Protesters hold the pictures of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, during a demonstration against his killing, in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 28, 2020. Photo: Majid Asgaripour / WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters.

Israeli journalist and author Ronen Bergman advised readers to avoid a new Persian edition of Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, which he said was an apparently false and distorted version of his 2018 book.

“I strongly recommend NOT TO READ this edition: I have never received a request from this publishing house, never gave [license] to publish Rise And Kill First in Persian, and never received, certainly not approved, a text of it in Persian,” the author tweeted Wednesday. “[F]rom what I read- it’s false and distorted!”

I strongly recommend NOT TO READ this edition: I have never received a request from this publishing house, never gave licence to publish Rise And Kill First in Persian, and never received, certainly not approved,a text of it in Persian. from what I read- it's false and distorted! https://t.co/sYzzWFjA2S

— Ronen Bergman (@ronenbergman) January 13, 2021

Bergman, who writes on Israeli military affairs at Yedioth Aharonot and The New York Times Magazine, authored a comprehensive account of the country’s use of targeted killings, based on what he says were 1,000 interviews over eight years. According to the Tehran Times, the book was translated into Persian and brought to Iran by the Martyr Kazemi Publishing House.

The book presents assassinations as a key element of Israel’s strategy against its enemy Iran. In Nov. 2020, Bergman and Times colleagues reported that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the country’s top nuclear scientist, was killed in a roadside ambush, in what sources said was an Israeli attack.