The extraordinary story of Eli Cohen, Mossad’s Master Spy.
Eli Cohen was born in 1924 in Egypt to Jewish parents. Soon after Israel became independent in 1948, Eli’s parents moved to Israel, but he stayed in Egypt to complete an Engineering course. In 1951, the Egyptian government initiated an Anti-Zionist campaign which forced Eli to leave Egypt and return to Israel.
In 1957 the IDF approached him, offering him a job. He became a “Counterintelligence Analyst” It was a desk job, that Eli found boring and soon quit. He was very interested in joining Mossad and applied, he was rejected by Mossad because of his reckless attitude.
In 1960, Mossad Director Meir Amit was looking for a special agent to infiltrate Damascus. He interviewed plenty of candidates, but none of them were suitable for the position. He later started to dig into the files of the rejected candidates and came across Eli’s file, which impressed him. The Mossad approached Eli and recruited him.
Eli started rigorous training as a special field agent for a six month period where he was taught several intelligence-gathering techniques, the use of a radio transmitter, to write invisible letters & to speak in a Syrian accent.
In 1961, he left Israel, his wife & children & flew to Argentina, where he changed his identity to Kamel Amin Thaabet, a Syrian businessman. His cover was that he was returning to Syria after living in Argentina for years.
Kamel Amin (Eli) started to organise grand parties at his home where his guests were top singers, government and military officials of the Syrian govt. He started to gather intelligence and was transmitting the information to his Mossad bosses back in Israel.
Eli became friends with Amin Al-Hafiz who was the politician in the Ba’ath party of Syria. When the Ba’ath party came to power, Amin Hafiz was chosen to be the President of the Syrian Arab Republic. Since Eli’s friendship had turned into a strong bond with Amin, he was given a top position in the Syrian Defence Ministry. He was given a house next to the Army HQ. Eli was undercover & in a position to send radio signals to Israel under the shadow of the Syrian Army HQ.
Some of the top contributions of Eli Cohen was his strong intel, which helped Israel win the Six days war , the bombing of dam machinery that was cutting off the Jordanian river to Israel, which was their main source of water & bombing of Syrian bunkers placed at the borders to attack Israeli forces. Credit of capturing the Golan Heights goes to Eli Cohen, for his masterful intelligence input. Golan Heights contributes to 30% of Israel's water sources.
The Golan Heights was restricted to civilians but Eli was so influential in Syria that he was able to enter the area.
When Eli made his last visit to Israel in 1964, he had concerns that the new Syrian intelligence head, Ahmad Al - Suweidani was suspicious the intelligence leaks within the team were coming from Eli, whom he disliked. Eli told his bosses that he wanted to terminate his role and to be in Israel with his family, but Mossad requested one more mission. Eli agreed.
However, as Eli suspected , Ahmad Al Suweidani was searching out the mole in the team. He cut off all radio signals for two weeks & was actively investigating where the leak was coming from. Eli was unaware & continued his intelligence sharing as usual. He was caught red-handed by Syrian forces.
Eli had shared critical information for three continuous years whilst undercover in the Syrian defence ministry.
Eli was imprisoned & severely tortured for being a spy for Israel. He was later publicly executed on 18th May 1965.
The Syrians couldn’t digest that Eli was an Israeli, they even refused to hand over his remains to his family back in Israel.
Eli is famously known as “Our man in Damascus”. Many streets, schools, parks, & memorials in Israel have his name as gratitude for a national hero.
Mossad agents are cunning enough to even infiltrate into foreign defence ministries.
Eli Cohen, hero.
@LiquidFaerie
