Did Israel Try To Recruit Charles Ayoub?

This is a mixed up story. First Egypt announced that it caught a man who worked for the Mossad. Tarek Abdul Razzak Hussain Hassan was charged with trying to recruit a Lebanese journalist to work for Israel. Upon hearing the man’s name, Charles Ayyoub, editor in chief of Aldyiar, a struggling newspaper, stepped up and told Alarabiya that he was indeed contacted by that man. He said that he was offered a lavish trip to make public speeches in the far east, but that he refused because it sounded suspicious.

I’m not sure I buy Mr. Ayyoub’s story. It just sounds a bit too convenient, announcing yet another triumph of the Lebanese over Israeli spies as if to stay in lockstep with Hezbollah’s attempts to keep the idea of Israeli spies in Lebanese minds. Besides, it sounds like a story made up by someone with an exaggerated sense of self importance (speeches in the far east? Charles Ayyoub?). But hey, weirder things have happened