Israel’s network of operatives in Lebanon

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Many alleged that Abu Rish, the notorious homeless vagrant who was part of war-torn west Beirut’s urban landscape in the early 1980s, was an Israeli spy.

At the time, the western half of Lebanon’s capital was home to a cosmopolitan array of residents and was controlled by various leftist and pro-Palestinian factions. Beyond occasionally buying him a coffee or sharing a greeting, residents of the west – including political activists and militia leaders – paid no attention to him.

All the…