Israel Bombed American and British Targets in Egypt and Blamed Muslims

In 1954, a bomb exploded prematurely in a Cairo mailbox. What followed was one of the most consequential intelligence failures and cover-ups of the Cold War—and a stark reminder that the line between conspiracy theory and documented fact can take decades to cross.

The operation, later known as the Lavon Affair, was simple in conception but explosive in execution. Israeli military intelligence recruited Egyptian Jews to plant bombs at American and British civilian targets throughout Cairo and Alexandria. The goal was equally straightforward: create chaos, blame the Muslim Brotherhood, and poison U.S.-Egyptian relations so thoroughly that Egypt would abandon its growing ties with Arab nationalism and realign with Western interests.

Israeli officials denied everything. For half a century, the government maintained that no such operation ever occurred. When early reports surfaced, they were dismissed as Arab propaganda or confused rumor. The recruits who carried out the bombings were left to rot in Egyptian prisons. One died under torture. Another was executed. Their sacrifice was met with official silence from the country they believed they were serving.

The documentary evidence, however, told a different story. Declassified records, court documents from Egypt, and contemporaneous intelligence files all corroborated the basic facts of the sabotage campaign. The bombs were real. The recruiters were Israeli. The intent to frame the Muslim Brotherhood was documented. By the 1960s, serious historians and investigators had pieced together what actually happened—yet official Israeli acknowledgment remained impossible.

Then in 2005, fifty-one years after the operation, Israel officially honored the surviving members of the sabotage unit. The government presented them with certificates of service and recognition. The implicit admission was unavoidable: what had been dismissed as fantasy for over five decades was, in fact, state-sanctioned covert action.