In a 2013 article, you write that Israel ignored a warning about impending war in 1973 from Ashraf Marwan (1944-2007), son-in-law of Egypt’s former president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Why did Israel ignore his warning? And who exactly was Marwan? Some people believe he might have been a double agent for Egypt rather than a spy for Israel.
He wasn’t a double agent. He was an agent of the Mossad, and since he was Nasser’s son-in-law, he had the trust of Answer Sadat and was privy to almost every state and military secret in Egypt. He had warned of war a couple of times before the Yom Kippur War when Egypt seemed about to go to war and therefore his warnings were less credited by some.
But his last warning – which came the day before the Yom Kippur War – was not ignored. The war started on Shabbat, and Marwan telephoned the Mossad station chief in London on Thursday night and said he wanted to meet “the boss,” the boss being the head of the Mossad, Zvi Zamir. So Zamir flew to London Friday and that night, erev Yom Kippur, they met in an apartment and Marwan said, “War tomorrow.”
You say Marwan wasn’t a double agent, but even after an Israeli historian in 2002 publicly identified him as an Israeli spy, Egypt continued treating him warmly. Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was even seen publicly embracing him. How do you explain such behavior if he wasn’t a double agent?
It’s true that the Egyptians didn’t behave toward him like you would expect if he was a spy for Israel. But it would’ve been too embarrassing if they did. He was very close friends with Mubarak’s two sons, and business partners as well. In the end, the Egyptians chose to ignore Israeli statements that he was their agent.
But at some point – eight or nine years ago – Israel’s former chief of intelligence Eli Zeira leaked Marwan’s name to journalists and people writing books. This incensed the head of the Mossad who said, “You’re violating the first law of espionage, you don’t betray your sources.” He got so angry that he threatened to go to court. To avoid the embarrassment of a court case in such a delicate matter, both of them agreed to go to an arbitrator – a retired Supreme Court judge – to determine who was telling the truth. The judge said the Mossad man was right.
This the Egyptians couldn’t ignore because now you had an ex-Supreme Court judge saying Marwan was an Israeli agent. So shortly thereafter – a few weeks – Marwan fell or jumped from his balcony in London and died. A former Israeli intelligence officer who has written a very substantial book on the subject believes an Egyptian agent came to Marwan’s house and said, “Either you take your life or we’ll take it. But if you take it yourself, no harm will come to your wife and children.”
What will your next book be about?
I have various projects in mind but I prefer not to discuss them.