New Delhi: Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who infiltrated the highest ranks in the Syrian government in the early 1960s, remains a figure of immense national pride and intrigue in Israel. His story ended with his arrest and public execution in 1965. This week, a new chapter unfolded, Israel’s Mossad successfully retrieved the complete Syrian intelligence archive dedicated to Cohen, a trove of materials detailing his activities and capture.
In a highly classified operation, the Mossad, in collaboration with an unnamed strategic partner agency, secured thousands of documents, photographs, and personal items from the Syrian archive. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the historic feat during a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s execution, presenting the recovered materials to Cohen’s widow, Nadia Cohen.
“In a complex covert operation by the Mossad, in cooperation with a strategic partner service, the official Syrian archive on Eli Cohen was brought to Israel,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, referring to Israel’s external intelligence agency.
“The trove contains thousands of items that had been kept under tight security by Syrian intelligence for decades,” the Israeli PM’s office added in the statement.
The recovered items include Cohen’s handwritten letters to his family, revealing his thoughts and emotions during his dangerous mission. Documents highlight his communication with Syrian officials, demonstrating the level of trust and influence he gained. Photographs capture his life within Syrian society, offering a glimpse into his clandestine operations. Even his keys to his Damascus apartment and forged passports were recovered, tangible remnants of his life under a false identity.
Also, the documents show Nadia Cohen’s tireless efforts to secure her husband’s release, begging world leaders for intervention. These items, along with mission briefs from the Mossad, provide a comprehensive overview of his activities and the efforts made to support his mission. The archive highlights the magnitude of Cohen’s achievements, widely credited with providing Israel with crucial intelligence which contributed to their victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.
While the recovery of the archive represents a significant triumph for Israel, the search for Cohen’s remains continues.
In 2019, actor Sasha Baron Cohen portrayed Eli Cohen (no relation) in a six-episode Netflix series called “The Spy.” “We conducted a special operation by the Mossad, by the State of Israel, to bring his (Eli Cohen’s) archive, which had been in the safes of the Syrian intelligence for 60 years,” Netanyahu told Nadia Cohen on Sunday in Jerusalem.
Ahead of viewing the items, Nadia Cohen told Netanyahu that the most important thing was to bring back Cohen’s body. Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to work on locating Cohen’s body. Last week, Israel recovered the body of an Israeli soldier from Syria who had been missing for more than four decades, after he was killed during a clash with Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1982.
“Eli is an Israeli legend. He’s the greatest agent Israeli intelligence has had in the years the state existed. There was no one like him,” Netanyahu said.
