Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

only that through the cell phone the ISA would be able to monitor

Ayash’s conversations. In fact, the ISA planted 1.7 ounces of explo-

sives in the device. On 5 January 1996 the cell phone was detonated

after Ayash answered a call made on it and his voice was confirmed.

Yahya Ayash was killed. More than 100,000 Palestinians attended his

funeral. See also GILLON, CARMI.

AZZAR, SHMUEL BECOR (1930–1955).An Egyptian-born Jew

known by his nickname Sami, Azzar was an engineer, painter, and

sculptor among his other talents. His dream was to be an officer in the

Israel Defense Forces. In 1951 Azzar was recruited by Avraham Dar

of Unit 131to take charge of establishing the Alexandria cell of the

Jewish espionage network in Egypt, for which he recruited other

members. He participated in the sabotage at the U.S. cultural center in

Cairo on 23 July 1954 in what became known as the Bad Business.

Arrested together with all other members of the espionage network,

Azzar was tried, sentenced to death, and on 31 January 1955 hanged.

– B –

BAD BUSINESS.A major intelligence debacle also known as the Su-

sannah Operation; the Lavon Affair, after Israeli defense minister

Pinhas Lavon, in office in 1954; and, in Hebrew, Esek Ha’bish.

Egypt, as the largest of Israel’s neighboring Arab countries, was al-

ways of primary interest to Israeli intelligence. As a result, Military

Intelligence(MI) decided to set up in Egypt a network of sleeper

agents, who when the time came would be assigned to carry out se-

cret missions.

In May 1951 an Israeli intelligence officer from Unit 131, Major

Avraham Dar, was secretly dispatched to Egypt under the assumed

name John Darling and the cover of a British businessman representing

a British electronics company. His mission was to recruit Egyptian Jews

for an espionage network. Dar succeeded in this task fairly easily be-

cause several young Egyptian Jews with Zionist leanings simply volun-

teered. Dar set up two cells of the espionage network, one in Alexandria

and the other in Cairo. For the Cairo cell, Dar recruited Ceasar Cohen,

Moshe Marzouk, Ya’acov Eli Na’im, and Marcelle Victorine Ninio.

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