Egypt releases New York Israeli

JERUSALEM -- Israel said yesterday it agreed to trade Egyptian prisoners for a U.S.-Israeli citizen imprisoned in Cairo on unsubstantiated suspicions of spying to defuse a potential crisis between the two neighboring countries.

Israel released 25 jailed Egyptians, most of them smugglers, for the U.S.-born Ilan Grapel, a former intern for Rep. Gary Ackerman who was arrested in Cairo in June and who had served in the Israeli military.

Israel's agreement to such a swap highlights how brittle relations have become between the two since the fall of Egypt's longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, and that many on both sides want to preserve them.

The freed Egyptian prisoners passed into Sinai through a land crossing from Israel. TV broadcasts showed some of the Egyptian men kneeling to kiss the asphalt after crossing through a blue metal gate at the border.

Many Israelis scoffed at the need for a deal to free a citizen arrested by a friendly nation on what were widely believed to be trumped-up allegations.

Grapel was met on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel by his mother Irene Grapel from Queens and Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights), who has been working on release of the 27-year-old law student since his arrest.

Grapel, who has dual U.S.-Israel citizenship, worked as an intern in Ackerman's Bayside office in the summer of 2002, and the congressman said last summer he remembers Grapel as a young and idealistic man.

Ackerman has championed the cause of Grapel, using his power as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee on the Middle East.

"For four long months, we worked tirelessly to win Ilan's release," Ackerman said in a statement, "and at last this long and terrible ordeal that Ilan and his loved ones have been forced to endure is almost over." With Tom Brune