Eli was born to Noam and Hannah Kaufman in the coastal city of Netanya, thirty miles north of Tel Aviv. He was an only child. His father worked as a laborer for the Ashtrom Group, a large commercial construction firm. His mother worked as an admissions clerk for the Dotot-Medical Center. They were very middle-class. Neither had an education beyond high school.

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While his parents worked, Eli was left in the care of his father’s sister Batya. She ran a government-subsidized daycare, in which she oversaw 7 other children. Batya was a kind and gentle woman with a sharp eye for children’s behavior that tended toward mischief. Eli was her biggest challenge. At age five, he delighted in capturing frogs and other small reptiles, placing them in small wooden boxes. One day, Batya came upon Eli holding a frog underwater in the kitchen sink to see how long it could survive before drowning. He had no explanation for his behavior other than to say he thought it was fun. Batya reported it to Eli’s parents. They did nothing to stop it. At age seven, he was regularly performing surgery on small animals, dissecting them while they were still alive.

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At the age of 10, Eli met his first nemesis. A 12-year-old boy named Haim Cohen. Haim was the school bully. He was several inches taller than Eli and enjoyed belittling him in front of the girls at school. At least two days per week, Haim forced Eli to give him a portion of his lunch money in payment for not pummeling him. Haim called this Eli’s “protection allowance.” Eli reported it to his parents, but they failed to stop it, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. There was only one tree in the backyard of the Daycare, and the only one allowed to climb it was Haim. If any other boy or girl attempted it, they met with Haim’s Wrath. One weekend, Eli snuck into the yard and wedged a large razor blade in an upper fork of the tree.  

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Three days later, he watched with eager anticipation as Haim ascended the tree. Within seconds, Haim’s right hand found the razor. He howled and immediately fell six feet to the ground, breaking his arm in the process. But Haim didn’t notice the broken leg. He was more concerned with blood gushing from what used to be his index finger. It had been completely severed. From that day forward, Haim bullied no one again. From that day forward, Eli began his affinity for razors and knives. The Daycare never found the culprit. And Eli never forgot the lesson: Mess with me and you will pay.

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Eli excelled at sports while in high school, especially soccer. He was quite handsome and confident. Girls were naturally attracted to him, and he was naturally attracted to them. After high school, he entered the Israel Defense Forces to complete his mandatory 32 months of service. The military was arduous, both physically and mentally, but Eli enjoyed it immensely. The discipline, the allegiance, the never-ending push to become a fighting machine, was exactly what he needed. And he did become a machine. A killing machine. At age twenty-one, Eli applied to and was accepted by Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency. His role model was his uncle, Aaron Singer. A Mossad agent whom Prime Minister Golda Meir selected to join the group of Jewish hit squad known as Kidron. Following the massacre of 11 Jewish athletes in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Meir launched Operations Wrath of God, designed to hunt down and assassinate the Palestinians responsible. In all, Kidron murdered 27 people. Following their success, Singer had a lightning bolt tattooed on his left forearm. Eli did the same.

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Upon entering Mossad, Eli gravitated toward the Counterterrorism Division and quickly became a distinguished operative, especially in hunting down and eliminating foreign enemies. He became proficient in multiple weapons, including his favorite 9-mm Sig Sauer and the Galil Assault rifle. Due to his early experience with sharp objects, he became fond of his obsidian knife, an ultra-hard, high-carbon Japanese powdered-steel weapon measuring 3 nanometers wide. It was the sharpest knife in the world. Ten times sharper than a razor blade. It was very dependable and, most of all, silent.

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But the sirens of money called, and Eli left Mossad to become a private contractor at G&T Global Protection. A firm specializing in private security for the ultra-wealthy in both corporate and private settings. He quickly became known as the go-to guy when their protection service turned physical. Eli was not afraid to get his hands dirty. But he was not allowed to kill anyone, only to stop or prevent them from acting. He considered this restriction too limiting for his skill set. H enjoyed killing because he was good at killing.

 

After four years, he started his own service. Not one that could be listed online, however. It was more clandestine. He hired no one to work with him, as he trusted no one. What were his services? They varied from simple intimidation to physical intimidation to murder. You name it. If you had the money, he was the man. And he killed indiscriminately. He held no prejudice. Male, female, old, young, regardless of race, creed, or color. He viewed his job in very simple terms: Money for Deeds. He didn’t consider it work; more like a joy.

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He met David Bruder in his third year of business. They got along well. Bruder had a singular focus: Eliminate your enemies. How you became his enemy was subject to his whim. Eli’s first assignment was to address a problem David had in South Africa involving a zealous civil rights activist. The activist never knew what hit him. David was thoroughly pleased with the outcome and how easily the South African government dismissed it. Within six months, David encountered another issue, which Eli addressed with the same calm and clean manner. David’s problem disappeared, never to be seen again. From that day forward, whenever an issue arose, David needed to make but one phone call. Eli Kaufman was on speed dial.