Lavon Affair

E638916

The Lavon Affair was a 1954 Israeli covert operation in Egypt that went disastrously wrong, leading to a major political scandal and crisis within Israel’s leadership.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Lavon Affair canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf covert operation
intelligence failure
political scandal
aftermath continuing controversy over who authorized the operation
damage to Israel’s international reputation
strain in Israel–Egypt relations prior to the Suez Crisis
alsoKnownAs Operation Susannah NERFINISHED
causeOf Lavon’s resignation in 1955
country Israel
countryOfOrigin Israel NERFINISHED
field Israeli political history
Middle Eastern history
intelligence studies
hasEffect arrests of Israeli spy ring in Egypt
erosion of trust between political leadership and military intelligence in Israel
long-term rift within the Israeli Labor movement
major political crisis in Israel
resignation of Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon
return of David Ben-Gurion to the Defense Ministry
trial and execution of some Egyptian Jewish operatives
hasPart Operation Susannah NERFINISHED
location Egypt NERFINISHED
mainSubject Israeli covert action in Egypt
Israeli domestic politics
Israeli–Egyptian relations
namedAfter Pinhas Lavon NERFINISHED
objective to carry out false-flag attacks in Egypt
to damage Western confidence in the Egyptian regime
to prevent British withdrawal from the Suez Canal Zone
opposedBy British authorities in Egypt
Egyptian government NERFINISHED
participant Aman (Israeli military intelligence directorate) NERFINISHED
Binyamin Gibli NERFINISHED
David Ben-Gurion NERFINISHED
Egyptian Jews
Egyptian security services NERFINISHED
Gamal Abdel Nasser NERFINISHED
Israeli Military Intelligence NERFINISHED
Moshe Dayan NERFINISHED
Pinhas Lavon NERFINISHED
pointInTime July 1954
politicalAlignment Mapai internal power struggle
relatedTo Israeli intelligence operations in Arab countries
Suez Crisis NERFINISHED
significantEvent 1954–1955 Israeli commission of inquiry
1960s re-examination of responsibility in Israel
exposure of the Israeli spy network in Egypt
startTime 1954

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Pinhas Lavon participantIn Lavon Affair