Suspicious Minds

Is Ilan Grapel an Israeli spy, or an innocent victim of Egypt's overactive imagination?

BY MAX STRASSER | JUNE 16, 2011

CAIRO — Sayyid Kamel isn't sure of the veracity of the charges being leveled against Ilan Grapel, a 27-year-old Israeli-American law-school student who was arrested June 12 by Egyptian police on charges of espionage. "I didn't see him with my own eyes, so I can't know," Kamel, an auto mechanic, told me as we stood on a sunny sidewalk in the middle class Cairo neighborhood of Mounira. "But if I did see him, I would kill him on the spot."

Kamel's friend sitting nearby, a security guard named Hassan Mahmoud, was more decisive: Grapel is definitely a spy. "There are lots of foreigners trying to destabilize Egypt right now to assure that the revolution fails," Mahmoud said. "But we have the best intelligence in the world."

Pictures of Grapel have adorned the front page of nearly every major Egyptian daily newspaper since his arrest earlier this week, accompanied by banner headlines accusing him of everything from inciting Egypt's recent incidents of sectarian violence to spreading dissent against the ruling military council to collecting information on Egypt's revolutionary youth.

But for those digging deeper than the pages of state-owned flagship paper Al-Ahram, there are some fishy details. For one thing, the pictures have all been plucked from Grapel's very accessible Facebook page. (Some include the dastardly secret agent standing in front of a pyramid and next to a sphinx.) Grapel entered Egypt on a passport using his real name. His friends say that despite his service in the Israeli army, he is a pro-peace Israeli who loves Arab culture.

All of this suggests that Ilan Grapel is hardly a skilled Israeli spy capable of orchestrating all of the major problems facing post-uprising Egypt. Nonetheless, some -- though not all -- Egyptians are buying it.

Conspiracy theories have long been something of a national pastime in Egypt. While all things Israel-related might make for the best subjects -- last year some here even blamed shark attacks on the Mossad -- pretty much anything is fair game. (A friend here recently told me that during last winter's anti-government protests, his cousin, a die-hard fan of the Zamalek soccer club, claimed that the revolution had been planned by supporters of Zamalek's rival team, Ahly, who hoped to cancel the championship tournament.)

The period of uncertainty following President Hosni Mubarak's departure has been a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories. Indeed, they abound: Israel tries to destabilize Egypt. So does the United States. So does Iran. Saudi Arabia plots how to keep Egypt in its foreign policy orbit by funding religious extremists. Shadowy counterrevolutionary forces keep the economy in shambles. The military intends to maintain its grip on state power long after elections in September bring in a new parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood deceives voters in order to bring about a theocratic state. Secular parties plan to strip society of religion. The remnants of the Mubarak regime are plotting to return themselves to power. On street corners and in newspapers, everyone, it seems, has a theory about who is secretly conspiring to control what.

Some of these conspiracies, like the one about the head of the military council being a secret member of the Muslim Brotherhood, are preposterous. Others, like the one about the military seeking to maintain a strong role in future governments, are more plausible. And if there is widespread paranoia about nefarious plans being made out of public view, it is not without reason.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

 

Max Strasser is a writer and editor based in Cairo.

COMETLINEAR

9:54 PM ET

June 16, 2011

Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

As a lover of the Land of Pharaohs, I'm disappointed by Egypt's apparently unrelenting need to vilify their neighbor.

Despite the pundits' constant refrain that hostility to Israel has nothing to do with the Arab Spring, it's clear to me that there is a real undercurrent of anti-Israel sentiment. Any photo gallery of the Egyptian Revolution will reveal Jewish stars adorning images of their former dictator, Mubarak.

Egypt: do you really think Israel has any designs on your country? Does it satisfy some perverse need to blame them for your ills?

Get a clue!!

Israel is not your enemy. On the contrary, they are a shining example of the freedom and democracy which you claim to aspire to.

 

CHANGS

11:49 PM ET

July 2, 2011

It takes time.

It is not realistic to expect Egypt and the other Middle East countries to change overnight. They have had decades of dictatorships of one kind or other.

The only hope is that the military will eventually allow a civilian government to be elected there and that civilian government will not result in another Iranian type religious dictatorship or other "President Mubarak" to seize power and establish a dictatorship.

So we best hope for the best for the Egyptian people while helping them work through the worse as it occurs.

E.C.Seward>/a>

 

CHANGS

11:51 PM ET

July 2, 2011

It takes time.

It is not realistic to expect Egypt and the other Middle East countries to change overnight. They have had decades of dictatorships of one kind or other.

The only hope is that the military will eventually allow a civilian government to be elected there and that civilian government will not result in another Iranian type religious dictatorship or other "President Mubarak" to seize power and establish a dictatorship.

So we best hope for the best for the Egyptian people while helping them work through the worse as it occurs.

E.C.Seward

 

TAVARES

9:40 AM ET

July 11, 2011

The only hope is that the

The only hope is that the military will eventually allow a civilian government to be elected there and that civilian government will not result in another Iranian type religious dictatorship or other "President Mubarak" Tavares to seize power and establish a dictatorship.

 

WILLIER

9:07 PM ET

July 15, 2011

Suspicious Minds

Is Ilan Grapel an Israeli spy, or an innocent victim of Egypt's overactive imagination? The only hope is that the military will eventually allow a civilian government to be elected there and that civilian government will not result in another Iranian type religious dictatorship or other "President Mubarak" Tavares to seize power and establish a dictatorship. windows mobile As a lover of the Land of Pharaohs, I'm disappointed by Egypt's apparently unrelenting need to vilify their neighbor. Despite the pundits' constant refrain that hostility to Israel has nothing to do with the Arab Spring, it's clear to me that there is a real undercurrent of anti-Israel sentiment. Any photo gallery of the Egyptian Revolution will reveal Jewish stars adorning images of their former.