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Alexandria, Egypt, Circa 1950
A beautiful, historic, and peaceful city, until Israel was formed.
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Suddenly, Bombing And Terrorism Start
In July of 1954, Egypt was plagued by a series of bomb outrages
directed mainly against American and British property in Cairo and
Alexandria.
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Most Thought It Was Internal Strife
Egyptians thought it was the work of the Muslim Brotherhood, then
the most dangerous challenge to the still uncertain authority of
Colonel Nasser and his two-year-old revolution.
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Israel Wanted Britain To Fight Egypt
Nasser was negotiating with Britain over the evacuation of its
giant military bases in the Suez Canal Zone, and Israel wanted to
weaken Egypt.
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Bennie Gibli And Operation Suzannah
Israel feared Nassar would unite the Arabs, who saw Israel as a
cancer in their midst. In 1954 Colonel Binyamin Gibli, the chief of
Israel's military intelligence service, Aman, initiated
Operation Suzannah in order to reverse that decision. The goal of the Operation
was to carry out bombings and other acts of sabotage in Egypt, with
the aim of creating an atmosphere in which the British and Americans
would stay and protect Israel.
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Special Explosive And Terror Experts
Unit 131 operatives had been recruited several years before, when
the Israeli intelligence officer Avram Dar arrived in
Cairo
undercover as a British citizen of Gibraltar called John Darling.
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Egypt's Fifth Columnists
Israel recruited several Egyptian Jews who had previously been
active in illegal emigration activities and trained them for
covert operations.
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Full-Scale Terror Begins In 1954
Zionists hit a post office and a library. On July 14th, their agents,
in clandestine radio contact with Tel Aviv, fire-bombed US Information
Service libraries in Cairo and Alexandria. That same day, a
phosphorous bomb exploded prematurely in the pocket of one Philip Natanson, as he was about to enter the British-owned Rio cinema in
Alexandria, and kill hundreds. On July 15th, President Eisenhower
assured the Egyptians that 'simultaneously' with the signing of a Suez
agreement the United States would enter into 'firm commitments' for
economic aid to strengthen their armed forces. On July 23rd --the
anniversary of the 1952 revolution-- the Israeli agents still at large
had a final fling; they started fires in two Cairo cinemas, in the
central post office, and the railway station.
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Pinhas Lavon Was To Be Blamed
Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon, and the Prime Minister, Moshe
Sharett, knew nothing of the operation. For Givli was a member of a
powerful Defence Ministry clique which often acted independently, or
in outright defiance, of the cabinet.
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Most Suspected Ben Gurion
The perpetrators were proteges of Ben-Gurion and, although 'The
Old Man' had left the Premiership for Sde Boker, his Negev desert
retreat, a few months before, he was able, through them, to
perpetuate the hardline 'activist' policies in which he believed
in.
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The Butcher Of Tal Afir
He was defense minister and claimed no knowledge.
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Egypt Tries The Terrorists
The trial established that the bombings had indeed been carried out
by an Israeli Colonel Avraharn Dar through an espionage and terrorist
network. They had recruited a number of Egyptian Jews; and there was
50,000 Jews in Egypt at the time.
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Jewish Leaders Yelled 'Frame-up'
Prime Minister Moshe Sharett denounced the 'wicked plot hatched in
Alexandria, and said it was a show trial against innocent Jews. He
also said Arabs extracted confessions by torture.
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The Terrorists Were Tried
The Israeli plotters escaped, but the Jewish Sayanims were hung. A
Dr. Musa Lieto Marzuk, who was a surgeon at the Jewish Hospital in
Cairo, and Samuel Azar, an engineering professor from Alexandria, were
condemned to death, and were hung.
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Egyptian Jews Fled
Because the terrorists were Egyptian Jews that lived there all
their lives, the everyday Egyptian became extremely wary of his fellow
Jews.
As had happened everywhere they settled, they knew when to flee.
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Israel Seeks revenge
It was consummated, a week later, by an unprovoked raid on Gaza,
which left thirty-nine Egyptians dead and led to the Suez
War of 1956.
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The 1956 Israeli War Started Another Mass Exodus
When, in 1956, Israeli invaded and occupied Sinai, feelings ran
high against them. The Egyptian government began ordering Jews to
leave the country. Belatedly, reluctantly, 21,000 left in the
following year; more were expelled later, and others, their livelihood
gone, had nothing to stay for. Most went to America, not Israel.
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