Rating: 
Summary: Munich Martyrdom Operation
Review: "Before 1972 you had to be an expert on the Middle East to know who the Palestinians were. After the Munich Olympics massacre, 500 million people across the planet knew." So said Simon Reeve on a stop during the publicity tour for this book,thereby undermining his own thesis:Palestinians are all terrorists, Israelis are a peace-loving people, and the death of the Israeli athletes tarnished the Arabs forever.The book is so pro-Zionist that the Reeve mentions Jewish terrorist organizationsin who used similar tactics in the 1940s---the Irgun, the Stern Gang---only in one footnote! Oddly, "One Day in September" is more hostile towards the Germans than the Palestinians.The German police and Bavarian state goverment were at best incompetent fools (where's that Teutonic efficiency when you really neeed it?)and at worst probably connived with the Palestinians to release the survivors of the Olympics operation from prison.Three stars for Mr.Reeve for interviewing the only member of the Munich mission not assasinated by the Israelis.
Rating: 
Summary: One Day in Hell
Review: "One Day in September" is a compelling and unblinking account of the Black September raid on the 1972 Munich Olympics that left five Palestinian terroists, 11 Israeli athletes and one German policeman dead. Reeve shows how Palestinian fanatcism, Israeli defiance and German police incompotence led to the tragedy. He also gives the background stories of the victims, putting a face to the names of the dead. The story is played out across a canvass of the Arab-Israeli conflict, of which Reeve gives a good overview for the less informed. The second half of the book, which focusses on the Isreali revenge operation called "Wrath of God," is not as strong. Though a vital part of the overall story, the book is too brief to give the proper treatment to the myriad of assassinations that follwed the disaster. After a while it all starts to run together until both sides seem like a couple of warring mafia families. Overall, Reeve is an excellent journalist and a good writer who knows how to tell a story. And in this case, he has a sad story to tell indeed.
Rating: 
Summary: Editorial reviews of One Day in September
Review: "This astonishing record of the massacre at the Munich Olympics should be compulsory reading for the generation for whom that event is now a hazy memory, and for their children. I read in one sitting the gripping narrative of the events of that day in 1972 when Palestinian Black September terrorists kidnapped members of the Israeli team. Eleven of the team died, along with five terrorists, but the author's detailed reconstruction implicates the German authorities in a tragically inept rescue operation" - Daily Mail (London) "The subtitle nearly says it all: on September 5, 1972, young men from a PLO faction called Black September infiltrated the Olympic compound and took Israeli athletes hostage, threatening to kill them all unless Israel and Germany released more than 200 prisoners. After a day on world-wide live TV, the terrorists and their captives were enticed to journey to Fürstenfeldbruck airport, where Bavarian police staged a disastrous rescue operation and then a poorly managed firefight - all the hostages, one German and five Palestinians died. "Reeve has written a splendid, disturbing and gripping account of these events and the world's reactions...a spate of quotes lets Reeve reconstruct, day by day and sometimes minute by minute, decisions and reactions on all sides, from the terrorists' initial planning to the German authorities' alleged coverups and the families' later grief. The film of the same title, based on the same set of interviews, took this year's Oscar for Best Documentary. Reeve's narrative also stands among the best of its kind" - Publishers Weekly - Advance Starred Review "Written with all the pace of a thriller, this is a genuinely moving account of one of the most tragic, and shameful, episodes of recent history. Excellent" - The Birmingham Post (England) "Reeve...achieves the considerable feat of retelling the details of the massacre and its aftermath as if he were a witness. Reeve plays the massacre like a thriller, and delights in atmospheric details. Very moving testimony... rounded and frequently gripping" - The Financial Times (London) A "brilliant investigation into the Olympics' darkest day. This book, which brilliantly recaptures the tension of the day as well as the human cost of the botched police operation, is a masterclass in investigative journalism" - The Herald (Scotland)
Rating: 
Summary: CM says: Enjoyable by history buffs and sports fans alike
Review: 8 Arab terrorists seemingly waltz into the 1972 Olympic Village at Munich, Germany. These 8 members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization kill two Israeli athletes and kidnap nine more, beginning a day long stand-off that ended in the death of 11 Isreali athletes, 5 Palestinian terrorists, and one German Police Officer. In One Day In September, Simon Reeve goes in to depth on the planning of the attack with mastermind Abu Daoud, the execution of the attack with the deaths of 17, and the consequences and aftermath of the attacks. This book provides as both a resource for research in to the Munich Massacre of 1972 as well as a captivating read that is sure to please its reader.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most interesting books I have ever read.
Review: After reading One Day in September, I came away enlightened at
how little I knew about this event which occurred when I was just a child. More than the Munich olympics, however, the book
puts the entire Palestinian-Israeli conflict in perspective, and
gives an excellent summary of the back and forth war between the Israeli intelligence community, and the Palestinians. The best part of this book was its objectivity. As far as one of the previous reviewers who criticized this book for being pro-zionist, this is ridiculous. Overall, Mr. Reeve gave a balanced analysis, and description of the suffering of both groups involved in this 50 year conflict. I would recommend it to anyone that has any interest in Palestinian-Israeli affairs.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Detail and Insight!
Review: Few works have the depth of detail and insight to shed light onto the explosive and painful relationship between the Israel and the Palestinians. Simon Reeve has accomplished what is usually impossible through research and interviews that are both disturbing and profound. By including Germany's role in the massacre, as well as Israel's response, the terrorist incident in Munich takes on an imporant world view. This is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Detail and Insight!
Review: Few works have the depth of detail and insight to shed light onto the explosive and painful relationship between the Israel and the Palestinians. Simon Reeve has accomplished what is usually impossible through research and interviews that are both disturbing and profound. By including Germany's role in the massacre, as well as Israel's response, the terrorist incident in Munich takes on an imporant world view. This is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing account of 1972 Munich Olympic Tragedy
Review: Highly interesting and detailed account of the 1972 Olympic massacre and the resulting cycles of violence which ensued. Couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I think the book is good for a rather general introduction to the events leading up to Sept. 5th, 1972. This event is a touchstone which involves many other side stories, complications and historical influences which all seemed to converge at once with disastrous results. Mostly balanced and usually objective. The murder of the innocent Morrocan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway by inexperienced Israeli agents raises many serious questions which I think are not fully explored in this book, but Reeves does a commendable job of keeping an "even keel" and applying criticism where it is appropriate. I would recommend this book to others. *Side note: you might catch a made-for-cable movie titled "Sword of Gideon", (based on a novel by George Jonas entitled "Vengeance") which loosely depicts the Israeli "Wrath of God" revenge mission in the wake of the 1972 Olympics. Read the book and compare it to the film (or vice versa). I think you will see that Reeve's work is clearly superior.
Rating:
Summary: One "Horrible" Day in September
Review: I bought this book due to the HBO documentary of the same name. Although I was not born yet, I believe this book is important in educating those of us too young to know the real history of the problems in the Middle East. The book is about the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis, where most of the Israeli delegation were taken hostage and subsequently killed by a Palestinian group calling themselves Black September (named so because of a battle in which many Palestians were killed by Israeli's in September 1967). Mr. Reeves has done an excellent job in researching this book, to the point that one is amazed at the almost keystone cop-like appoach made by many German officials in dealing with this problem. Obviously, they (the Germans) were facing an uphill battle dealing with a fanatical terrorist group, all in front of a worldwide audience expecting to watch sporting events pitting country against country. This said, the mistakes are many and made by many different people. In the book, there are the "hawks" and there are the "doves", then there are the Israeli's on foriegn soil trying to get their countrymen safely back home. Mr. Reeves does a great job on the background of the terrorists, giving the personal reasons for (but not justifying) the actions that they took. Great detail is given to the debacle at the airport where everyone was killed. Many questions are raised about what went down there, such as why none of the snipers were given walkie talkies to communicate with one another allowing them to discern who was going to take down who? It was this situation geon awry that made the Germans create GSG-9, their counter-terrorism unit. Mr. Reeves also touched on Operation "Wrath of God". the Isreali revenge mission to assassinate surviving members of the group. This part of the book is just as fascinating and reads like a novel. It shows the resolve of the Isreali's to seek revenge on those who did them wrong. They had there own problems though when they assassinated a suspected member of Black September, who turned out to be an innocent waiter. All in all, the book is not "enjoyable" but is an important piece of history. One has to think of the irony that Jews would again be hostages on German soil not half a century after the Holocaust. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Middle East conflict and/or terrorism.
Rating:
Summary: One "Horrible" Day in September
Review: I bought this book due to the HBO documentary of the same name. Although I was not born yet, I believe this book is important in educating those of us too young to know the real history of the problems in the Middle East. The book is about the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis, where most of the Israeli delegation were taken hostage and subsequently killed by a Palestinian group calling themselves Black September (named so because of a battle in which many Palestians were killed by Israeli's in September 1967). Mr. Reeves has done an excellent job in researching this book, to the point that one is amazed at the almost keystone cop-like appoach made by many German officials in dealing with this problem. Obviously, they (the Germans) were facing an uphill battle dealing with a fanatical terrorist group, all in front of a worldwide audience expecting to watch sporting events pitting country against country. This said, the mistakes are many and made by many different people. In the book, there are the "hawks" and there are the "doves", then there are the Israeli's on foriegn soil trying to get their countrymen safely back home. Mr. Reeves does a great job on the background of the terrorists, giving the personal reasons for (but not justifying) the actions that they took. Great detail is given to the debacle at the airport where everyone was killed. Many questions are raised about what went down there, such as why none of the snipers were given walkie talkies to communicate with one another allowing them to discern who was going to take down who? It was this situation geon awry that made the Germans create GSG-9, their counter-terrorism unit. Mr. Reeves also touched on Operation "Wrath of God". the Isreali revenge mission to assassinate surviving members of the group. This part of the book is just as fascinating and reads like a novel. It shows the resolve of the Isreali's to seek revenge on those who did them wrong. They had there own problems though when they assassinated a suspected member of Black September, who turned out to be an innocent waiter. All in all, the book is not "enjoyable" but is an important piece of history. One has to think of the irony that Jews would again be hostages on German soil not half a century after the Holocaust. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Middle East conflict and/or terrorism.
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