Aaron Klein's "Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response" (Random House, $24.95) came out Tuesday, just days before tomorrow's release of "Munich," Steven Spielberg's film about the aftermath of the massacre.

The timing isn't coincidental, although Klein, a Time correspondent in Jerusalem, says he began his research a year ago, before he knew about the movie.

But once he and his editor learned that the film, which was long under consideration, was in production, Klein says that "we decided to work faster" to take advantage of the publicity and controversy triggered by the film.

The book and movie depict the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists and how Israel, in response, secretly organized a series of assassinations of terrorists responsible for the massacre.

The movie is partly based on the 1984 book "Vengeance" by George Jonas, whose accuracy has been questioned by The New York Times and others. "Vengeance" has been reissued in paperback (Simon and Schuster, $15) with a cover touting the movie.

Klein's book says Israel's hit squad carried out about a dozen assassinations, one as late as 1992 in France. Most of those killed, he writes, weren't directly involved in the 1972 massacre.

Spielberg has been criticized by a Palestinian terrorist and Israel's former spy chief for failing to consult them. Klein defends Spielberg as a filmmaker, not a documentarian.

The son of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel, Klein admires how Spielberg's "Schindler's List" spurred interest in Holocaust history and hopes "Munich" will do the same about terrorism.

Klein says Israel's response to the massacre had less to do with revenge than with fear. As for how effective or just it was, he leaves that up to readers.