The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich

the rampant corruption in Nigeria and was aware of the fact that the people have in no way benefited from the nation’s oil wealth. Although Rich believed the system of apartheid in South Africa was fundamentally wrong, he also believes that business had nothing to do with politics. He does not understand that his business strategy of making profits in crisis regions and his willingness to do business anywhere that such business is legal can cause offense among others.
    In the United States, Marc Rich was branded a traitor primarily because of his dealings with Iran and Cuba. Other countries took a more pragmatic view. Remarkably, a striking example of this pragmatism was the new democratic government in South Africa. Rich continued to do business with South Africa after the end of apartheid despite all of the anti-Rich rhetoric from the African National Congress, which won the first democratic elections. The new government under Nelson Mandela relied on Rich’s services. “We continued to do oil business with the new government,” Rich told me. “It was completely normal for us to continue the business. We think in the long term.”

 

     

SURPRISING SERVICES
     
    How Rich Helped Israel and the USA
     

    I
sraeli tourist Anita Griffel was spending the weekend of October 5–6, 1985, in the Sinai Peninsula together with her five-year-old daughter and a couple of friends. On Saturday afternoon the group climbed up a sand dune near the resort town of Ras Burqa just before 4:00 P.M . to watch the sunset. The mountains of the Sinai threw their long, violet-colored shadows across the valley. At 4:20 P.M . they suddenly spotted a uniformed man running toward them. He was an Egyptian policeman. Without warning he began wildly firing his rifle at the group of Israeli tourists.
    Griffel immediately threw herself on top of her daughter, Tali, in order to protect her from the hail of bullets. “She whispered to me, keeping me calm,” Tali Griffel explained years later. “I can still recall the feeling of the jolt as she got shot. Yet she continued to hold me and talk to me.” 1 Her mother was struck by two bullets and bled to death. Hidden under the lifeless body of her mother, Tali was the only member of the group to survive the attack, but she was seriously injured, hit in the back by a ricocheting bullet. All told, seven people died that day in Ras Burqa.
    The terror attack put a serious strain on the fragile relationshipbetween Egypt and Israel. Only six years earlier, in March 1979, Egypt and Israel had signed the Camp David Accords, which had finally put an end to the state of war that had existed between the two countries since 1948. In 1982 Israel had returned nearly all of the parts of the Sinai Peninsula that it had occupied during the Six-Day War of 1967. Only the border town of Taba remained as a point of contention. However, the attack at Ras Burqa soon led to a grave diplomatic crisis. The families of the Israeli victims sought financial compensation from the Egyptian government as a symbol of its willingness to set an example against the spread of terror. Egypt was not prepared to meet what it saw as excessive demands. The negotiations over Taba were soon put on hold.
    Tali Griffel, the sole survivor of the attack, was also a United States citizen, and this meant that the U.S. State Department had become involved in the delicate and discreet settlement negotiations. The United States was particularly interested in finding a quick solution to tensions between Egypt and Israel, as the two nations were the United States’ most important partners in the Middle East. Both countries received billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
    After years of negotiations, the State Department’s efforts finally appeared to pay off—or so it seemed in the eyes of the public—and in January 1989 Egypt agreed to pay the victims’ relatives generous compensation. A trust fund was set up for Tali Griffel to pay for her medical treatment and education in the United States. It was a solution that was agreeable to everyone, and relations between Israel and Egypt were soon back on track. The negotiations surrounding the future of Taba resumed, and a solution amenable to both parties was reached. In March 1989 Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak personally raised the Egyptian flag over the border town.
Reconciliation Between Israel and Egypt
     
    The public was unaware of the true story behind the compensation paid by the Egyptians.