MbuyaziEmmanuel
In January 1964, Arab nations met in Cairo, Egypt, and agreed to strop Israel's plan to build a canal diverting water from the Jordan River to Israel. The river runs through Syria, and it was up to Syria to build a canal diverting the waters from not flowing into Israel. This was planned secretly, but Israel knew everything; thanks to a spy they had planted in the Syrian government, a man called Elie Cohen.
Elie Cohen as Kamal Amin Tabet penetrated the inner circle of the Syrian government and stole top secrete intelligence for Israel (Image: Wikipedia)
“The boldest spy in the history of Espionage', that is how Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal referred to Cohen in their book ‘Mossad: The Greatest Missions Of The Israeli Secret Service.’ Israel was founded in 1948 out of Palestine, the Arabs in the middle east were provoked by this and ever since has been hostile to Israel and had fought a lot of wars with their smaller neighboring country. To survive, Israel established an intelligence agency to spy on their Arab neighbours and exposed their plans against Israel, this agency is called Mossad. It is one of the best in the world today and had produced one of the boldest spies ever, but the boldest is Elie Cohen.
Elie Cohen entered Syria in the early 1960s as a wealthy Arab of Syrian heritage who had lived most of his life in Argentina. His name was Kamal Amin Tabet. After he was employed by Mossad, Cohen who was already fluent in Arabic was trained to speak with a Syrian accent, he was made to read a lot on Syrian history and politics and then sent to Argentina to rehearse his new identity. In Argentina, he lived as an Arab, befriended Arabs and was very generous and soon made friends with the top Arabs in the country, it was in Argentina that he befriended General Amin Al Hafez, who would later become President of Syria.
Elie Cohen poses in Damascus, Syria (Image: The Syrian Observer)
In the TV series The Spy, Baron Sacha Cohen(right) played Elie Cohen(left). The surnames are just coincidence (Image: The Irish Sun)
It was in Argentina that Cohen now known as Kamal prevail on his Arab connections to vouch for him to the Syrian authorities to enable him to relocate to his "country of birth'', unknowing that he was a spy they did. Cohen arrived in Syria in early 1960 as Kamal Amin Tabet and settled in the capital city, Damascus, where he rented a big house closer to the Syrian army headquarters and in the neighbourhood where the richest and the highly placed Syrians live. It was from here that Cohen transmits his intelligence report to Israel.
After he arrived in Syria, Cohen quickly befriended top Syrian government officials and senior military officials, his open anti-Israel comments make him a reliable person for the government and military officials to share secrete plans against Israel with him. He in turn leak the secret to Israel. In March 1963, a coup d’etat in Syria borough some of his friends into power, a palace coup will see his friend from Argentina General Hafez become President, this made Cohen one of the spy closest to a country's president and its top secretes. It was during the time Cohen learned of the plan by the Arab nations to deny Israel the Jordan water.
Cohen befriended top civilian and military men in Syria and organized parties for them in his house (Image: Jewish Boston)
Gen. Amin Al-Hafez was one of the top Syrians Cohen befriended in Argentina before moving to Syria in the early 1960s. Hafez would later become President of Syria and open doors to Cohen to more access to Syrian secretes (Image: Wikipedia)
It was said that Israel being an arid nation, cannot survive without the Jordan river. The river flows through Syria and washed into Israel. The Arab nations agreed to sponsor Syria to carry out a massive engineering project to divert the Jordan and deprive Israel of Water. In the Cairo summit, the Arab nations saw Israel as a ‘danger that threatens the Arab nations, the diversion of the Jordan[river] by it[Israel] multiplies the dangers to Arab existence. Cohen leaked the secret to Israel and shortly the War Over Water began between Israel and Syria.
Apart from knowing about the planned project from government officials, Cohen also befriended the engineer who was to carry out the project, Bin Laden, the father of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden showed him the strategic points of the canal and where equipment where kept, the information Cohen passed over to Israel. In November 1964, the Israeli Airforce (aided with intelligence by Cohen of the Syrian Airforce's incapability to stopped them) began a sustained bombardment of the water diversion projects in Syria and blasted the canals. Syria had to abandon the project in 1965.
Elie Cohen stole top secrete intelligence for Mossad, he uses special cameras (top image) to capture classified documents, and transmit intelligence to Israel using the Mose Code device(bottom image)
It was during this time that Syrian intelligence became suspicious. How did Israel know so much about their plans before it became obvious, how did they know about the site of the canals and strategic points of the project? The Syrian intelligence knew there most a spy in the inner circle of the Syrian government. No one suspected Kamal Amin Tabet. With new equipment borough from Russia, Syria began its unannounced search for the traitor betraying Syrian secrets to Israel. In January 1965, their investigation led them to Cohens flat, they broke in and found him red-handed with his transmission equipment relaying intelligence to Israel.
Elie Cohen was hanged in 1965, his body covered with linen inscribed with words of condemnation (Image: SyrianHistory.com)
In his honour, streets and other structures were named after him in Israel
That was how Cohen was caught and exposed, soon it was discovered that he was not Kamal Amin Tabet but Elie Cohen; he was not an Arab but a Jew, not a Syrian patriot but an Israeli spy. It was embarrassing to the Syrian government and they were laughed at by other Arab nations, how could an Israeli spy invade the inner circle of a country's government and even had the President as his friend – who could have appointed Kamal a minister in his government if he wasn’t caught.
Is there a bolder spy than Elie Cohen)
The torture of Cohen was vicious, the trial was a spectacle. Elie Cohen was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Israel did all it could to secure Elie Cohen's release but the Syrian government refused. He was hanged on May 18 1965 and his body was not returned to Israel to date! Elie Cohen died leaving behind a wife who knew nothing of his double life, and three children. He remains one of Israel's heroes with many roads and structures named in his honour in Israel.
Many accounts of Elie Cohen’s life and audacious spying have been written about, there is a TV series that chronicles his life as a spy from his recruitment, training, assignments and life in Syria, up to his death. The TV series is called The Spy, Cohen was played by the renowned Jewish actor, Baron Sacha Cohen, and it was a greatly entertaining movie and an emotional one. Is there any spy in history bolder than Elie Cohen?
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