young Egyptian-Copt army officer, as a candidate for their espionage
network, disregarding word from Tel Aviv to await further instructions.
Karolos pretended to take the bait, but immediately informed his supe-
riors. Egyptian counterespionage units laid a trap for the Israeli net-
work and even tricked its members with false information.
Thomas now sensed that the ground was burning beneath his feet.
He requested permission fromIsser Harelto disband the network and
to use false passports for safe passage out of the country. Kathy
Thomas and a Jewish nightclub performer succeeded in leaving Egypt.
Jack Thomas, however, was arrested on 6 January 1961. His pleas be-
fore the court that he was not a traitor and that he had spied only as a
pastime were not heeded, and he was hanged on 20 December 1962.THUNDERBALL OPERATION.See YEHONATHAN OPERATION.THUNDERBOLT OPERATION.See YEHONATHAN OPERATION.TIGER OPERATION.See SCHUMACHER, YOSSELE.TOBIANSKI AFFAIR.Meir Tobianski, a veteran of the Haganah and
an engineer in the Palestine Electric Corporation, was accused of spy-
ing for the British after Jordanian artillery scored devastatingly accu-
rate hits on Israeli bases. The Jerusalem commander of the Informa-
tion Service(Shai), Major Binyamin Gibli, concluded that there was
a spy among the Israeli ranks and suspected Tobianski, who in Gibli’s
mind fed information to his bosses in the electric corporation, who in
turn conveyed the information to British officers who conveyed the
information to the Transjordanian Arab Legion. During World War II,
Tobianski had been a major in British Royal Engineering. Based on
circumstantial evidence, a field court-martial composed of Shai mem-
bers, Lieutenant Colonel Isser Be’eri, David Karon, Avraham Kre-
mer, and Gibli himself found Tobianski guilty of espionage. No
records of the brief trial were kept. On 29 June 1948, one day before
the disbanding of the Shai, Tobianski was executed by a firing squad.
A group of other young soldiers watching the scene could not believe
that one of them had been shot to death. During the execution, Tobian-
ski’s face was not even covered by a handkerchief. All the members
of the court-martial except Be’eri maintained after the trial that theyTOBIANSKI AFFAIR• 29106-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 291