The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel

Uri Bar-Joseph
Paperback, 400 pages
9780062420138

As the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close adviser to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of his country’s government. But Marwan had a secret of his own: He was a spy for the Mossad, Israel’s renowned intelligence service. Known to his handlers as “the Angel,” Marwan turned Egypt into an open book and saved Israel from a devastating defeat by tipping off the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur in 1973.

Remarkably, Marwan eluded Egypt’s ruthless secret police for decades. In later years he enjoyed a luxurious life—but that would come to an abrupt end in 2007, when his body was found in a bed of roses in the garden below his apartment building in London. Police suspected he had been thrown from his balcony on the fifth floor, but the case has remained unsolved. Until now.

After Marwan died, details of his shadowy life were slowly revealed. Drawing on meticulous research and exclusive interviews with key figures involved, The Angel is the first book to discuss Marwan’s motives, how his identity as a Mossad spy was deliberately exposed by none other than the former chief of Israel’s Military Intelligence, and how the information he provided was used—and misused. Expanding on this focus, it sheds new light on the modern history of the Middle East and the crucial role of human espionage in shaping the fate of nations. And, for the first time, it answers the questions haunting Marwan’s legacy: In the end, whom did Ashraf Marwan really betray and who killed him.