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Egypt Captured Israeli-American Ilan Grapel to Generate Popular Support at Home

(Tablet) Lee Smith - To really gauge what the Arab Spring has wrought, consider the unfolding story of Ilan Grapel, 27, an Israeli-American law student who has been held on charges of espionage for the past four months in Cairo. Grapel had taken a job in Cairo in May with St. Andrew's Refugee Services, a Christian organization that provides legal aid for Sudanese refugees. If all goes according to plan, Grapel will be released Thursday. The Egyptians know he's not a spy, but he's a valuable card anyway, which is why they captured him. Longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt, would not have dreamed of taking an American citizen hostage. The purpose of the exchange, from the perspective of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, is to placate the mobs that have already laid siege to the Israeli embassy and burned Coptic churches. The way to calm the situation, they believe, is to show that Egypt's problems are manufactured by the West, and that Cairo's ever-competent rulers managed to unearth a plot before the foreigners could once again unleash their mayhem. The point is to face down the West publicly, and generate popular support at home.
2011-10-27 00:00:00
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