Abstract
War is always a victor’s expression of valor but the October 1973 Arab–Israeli War was an exception. Egypt inflicted a certain shock and awe in the early stage and Israel, despite the victory in June War of 1967 that established its eminence, had almost lost it. The latter was saved but by an Egyptian, who was a shadow, a scout who had equal claimants: for Egypt, he was a true patriot and for Israel, he was a treasure trove, the best asset Israel ever had. The spy was code named “The Angel” by Mossad, the Israel’s external intelligence agency.
He could have been John Le Carre’s favorite character; the man, the secret agent was no other than the son-in-law of the most powerful Arab personality since Saladin, Gamal Abdel Nasser. This is a story of a man who was the biggest spy who remained a mystery even after his death, namely, Dr Ashraf Marwan. Uri Bar-Joseph goes deeper into the shadow of this man, uncovered the mystery to bring back the Marwan’s complex character before us. Marwan was a brilliant negotiator, who brought huge benefit both to his personal ambitions and to Egypt as well. His life was full of secrecy and his death remained the same.
This was a case of a spy who happened to be the part of an elite club of the most powerful Arab country but defected to the most hated country in the Arab world. Uri Bar-Joseph digs deep into Marwan’s extraordinary life which almost looked like a fiction. How he overcame Nasser’s reservations about him and his marriage to Mona, Nasser’s daughter and later his association with the families of Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak tell uniqueness and idiosyncrasies about Marwan’s character. Bar-Joseph did not attempt to romanticize the life of Marwan as a spy but depicts the different facets of him leading up to the events of the October War.
The author brings his own expertise about the inside story of the October War and carries forward his inquiry of his last work The Watchmen Fell Asleep that was published in 2005. Bar-Joseph understood this was different because he found his plot through a character who was real and dynamic but still remained a mystery for Israel and Arabs alike. Author’s foremost inquiry was: Why Ashraf Marwan defected to Mossad? Was it due to his awkward relations with Nasser and if so, then, why he remained The Angel for Mossad until his tragic death in 2007.
Bar-Joseph gets into Marwan’s shoes to know who he really was. Was he really a double agent as claimed by Egyptian and especially his family including his wife and son? Did he really hoodwinked Mossad, as claimed by Eli Zeira, director of Aman, Israel’s military intelligence, during the Yom Kippur War? Bar-Joseph relied heavily on Marwan’s proximity to Mossad and his key handler—Zvika Zamir—the then head of Mossad during the Yom Kippur War.
Bar-Joseph argues that Marwan was Nasser’s personal defeat as the latter capitulated to his daughter Mona despite that the Egyptian president almost hated Marwan and here lies the real enigma about Marwan’s being an Israeli spy. The author believes that due to the tense relations with his father-in-law, Marwan was reduced to being nonexistent; hence, it was his personal revenge over the family than traitorous desire that led Marwan to work for Mossad.
Marwan’s life was beyond Nasser and Bar-Joseph highlights his negotiation skills and personal relationship that helped his own fortune and later on to Sadat and even Egypt. He was no James Bond but he was rumored to have some alleged relationships with senior figures with the Egyptian establishment and being married to Mona and her continued espousal enabled him weather many controversies.
Marwan was a friend of Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi and Kamal Adham, the nephew of Saudi King Faisal bin Abdulaziz and founder of Saudi Intelligence. Marwan’s relationship with these two people also helped his stature up to the high circle of Egyptian power structure and that is why when he mysteriously died in a London apartment on June 27, 2007, Zvika Zamir told an Israeli television, “We have lost the greatest source in our history and we lost him because of criminal negligence and I failed to protect him” (p. 317). Later in his memoir, Between Myself and Ashraf Marwan, he writes “Not a single day passes without my torturing myself over the question of whether I could have protected him better” (p. 317).
The riddle of Marwan’s death remained an unsolved mystery that shrouded his whole life (p. 303). Bar-Joseph conceptualizes conspiracy theories about Marwan. He comes up with three possibilities: business rivalry, retribution by Israel, or by the Egyptian themselves (p. 309). Despite the fantasies by many on the cause of Marwan’s death, Bar-Joseph settled with the Egypt’s hand behind this and for him, Mubarak’s denial for any official investigation on Marwan’s death was not an ordinary decision but an unofficial acknowledgment.
Uri Bar-Joseph also brings the dilemma inside Israeli intelligence agency. How Zeira’s own theory of “concept” and denial jeopardized Israeli position during the run up to the Yom Kippur War? How the revelations of Marwan by Zeira was a real setback in Zamir’s own admission. Bar-Joseph captured these events that turned into hounding Marwan’s life.
However, one larger question still remains: Was Marwan really a double agent or not? Bar-Joseph could not be certain especially when a small act of Marwan was under Egyptian surveillance how was it possible for him to get better of Egyptian intelligence for more than three decades. This too would remain a mystery; perhaps the death of Ashraf was more dramatic than his fascinating life.
The dramatic events that were played during the run up to the Yom Kippur War have always fascinated military historians and journalists and would remain so but the man who changed everything through his own secrecy and complexities will go deep into history as one who turned out to a real angel who saved Israel. Bar-Joseph has certainly established “The Angel” as the best spy the world has seen in the last half century.