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Introduction
- One of Israel's most famous heroes was a man named Kamel Amin Thaabet. But his real name was Eli Cohen, the greatest Israeli spy of all time. What's the story of this impressive Israeli who infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian government? How did he win the confidence of an enemy country and pass their secrets to his homeland for over three years until his execution by the Syrians in 1965?
The Mossad
We can't talk about Eli Cohen without first talking about the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. The Mossad was founded on December 13th, 1949. Mossad agents have since been involved in countless intelligence gathering and counterterrorism initiatives. You've definitely heard of some of their accomplishments, which include abducting fugitive Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust's Final Solution, and bringing him to justice in Israel in 1960. Mossad agents also tracked down and took out the leaders of Black September, the terrorist group responsible for the Munich Olympic massacre of 1972. The Mossad has carried out hundreds of operations in Israel and around the globe, but these are less well-known, which is kind of what you would hope for from one of the world's top intelligence agencies, right?
Most top intelligence agencies have their unsung MVPs, and Eli Cohen earned that distinction with the Mossad in the early 1960s. But who was he? How did a normal guy in his 30s become the Mossad's most valuable asset? Let's take it from the top.
Who was Eli Cohen?
Eli was born in 1924 to Syrian-Jewish parents living in Egypt. Their home was a center of Zionist sentiment and Jewish pride, and when the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Cohens immediately immigrated there. Eli, on the other hand, stayed back in Egypt to finish his engineering degree and to coordinate Jewish and Zionist activities. But by 1956, the increasingly antisemitic atmosphere in Egypt made it toxic for a Jew to live there. So Eli joined his parents and siblings in Israel. There, he married an Iraqi Jew, Nadia, and together they had three children.
How Eli Cohen was recruited to the Mossad
He started looking for work, and in 1957 the Israeli Defense Forces recruited him for a desk job as a counterintelligence analyst. But the work bored him and Eli tried to get a job at the more exciting Mossad. He applied for a position but was denied because they found him to be too potentially reckless for the institution where being discreet and cautious was essential if you wanted to stay alive. But he remained on the Mossad's radar in part because of the many languages he spoke, which included English, French, and Arabic, and also because of his photographic memory.
In 1960, Mossad director Meir Amit was looking for a special agent to send to Damascus to infiltrate the Syrian government. None of the people he interviewed fit the bill, and, frustrated, Amit looked through the agency's files of rejected candidates. He came across a file by the name of Eli Cohen and was intrigued. For the next few weeks, Mossad agents covertly surveyed the Arabic-speaking Jew and eventually deemed him suitable for recruitment and training. They reached out to Cohen, who was ecstatic at the opportunity to work for the Mossad. Of course, he had no idea what his mission would be.
Eli Cohen's spy training
For six months, he woke up at the crack of dawn to train with a man known only as Yitzhak. First, Yitzhak developed Eli's photographic memory. He would toss objects onto a table. A pencil, keys, a cigarette, shekels. Cohen would glance at them for a second, close his eyes, and then describe what they looked like in precise detail. Next, Cohen learned to ID various models of tanks, aircrafts and cannons with just a quick look. Yitzhak also trained him in tricks of the trade, like how to track a target and techniques to avoid being followed. Cohen also learned to speak Arabic with a Syrian accent. Finally, Cohen learned how to operate a small and technologically advanced radio transmitter which would serve him well in the years to come.
Eli Cohen came out of his training as a field-ready Mossad agent. Now, his true spy work was about to begin.
Intelligence gathering activities in Argentina
Cohen was given a false identity as a well-to-do Syrian businessman living in Argentina. In 1961, Cohen said goodbye to his wife and young children in Israel, not knowing when or if he would see them again. He boarded a plane as Eli Cohen, swapped his passport in Zurich, and landed in Argentina as Kamel Amin Thaabet. He would throw large parties at his home, where high-level Syrian officials, airline stewardesses, secretaries, and Arabic-singing stars would engage in some serious X-rated activity. Eli, on the other hand, would engage in some serious intelligence-gathering activity, pretending to be intoxicated while listening to high-placed Syrians speak freely about their work. This allowed him to cozy up to the leaders and rising political stars. These included Amin al-Hafiz, who would eventually become Syria's president.
Transmitting top secret information in Syria to Israel
In 1962, Cohen traveled to Damascus as Thaabet, where he was helped by a well-connected Syrian businessman who believed Thaabet's backstory. In Damascus, Thaabet aligned himself with the Ba'ath political party, a group that called for the unification of the Arab world into a single state. The Ba'ath Party staged a coup in 1963 and installed Cohen's old friend, Amin al-Hafiz, as president. Al-Hafiz admired Cohen, that is Kamel Amin Thaabet, so much so that he reportedly considered him for the post of Minister of Defense.
Cohen hid in plain sight. His new residence stood among foreign embassies, homes of rich businessmen, and official residences of the country's leaders. In his home, Cohen concealed his secret transmission equipment in various hiding places. Every single day, either early in the morning or late at night, Cohen would send messages back to Israel. His house was very close to the Army headquarters, from which military-related transmissions were sent around the clock. It was the perfect cover for Cohen, since nobody could tell the difference between his broadcast and the messages coming from the Army.
He spent the next three years gathering confidential information about the Syrian government and military plans from his new friends, and transmitting hundreds of reports via radio to his Mossad colleagues. He also sent back reports written in invisible ink. Over the years, he was made privy to details only top Syrian Defense staff knew. Cohen shared information about some of Syria's plots against Israel. One of these was a plan to cut off the Israeli vital water supply by diverting the Jordan River away from Lake Kinneret, which was Israel's main water source at the time. Cohen pinpointed the site and the Israeli military bombed the equipment, destroying the plants. Unfortunately, this would later lead to Syrian suspicions of a mole in the government.
Cohen also gathered information that would prove essential to the Israeli military's triumph in future ways, which cemented his legacy as one of the main reasons for Israel's success in the 1967 Six-Day War. Cohen was able to simply glimpse maps and later reconstruct them perfectly, including maps of where the Syrian Army was building bunkers. Feigning concern for the comfort of Syrian soldiers in the Golan Heights, he reportedly suggested that the military plant trees near the bunkers to give them shade, which would have the double purpose of camouflaging their fortifications. Later, the IDF used these same trees as markers of where they should target their fire. Without Cohen, Israel might not have captured the Golan Heights, which is not only essential for the defense of Northern Israel but is the source of 30% of Israel's water supply.
Eli Cohen's concerns over mistrust among Syrian leadership
From 1962 through 1964, Cohen returned to Israel to see his wife and children only three times. On his final trip to Israel in 1964, Cohen expressed concern over the new commander of Syrian intelligence who neither liked nor trusted him. Cohen requested to be taken off of his assignment but intelligence officers convinced him to go back to Syria one more time, promising him it would be his last.
The arrest of Eli Cohen
In late 1964, Cohen discovered that he was not just being paranoid. Syrian forces were actively seeking a mole that they held responsible for internal intelligence leaks. In January 1965, in an effort to locate the mole, the military imposed a period of radio silence, hoping to isolate and locate any illegal transmissions using new Soviet-made tracking equipment. The silence that fell on Army communications was almost completely total, except for one single transmission. Senior officials traced the transmission to its source and there was no mistaking it, it was coming from the home of Kamel Amin Thaabet.
Four officers raided his home and caught Thaabet red-handed in the middle of sending a transmission to Israel. The spy was arrested, interrogated, tortured, and tried at a military tribunal where he wasn't even allowed to defend himself. This enraged many people including Pope Paul VI, who asked the Syrians to show Cohen mercy. But they didn't listen. Cohen was found guilty and sentenced to death. During this time, the Syrians beat him repeatedly trying to extract information, but Cohen didn't give in.
The execution of Eli Cohen
Before his death sentence was carried out, he met with a Syrian rabbi and sent a final letter to his wife in which he wrote, "I ask you not to mourn for the past, but to look to the future. I am sending you last kisses. Pray for my soul." On May 18th, 1965, Eli Cohen was executed by hanging in a public square. More than 10,000 Syrians came out to watch him die. Jews across the world watching on TV learned for the first time how one man single-handedly foiled several would-be disastrous plots against the Jewish state, risking his life almost every day for four years.
Israeli attempts to return the body to Israel
Eli Cohen's success as a spy humiliated Syria so much so that the country's leaders refused to hand his remains over to the family or to Israel. But that didn't stop Israelis from trying to bring him home. One Israeli intelligence officer attempted to smuggle Cohen's remains back a few years after his death, but the plot was discovered. In response, the Syrians re-interred Cohen's body in a fortified tomb worthy of a pharaoh. But it didn't stop there. According to a formal Syrian government official, Syria buried him three times in three different locations and they claim to no longer know where his grave is.
Remembering Eli Cohen, "Our Man in Damascus"
Eli Cohen was an Israeli hero who was murdered in the course of selfless service to his country. All around Israel, schools, streets, and parks have been named after him. His bravery, devotion to his country, and the information he provided that proved essential to Israel's military success have earned him the affectionate title in Israel of Our Man in Damascus. Additionally, his selflessness has inspired generations of Jews to want to serve their country. On the 40th anniversary of his death, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called Cohen, "A fighter who became a legend when he entered the lion's den alone."
Outro
The amazing story of Eli Cohen's cunning bravery and selflessness is the stuff of legends. Through the victorious Six-Day War, Cohen helped Israel establish itself as a serious military power worthy of respect and fear on a global scale, and the Mossad as a truly top-of-the-line intelligence agency on par with the CIA and MI6. And today Eli Cohen's fame is on the rise. A Netflix mini-series, The Spy, will tell the story of his life, starring Sacha Baron Cohen and written by Gideon Raff, the creator of Homeland. Ultimately, the story of Eli Cohen is the story of a true Israeli hero that showcases the sacrifices some people are willing to make for their homeland and the lengths they will go to to keep their home safe.
Thanks for watching. See you guys next week.