorists like the Red Prince and Osmana Bin Laden. This is the ultimate story of terrorism and vengence.

This book hit way above my expectations. I was expecting a boring insight into the life and times of Ali Hassan Salameh, but boy, was I way wrong!. It provides a stunning account of his life starting from his father and down to his activities until his untimely death by the Mossad. It's action packed all the way,with a fluent and captivating style of writing by the authors. After reading "The Hunt For The Engineer" which was virtually boring and could be considered Israelli Propaganda, I find this book highly entertaining. A great buy for those interested in the life and times of a flamboyant terrorist during the 70's.

bar zohar describes in his book the actual hunt for the red prince. the writing style is fluent and captures the reader until the very end. in the book, bar zohar describes how the israeli mosad (like the cia)tried, and eventualy succeeded, to catch the red prince, who master-minded many deadly terorrist atacks on israeli targets. the book describes in a detective like story the hunt, the failures, and the joy of the sweet revenge at the end of the hunt. a great book even if it were just fiction, but greater because it is true.

Ali Hassan Salameh was Israel's most wanted in the 70's. He was nicknamed the Red Prince because he was a successful murderer, blood spiller. He was one of Black September's founding members which came into being in September 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan began purging Jordan of PLO terrorists. They had gone too far when they had killed the King's friend and right hand man. This action of Hussein's triggered more violence and retribution killings by Black September. Where Hussein left off, the Israelis finished though it took nearly a decade to kill all of Black September's members. The Israelis targeted only the key members of this splinter group of Arafat's Fatah organization who were responsible for a spate of terror killings, massacres, hijackings, etc. etc. The most notorious and well known crime being the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972. The last member, Ali Salameh was killed on January 22, 1979.

This book is the story about the Red Prince, his Palestinian background and the Israelis' efforts to track him down. I think the key aspect of this story is that when the primary instigators of terror are rooted out, the world can rest in peace for a time. The Quest for the Red Prince is one of counterterrorism's best success stories.

This is not the first book I read about black september and the Munich massacre. Today, after the Oslo agreement, we know much more about this organization. Actually, Abu Daoud wrote a book and appeared on tv stations. He spoke about his role in the organization and told who did what. It is well known today that Abu Iyad an Abu Daoud were the actual leaders of black september. Ali Hassan Salameh, was definitely not involved in the Munich massacre. As a matter of fact, he was not involved in most black september operations. This undermines the entire case of this book; The blood thirsty terrorist they portrait had almost nothing to do with black september. Another annoying thing about this book is the incoherence of a lot of the characters. Zwaiter and Hamshari have personality dissociative disorders. Zwaiter leads a "fake" life as a poor (can't pay his phone bill) leftist vegetarian peaceful individual who never held a gun in his life, but his real identity is that of a horrible terrorist. I don't buy that. I think that Zwaiter was a remarkable intellectual who was promoting the palestinian cause in Europe. This is most probably why he was assassinated, as was the case for a few more "terrorists". I won't comment on Salameh the father story, but it was also one sided and inaccurate. In summary, inaccurate amateur work with a pro-israeli agenda.