Egypt Arrests American-Israeli Jew, Accusing Him of Being Mossad Agent
Ilan Grapel is an American Jew who travelled to Cairo under his own — Jewish — name. He did not try to hide the fact that he was a dual American-Israel citizen who had served in the IDF during the Second Lebanon War. A big mistake…. he was arrested and accused of being a Mossad agent, and of stirring up sectarian tension among the Egyptians.
According to his friends, Grapel was “very pro-Arabic” and enjoyed hanging out in Egypt. According to his mother, he was volunteering in Cairo with St. Andrews Refugee Services. And according to his own statements, he thought it would be rewarding to communicate Israel’s position to its hostile neighbors.
Egypt’s deputy prime minister has accused Grapel of planning to sow seeds of civil war in Egypt. An Egyptian daily reports that he entered on a fake visa, posing as a journalist and that he planned to secretly follow supporters of deposed Egyptain President Hosni Mubarak. But what is perhaps most likely is that he was a young adventure-seeker, who was overly naive about the dangers of being an openly Israeli Jew in Cairo.
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