Israel's 1954 Lavon Affair to Kill Westerners in Egypt to Sow Regional Conflict | Dr. Ali Ataie
Channel: Muslim Community Center - MCC East Bay
Date: 2024-01-19

- Complete talk "What is Religious Zionism?": https://youtu.be/H8TfUtsPvRw
- More Ustadh Dr. Ali Ataie: http://mcceastbay.org/ali-ataie
- Speaker deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14EyrJwqFnDO9ojRtND_V-wb2BJi0bwZv/view?usp=sharing
- More talks about Palestine: http://mcceastbay.org/palestinian

In this Saturday seminar, Dr. Ali Ataie gives topical insights about the phenomenon of religious Zionism and the philosophical underpinnings of this movement. 

Ustadh Dr. Ali Ataie is a leading scholar in comparative religion. He currently lectures at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California. He has taught at several Western academic institutions.

- More Dr. Ali Ataie: http://mcceastbay.org/ali-ataie 
- More talks about Palestine: http://mcceastbay.org/palestinian

Ustadh Ali Ataie is a perennial student and researcher who has been involved in interfaith activities for over two decades. He holds a Master's in Biblical Studies with a focus on the New Testament and biblical languages. He also holds a Ph.D. in cultural and historical studies in religion from the Graduate Theological Union. His doctoral work focused on Muslim hermeneutics of biblical texts, especially the Gospel of John. He lives in San Ramon, CA, with his wife Roya and three daughters. Learn more about him at https://zaytuna.edu/academics/faculty/ali-ataie

The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian-, American-, and British-owned civilian targets: cinemas, libraries, and American educational centers. The bombs were timed to detonate several hours after closing time. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian communists, "unspecified malcontents", or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone. The operation caused no casualties among the population, but resulted in the deaths of four operatives. The overseer of the operation allegedly informed the Egyptians, after which 11 suspected operatives were arrested. Two committed suicide after being captured, two were executed by the Egyptian authorities, two of them were acquitted at trial, and five received prison terms ranging from 7 years to life in prison.

The operation ultimately became known as the Lavon affair after the Israeli defense minister Pinhas Lavon, who was forced to resign as a consequence of the incident. Before Lavon's resignation, the incident had been euphemistically referred to in Israel as the "Unfortunate Affair" or "The Bad Business" (Hebrew: העסק הביש, HaEsek HaBish). Israel publicly denied any involvement in the incident until 2005, when the surviving agents were awarded certificates of appreciation by Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

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