The Angel – The UNBELIEVABLE Spy

Ever since its birth, on May 14, 1948, Israel has led a precarious existence and has never known peace with its neighbours. Nowhere was this desperation more apparent than in the 1973 October war, known as the Yom Kippur War, when Israel was attacked simultaneously by Egypt from the South and Syria from the North. For three days, it was touch and go.  Israel soon went on the counter-offensive and even had the Egyptians on the Sinai Peninsula trapped in a pincer. Post-war, the Agranat Commission, seeking the truth, roundly blamed the intelligence services. In his defence Eli Zeira, the head of Military Intelligence Aman, later wrote a book saying that he had been a scapegoat for the Commision and they had received a 24-hour warning from a highly placed Israeli agent inside Egypt. An Israeli journalist Uri Bar-Joseph probed it further and soon had an explosive story.

The Israeli agent was not a figment of Zeira’s imagination, but he was still alive and well. And who was this mystery man? He was Ashraf Marwan – the son-in-law of Gamel Abdul Nasser, and was involved in some of the meetings of the Egyptian High Command in the 197 war  plans.

Once again, try to imagine this. Nasser, THE Arab hero. The man who had stood up to the West by nationalising the Suez Canal. The wildly popular leader of the pan-Arab World. His son in law an Israeli Agent!

Red faces all around. Egypt accused Israel of defaming an Egyptian patriot. But the same patriot fell to his death from the 5th floor of his London apartment. Some people reported “two Middles eastern type men “ in the vicinity. 

The million-dollar question that refuses to go away: Did he jump? or was he pushed? Who was his real master? Which country benefited the most? 

The Netflix film, The Angel, doesn’t answer the last part but shows how he offered his help and how Israeli intelligence took care of him through the years. How he was contacted and given codes for sending information. How his wife suspected him of having affairs. How he got information about Egyptian “allies” like Gaddafi from Libya offering both financial and military help during the prelude to the 1973 war. 

The film makes him out to be a James Bond without the guns and gadgets flying from place to place and giving information to his Israeli handlers. But in the end, what was his motive? 

Marwan was one of the most feared types of agents – the walk-in. As the word suggests, a walk-in offers to spy against his country for some reason.  There is always the danger that he would initially give some authentic material and then give fake information at a critical time. So did Marwan give real information or chicken feed – in intelligence language, information that appears at first to be exciting but on closer examination, turns out to be unimportant.

So what was his reason? Ego? Revenge for being sidelined by Anwar Sadat in the 1973 war planning? Ultimately, who benefited the most – the Egyptians or the Israelis? It truly is a” wilderness of mirrors”. The CIA concluded that Israelis benefited the most. Check out this link https://web.archive.org/web/20170307165033/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol-60-no-4/the-angel.html

The film is unclear about these motivations but makes him out to be a super spy, which he most certainly was. The script is somewhat weak and keeps jumping from place to place – befitting his liaison role between Arab nations united against Israel. It’s best to view the film as a “Based on a true story” spy thriller than as some deep exercise in psychology or showing the truth. The film shows how Marwan took the chances offered to him. Despite Nasser’s disapproval and that of his inner coterie, he still managed to shine in the jobs he was given. 

If Eli Cohen was the Impossible Spy, then Ashraf Marwan was the incredibly unbelievable spy. The film concludes decisively that he was an Israeli asset than an Egyptian double agent. 

 


The Angel is on NETFLIX, and the book is available on Amazon.

Check out the image on the book cover . Marwan is circled. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt (left). Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, President of Libya – right.

Does it get any bigger than that ? 

Real History – 4 out of 5

Equipment and Kit – 4 out of 5

Locations or substitutes – 4 out of 5

Script – 3 out of 5

Overall Rating – 3.5 out of 5