Columnist Awad Ghanem of al-Majalla, a sister publication of the English-language Arab News of Saudi Arabia, wrote on September 14 of “how Israeli diplomats undermine Egyptian society”. The writer allowed a “report by the Center for Middle East Studies in Cairo” to voice the conclusion he has evidently reached: “[E]verything in Egypt has become a target [for Israel] and... the Israeli Embassy’s single most important job is to find out every little thing that happens in Egypt.”
Writing from Cairo, Ghanem asserted, “After the signing of the peace accord in 1982 between Israel and Egypt, the intensity of the Egyptian intelligence services’ activity decreased, while Israel continued to develop its security and intelligence agencies, considering itself at war with other Arab countries. Not satisfied with the peace accord it had signed with Egypt and fearful of everything taking place in that country, it continued to gather information to track and survey all matters related to Islamic groups.”
According to al-Majalla, “official documents... clarify the role of the Israeli Embassy in enlisting Egyptians to supply it with information about various matters and especially Islamic groups. The embassy’s work flourished to the extent that the head of the Jewish community in Cairo, Amil Rosso, requested the ministry to increase its biannual payments.”
Ghanem noted, “The diplomatic representation of Egypt and Israel is a strange one, leading some representatives in the People’s Council to move to request that the government put an end to the shady role of the Israeli Embassy and also to explain the great and unusual size of the Israeli diplomatic mission — currently the size of the diplomatic corps of five Arab countries combined. There are 33 diplomats with their wives in the Israeli Embassy in Cairo in addition to 38 other employees; these numbers were published by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. In comparison, Syrian Embassy has seven members, that of the Emirates 10, Qatar seven, Bahrain seven, Mauritania four and Libya 16.”
According to the Ghanem article, a former Egyptian Ambassador, Abdullah Al-Husseini, “indicated that the Israeli Embassy had turned into a center for enlisting spies....” and that “police investigations and the testimony of Israelis confirm that the Israeli Embassy’s role is dubious, especially with regard to the increase in the terrorist activities between 1990 and 1997.” Furthermore, the Arab News piece continued, “Muhammad Bayoumi, the former Egyptian Ambassador to Israel and head of the Foreign Affairs and National Security Committee in the People’s Council, says that the embassy has exceeded its limits in its role as diplomatic mission and a bridge between the two countries. In the last 10 years it has become the source of a number of highly private reports on Egyptian political movements in different fields. It may have reached the point where some Israeli diplomats in Cairo have done dubious things in a number of provinces in southern Egypt.”
The source for the claims regarding the Israeli Embassy, according to Ghanem, stem from published material. “Moshe Sassoon,” Ghanem explained, “the first Israeli ambassador in Cairo... recalled a number of events in Egypt and relationships with several Egyptians who are not diplomats.... [H]e also admits that some of these meeting were held at the embassy and in the ambassador’s home.” Another Israeli cited by Ghanem, and incorrectly identified as “another former Israeli diplomat in Cairo”, is the expatriate Israeli Viktor Ostrovsky. According to the Arab News column, Ostrovsky “says that his mission during his time in Egypt was to destabilize the government, overturn the regime and move Egypt backward as far as possible. He says that he used middlemen to enlist and arm extremists, often Bedouins in Sinai.”
Writing from Cairo, Ghanem asserted, “After the signing of the peace accord in 1982 between Israel and Egypt, the intensity of the Egyptian intelligence services’ activity decreased, while Israel continued to develop its security and intelligence agencies, considering itself at war with other Arab countries. Not satisfied with the peace accord it had signed with Egypt and fearful of everything taking place in that country, it continued to gather information to track and survey all matters related to Islamic groups.”
According to al-Majalla, “official documents... clarify the role of the Israeli Embassy in enlisting Egyptians to supply it with information about various matters and especially Islamic groups. The embassy’s work flourished to the extent that the head of the Jewish community in Cairo, Amil Rosso, requested the ministry to increase its biannual payments.”
Ghanem noted, “The diplomatic representation of Egypt and Israel is a strange one, leading some representatives in the People’s Council to move to request that the government put an end to the shady role of the Israeli Embassy and also to explain the great and unusual size of the Israeli diplomatic mission — currently the size of the diplomatic corps of five Arab countries combined. There are 33 diplomats with their wives in the Israeli Embassy in Cairo in addition to 38 other employees; these numbers were published by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. In comparison, Syrian Embassy has seven members, that of the Emirates 10, Qatar seven, Bahrain seven, Mauritania four and Libya 16.”
According to the Ghanem article, a former Egyptian Ambassador, Abdullah Al-Husseini, “indicated that the Israeli Embassy had turned into a center for enlisting spies....” and that “police investigations and the testimony of Israelis confirm that the Israeli Embassy’s role is dubious, especially with regard to the increase in the terrorist activities between 1990 and 1997.” Furthermore, the Arab News piece continued, “Muhammad Bayoumi, the former Egyptian Ambassador to Israel and head of the Foreign Affairs and National Security Committee in the People’s Council, says that the embassy has exceeded its limits in its role as diplomatic mission and a bridge between the two countries. In the last 10 years it has become the source of a number of highly private reports on Egyptian political movements in different fields. It may have reached the point where some Israeli diplomats in Cairo have done dubious things in a number of provinces in southern Egypt.”
The source for the claims regarding the Israeli Embassy, according to Ghanem, stem from published material. “Moshe Sassoon,” Ghanem explained, “the first Israeli ambassador in Cairo... recalled a number of events in Egypt and relationships with several Egyptians who are not diplomats.... [H]e also admits that some of these meeting were held at the embassy and in the ambassador’s home.” Another Israeli cited by Ghanem, and incorrectly identified as “another former Israeli diplomat in Cairo”, is the expatriate Israeli Viktor Ostrovsky. According to the Arab News column, Ostrovsky “says that his mission during his time in Egypt was to destabilize the government, overturn the regime and move Egypt backward as far as possible. He says that he used middlemen to enlist and arm extremists, often Bedouins in Sinai.”