The Angel: How an Egyptian Spy Helped Save Israel

Raphael Cohen-almagor: This book tells an intriguing story about a complex man who played a crucial role in the events leading to one of Israel’s bloodiest wars. At times, the book reads like a spy thriller. It is fascinating in its insights, captivating as it unfolds the string of events that started when Marwan contacted the Israeli embassy in London and offered his services. It is a book about intelligence, human frailties, conceptions and misconceptions. It is an unusual academic book because of its thriller-style, and it is certainly not a common espionage book because of its academic nature. The mixture of styles makes this book quite special.

United Kingdom on Oct 02, 2021

Fernando Alvarez: Eli Zeira, Ahron Bregman and Hosni Mubarak acted for money, for ego or for ideology, or for a mixture of the three. The Best Spy of the 20th century, Ashraf Marwan was a momentous occurrence of low probability for these causes, as were the Ten Plagues. Rest in peace HaMelech

Spain on Aug 23, 2020

Bessmert: Un libro molto bello, scritto bene, testo scorrevole.
Fa capire molte cose sulla guerra del Kippur, sul travaglio interiore dell'Angelo, sulla grandezza di Zvi Zamir e sulle carenze del MI (militar intelligence) dello Stato Ebraico.
Sono rimasto incollato al libro per giorni.

Italy on Jun 21, 2020

Francis: Best

India on Jun 24, 2019

Andy H. Cr.: The above statement is supposedly used by CIA case officers to indicate that their agent networks are often composed of unsavory characters who have betrayed their countries for less than pristine reasons. The exact motives of Egyptian government official Ashraf Marwan for offering his services to Israel are most certainly a mixture of various concerns, but this book maintains that he really liked the money they paid him. He also had every reason to hate his father-in-law Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser who viewed him as a corrupt opportunist. This situation is worth considering since this book is being made into an upcoming spy thriller by Netflix, which, according to Time magazine, portrays Marwan as an idealistic hero. I guess we call that dramatic license.

The book itself is an excellent study by an Israeli scholar who has a background in military intelligence. Unfortunately he does not have full access to many relevant files which have not yet been declassified, so this work has to be considered tentative until additional source materials become available. It is still probably the very best book on this subject that we are going to see for quite some time. If you...

United States on Sep 16, 2018

Mostafa: A definite recommendation for anyone interested in the history of the 73 war and the events leading to it. The book had me at the edge of my seat. Finished it in 3 days!!

Canada on Sep 11, 2018

book5eater: The book is very readable. Aside from a few digressions, the material seems factual. One aspect of espionage is the betrayal for strange, personal reasons. Readers understand greed traitors, or men driven by ideology. But the hardest to understand, and sometimes the most effective, moles are people who follow their own unique, intensely personal, and intensely warped logic.

The Angel is not the sole attraction of the text. The writer introduces the politics of Egypt. That world is neither idealistic, nor is it a "film noir" world. Western readers expect individual desires for power or greed to influence policy. But in much of the world, the individual is less important than family, rank and contacts. The descriptions of Egypt under Nassar and Sadat are fascinating.

United States on Oct 02, 2017

All the Names: This is a remarkable and truly surprising account of espionage. It also sheds light on the intertwined psychological and political aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially in the 1970s. It is written in an accessible journalistic style, which makes it entertaining too (especially the earlier chapters), if replete with clichés. The author, Bar-Joseph, makes a compelling case about the mystifying career of Ashraf Marwan. Still, the reader should not let his or her guard down because there are three serious weaknesses that the quick reader might miss.

First, the author's main contribution is that he gained access *for a limited time* to the still classified materials passed on by "The Angel" to the Mossad. He (the author) explicitly states that he is recounting and interpreting this information to the best of his ability. Believable but since he is unable to revisit the materials, and given that the materials are also off-limits to other researchers (including the author himself), this means that no one is able to verify this account of events. The author is not at fault here but this remains a serious weakness in the book and one that is unavoidable in telling a...

United States on Oct 19, 2016

Rick M: This was a fascinating account of a very complex story. It fascinated me because of the account of the infighting and posturing within the Israeli government which led to the disastrous start of a war that threatened the very existence of Israel could so easily have been avoided. I guess I always had this image of an Israeli intelligence service that was the best in the world but now understand that, like all governments and intelligence services, it is fully capable of major failures. No one (other than the brave Israeli citizen soldiers) in Government comes out of this situation from Golda on down looking very good. The sad part of all this is that the dysfunction in Israel has probably only gotten worse and we are now faced with a government fully capable of leading the country down a very precarious path.

United States on Oct 13, 2016

Carolebolotin: I was utterly fascinated and amazed at this story and had to keep pinching myself to confirm that it was, indeed, true!!! The "angel" who is depicted here was responsible for saving Israel many times and surely deserves credit for it; what was sad to report was the utter chaos in Israel surrounding the "angel's" actions, which almost resulted in disaster!!! Very well-written and I understand that a movie is in the process of being made, which I would love to see.

United States on Oct 07, 2016