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Former Israeli spy chief Binyamin Gibli dies

Binyamin Gibli served as a police officer in British mandate Palestine before becoming head of military intelligence in the first years of the fledgling Jewish state.

By the early 1950s, with Egyptian nationalism fired up by the revolutionary leader Jamal Abdel Nasser, the Israeli military feared that British troops would withdraw - making their southern flank more vulnerable.

To avoid that scneario, they attempted to delay the British troops' departure in 1954 by destabilising the canal zone with a series of small bombings.
The attacks, carried out by a sleeper cell of Egyptian Jews, were a complete failure, causing little damage and no deaths, and would become known in Israel as "the blunder."

"It was a ridiculous thing by any standard," said Martin Van Creveld, a military historian with Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Egyptian forces chased down the operatives for interrogation. Two were hanged for their crimes; one was killed during interrogation and one other was believed to have committed suicide.
The Israeli defeat caused great scandal back home, forcing the resignation of Gibli and the then defence minister Pinhas Lavon.

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)