Eli Cohen

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This article is about the Israeli spy Eli Cohen. There is also an Israeli film director and an Israeli football manager by that name.

Eli Cohen

Eli Cohen (Hebrew: אלי כהן) (December 26, 1924 – May 18, 1965) was a celebrated Israeli spy, and is recognized as one of the most successful spies of modern times. Born in Egypt, Cohen contributed to pro-Israeli activities in Egypt during the 1950s, but the most important part of his career began when he was recruited into Israeli military intelligence in 1960. He was given a false identity as a Syrian Arab who was returning to Syria after living in Argentina. To establish his cover, Cohen moved to Argentina in 1961 and early the following year moved to Damascus. For the next few years, using the alias Kamel Amin Tsa'abet (also commonly pronounced Sa'bet or Tha'bet), Cohen successfully gained the confidence of many Syrian military and government officials, and sent intelligence to Israel by radio, secret letters, and occasionally by visiting Israel in person. His most famous achievement was to tour the Syrian fortifications on the Golan Heights. In 1964 his control was transferred to Mossad as part of an intelligence reorganization. In January 1965 hired Soviet experts caught him in the act of sending a radio message after large amounts of radio interference brought attention. After a showcase trial he was found guilty of espionage. Despite efforts to persuade Syria to change the death verdict, even from Pope Paul VI [1], he was publicly hanged by Syria on May 18, 1965. Syria to this day refuses to hand Eli Cohen's bones for burial in Israel.

[edit] Achievements

Cohen made many very critical friendships with high-ranking Syrian generals while undercover.

After Hafez became Prime Minister, Eli was even considered to be named the Syrian Deputy Minister of Defense.^{[citation needed]}

Although the story may be apocryphal many claim that Cohen suggested that eucalyptus trees should be planted around Syrian military bunkers and mortars on the Golan Heights that were targeting Israel. That way, Cohen argued, the trees would provide natural cover for the outposts. After his suggestion was implemented by the Syrian military, Cohen passed on the information to Israel, whose airforce — using the newly planted trees as a guide — easily destroyed the majority of the bases during the Six-Day War.

Cohen also learned of an important secret Syrian plan to have three lines of bunkers and mortars right after each other in order to trick the Israeli military who would have only known of one at a time.

While in Syria, Eli Cohen was able to collect ample information on Syrian Airforce pilots. This included their real and code names and family information.

According to his brother and fellow Mossad agent, Maurice Cohen, Eli Cohen's alias was third in the line of succession to become president of Syria when he was discovered.

Requests by his family for his remains to be returned to Israel have been denied by the Syrian government (as of May 2006).

He is celebrated as a hero in Israel because he has been credited with being a deciding factor in the outcome of the Six-Day War. The film The Impossible Spy is a depiction of his life.

He is honored at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.