Yesterday and today Israeli news has been abuzz with a story that dare not speak its name. In 2010 a mysterious prisoner committed suicide in an Israeli prison. The Australian press is reporting that this prisoner was actually an Australian citizen who moved to Israel and was involved in ways unspecified with the Mossad before being detained and “disappeared.” The circumstances of his detention and death remain murky, as does the reasoning behind the Israeli government’s insistence that Israeli news outlets do not actually report on this affair, although it is now all over the world press.
Quite incidentally, I stumbled this morning on a much older spy case. In 1963, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that an Egyptian spy named Kabarik Jacobian had been arrested in Israel. JTA reported only the bare outline of the story, in which Jacobian was given a cover identity as a Jew and then joined the Israeli army, in which he served briefly. It is unclear if he actually harmed Israeli security.
Whatever happened to Jacobian? Here, the internet trail runs dry – I have not looked particularly hard, but I have been unable to find any mention of him apart from this brief report. If anybody has any ideas how I might learn more about Jacobian, please let me know!
P.S. After posting this I received this link from a friend, for those who read Hebrew. It would still be interesting to know what happened to him after he returned to Egypt.
Here is Jpost in 1963. Oddly, S. posted it because he was interested in the adjacent article. http://onthemainline.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/rav-soloveitchik-threatens-herem-on-el.html
Right! It was actually through that post that this came to my attention.