Title: Decline of Honor
Author: Avri El-Ad
El-Ad, Avri (1976), with James Creech III. Decline of Honor. Chicago: Henry Regnery
LCCN: 75032959
Subjects
Date Updated: April 27, 2015
Reviewed by George C. Constantinides[1]
The Lavon affair in Israel and those responsible for it are still debated there. It was the result of a covert-action operation by the Israelis to worsen U.S. and British relations with Egypt in the 1950s by sabotaging their installations and making it appear that the Egyptians were responsible. Lavon, who was accused of giving orders for the operation, is alleged by El-Ad to have been the victim of a plot to destroy him. El-Ad was the principal agent of the Israeli sabotage in Egypt and thus has credentials to speak on the case. He claims his trial and imprisonment by Israel for ten years as an Egyptian agent were a plot to railroad him by Ben-Gurion and others. It is presumptuous for a non-Israeli to attempt to judge the truth of the various sides in the affair when the Israelis themselves are not certain they know it. El-Ad, though he has interesting things to say about the operation and about inefficiencies and feuding within the Israeli intelligence community, may not be an objective witness of all he relates because of his partisan and emotional involvement. Judgment must be deferred until more facts are forthcoming. For a later resume and view of the Lavon affair and Israeli treatment of the author, see Steven’s The Spymasters of Israel. [2]
This is a review by the Defense Intelligence School.[3]
This is an account of the Lavon affair, a covert action operation by Israeli intelligence operatives in Egypt in the early 1950s. The author, a member of the Israeli Military Intelligence Corps, was one of the participants in the operation which was designed to sabotage American and British installations in Egypt. By so doing, the Israelis hoped to rupture the improving American relations with Egypt. The failure and ulti mate exposure of the operation created government crises in Israel for many years.
[1] Constantinides, George C. (1983). Intelligence and Espionage: An Analytical Bibliography. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 174-175
[2] Steven, Stewart (1980). The Spymasters of Israel. New York: Macmillan
[3] Defense Intelligence School (1981). Bibliography of Intelligence Literature: A Critical And Annotated Bibliography of Open-Source Literature (7th ed, rev.). Washington, D.C. : Defense Intelligence School, p. 23
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