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Deuteronomy 32:1
M AY T H E E A RT H H E A R T H E WO R D S O F M Y M O U TH
June 17, 2011| 8 Sivan 5771
Designer Home Showcase Comes to Jersey Shore
Vol. 7, Iss. 21
www.JewishVoiceNY.com
Israeli-American Arrested in Egypt, Accused of Incitement, Espionage PHOTO BY RAMY RAOOF
PHOTO BY ALICE ADJMI
MOSSAD IN CAIRO?
BY ALBERT LEON SULTAN The Brooklyn-based,Sephardic Community Center hosted a gala cocktail party last erev Shabbat in an historic mansion located at 136 Ocean Ave in Deal, New Jersey, and there was plenty to celebrate. For the first time in its history the SCC took on the ambitious challenge of staging a Designer Showcase to raise funds for its multifaceted charitable programs.
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Ilan Grapel is an American Jew who travelled to Cairo under his own (Jewish) name. He did not try to hide the fact that he was a dual American-Israel citizen who had served in the IDF during the Second Lebanon War. That was apparently a mistake. He has been arrested and accused of being a Mossad agent, as well of stirring up sectarian tension among the Egyptians. ccording to his friends, Grapel was "very pro-Arabic" and enjoyed hanging out in Egypt. His mother said, he was volunteering in Cairo with St. Andrews Refugee Services. Ilan’s father Daniel Grapel told Israel’s Channel 2 News on Monday night that he was “a million percent” certain that his son had no connection with the Mossad. According to Ilan’s own statements, he thought it would be rewarding to communicate Israel's position to its hostile neighbors. Egypt's deputy prime minister has accused Grapel of planning to sow seeds of civil war in Egypt. Egyptian authorities say the suspect entered Cairo around January 25 and had posed as a foreign correspondent. An Egyptian daily reports that he planned to secretly follow supporters of deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. But what is perhaps most likely is that he was a young adventure-seeker, who was overly naive about the dangers of being an openly Israeli Jew in Cairo. Israel's foreign minister insists that Grapel is not an Israeli agent. Avigdor Lieberman said on Israel's Army Radio Tuesday that the American-born Ilan Grapel had no ties with Israeli or American intelligence services, no matter how "strange" or "careless" his behavior. The Egyptians allege Grapel is an officer with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and had encouraged youths to clash with the Egyptian military during the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square that led to the ouster of Egyptian
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Lee Najman, whose work is now on display, emphasizes the the importance of functionality in his designs.
hanks to the hard work and vision of the event committee, including Alice Adjmi, Francine Dweck and Liz Sarway, the SCC succeeded in culling a prestigious group of A-list decorators and designers. The designers included Bjorn Bjornsson, Nicholas Calder, Kerry Delrose, Antonio Di Oronzo, Jamie Drake, Greenland Associates, Jamie Herzlinger, John Ike, William McIntosh, Evelyn Miller, Robert Passal, Lee Najman, Albert Leon Sultan and SY Interiors. What is even more astonishing is that this is the first event of this kind in Deal, and it is being staged at the same time as other well-known showhouses including
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Ilan Grapel (top left insert) has been arrested on suspicion of serving as an agent provacateur for Israel’s Mossad, inciting civil unrest, as in the recent Tahrir Square Riots.
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