The Scandal That Changed Israel Forever: The Rotten Business (Part 2)

Unpacking Israeli History

Unpacked

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1954, a group of young Jewish idealists in Egypt were recruited by Israeli intelligence to plant bombs in Western institutions, only to be betrayed by their own double agent handler before the mission even began. Arrests, torture, a show trial, two executions, and a suicide followed. Back in Israel, the fallout was just as devastating: forged documents, cover-ups, and a bitter vendetta between Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion that tore the ruling party apart. This is part two of our series on Israel's most embarrassing intelligence blunder. It reads like fiction. It wasn't. Here are links to Unpacking Israeli History's 3 Part Series on the Suez Canal Crisis. Israel's Forgotten War: The Suez Crisis (Part 1) Combustion: The secret pact that ignited the Suez War (Part 2) Fallout: How the Suez Crisis rewired the Middle East forever (Part 3) This episode is sponsored by Tony Felzen in honor of Connor, and by Andrea & Larry Gill. To sponsor an episode or to be in touch, please email noam@unpacked.media. Check out this episode on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠This podcast is brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand. ------------------- For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jewish History Nerds⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Soulful Jewish Living⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stars of David with Elon Gold ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wondering Jews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Norm Weissman, and this is Unpacking Israeli History, the podcast that takes a deep
0:04.1	dive into some of the most intense, historically fascinating, and often misunderstood events
0:09.2	and stories linked to Israeli history. This episode is sponsored by Andrea and Larry Gill,
0:15.2	and by Tony Felsen, in appreciation of his high school buddy, Connor Coffee, the native New Yorker,
0:22.0	True Mench, and an avid unpacking Israeli history. Listener down in Tennessee,
0:27.6	thank you so much, Andrea, Larry, Tony, and Connor. Really appreciate you. If you want to
0:33.1	sponsor an episode of Unpacking Israeli History, or if you just want to say what's up,
0:38.6	hit me up and know I'm at unpacked.media. Before we start, as always, check us out on Instagram, on TikTok,
0:44.3	on YouTube, you know, all those social media websites on the internet, those places. Just search
0:50.4	Unpacking Israeli History and hit the follow or subscribe button. Okay, Yala.
0:54.9	Let's do this.
0:57.8	We, the people of Israel, we, the people of Israel, are prepared and anxious to meet the representatives of our neighbors
1:13.9	without any preconditions.
1:17.4	There are people in Israel and elsewhere say it's impossible to make peace between the Arabs and
1:23.3	Israel or the Jewish people.
1:25.1	I think they're home.
1:28.9	Welcome to episode two of our two-part series on the LaVone affair, known in Hebrew as
1:34.2	Essek Habish, the rotten business, the complicated and often, I don't know another word for
1:41.0	this depressing story of Israel's most embarrassing intelligence blunder.
1:45.9	So let's review. Last week, we opened with some background on the fast, diminishing status of
1:51.1	Egypt's Jewish community in 1954. Because most Egyptian Jews were not citizens, they were shut out
1:57.5	of economic opportunities. Important fact.
	...

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