Background
His father was a shopkeeper from North Syria, but Cohen was born in Alexandria, Egypt.
His father was a shopkeeper from North Syria, but Cohen was born in Alexandria, Egypt.
He was an outstanding pupil both at the lycée (high school) and at the Midrasha (the Institute of Higher Heb¬raic Studies). As a youth he considered himself a patriotic Egyptian as well as a Jew, and in his free time worked for the Nationalist Movement for a free Egypt, participating in anti-British street demonstrations. His hobbies as a youth — photography and collecting pictures of weapons — were to be very useful in the future.
Cohen began to study applied electricity at Farouk University in Alexandria, but with the establishment of the State of Israel and the growth of anti-Semitism, and he and other Jewish students were forced to leave the university.
He then devoted himself to underground Zionist activities and was recruited to a ring of young Egyptian Jews in what became known as the Lavon affair. Cohen was sent to Tel Aviv for three months basic intelligence training. The group was ordered to sabotage public buildings in Alexandria, the idea being to damage American and British property in order to create tension. Fortunately for Cohen, no arrested members of the ring mentioned his name, and afterfour months of imprisonment due to implication from various documents, he was released. He was arrested again after the 1956 Suez operation and interned by the Egyptian government on the ship Marianis Rosso, which contained a miniature torture chamber. He was then released and expelled from Egypt.
Arriving in Israel in 1957, he first worked as a translator at the Ministry of Defense and later, after an initial refusal, he joined the Mossad.
Sent to Syria to infiltrate the higher ranks there and send information to Israel, he was given a new identity, Kamel Amin Tabet. In order to establish his cover he was sent to Buenos Aires where, posing as a successful businessman wanting to return to his fatherland in Syria, he was accepted in Syrian society. He made useful contacts including Amin al-Hafez, the military attache who was to become chief of staff and president of Syria. After several months he left Argentina with letters of recom¬mendation to people of importance in Damascus.
During his three years in Syria, his cover was so good that two weeks before his capture his name was put forward by members of the National Revolutionary Council for the post of minister of information in the upcoming cabinet realignment, and several influential officers suggested he be appointed deputy minister of defense.
Cohen convinced those around him that he was a committed Marxist and member of the Arab socialist Baath Party, and he rose quickly in the party. He was also known and respected as a businessman and exporter. Thus he was able to learn about the political scene in Syria and to relay information, pictures, and microfilm invaluable to Israel’s defense.
He often claimed to his Arab friends that he was skeptical about the readiness of Syria’s armed forces. As a result, he was invited to inspect the lines along the border with Israel on a number of occasions. The Mossad received sketches of bunkers and precise coordinates of artillery emplacement (hidden in the backgammon boards that he exported to Europe). He was also able to reveal information about the new MiG 21 fighter planes supplied by the Soviet Union. One of his missions was to obtain information about the Syrian scheme for diverting the waters of the Jordan, which would have endangered Israeli irrigation and its main water supply. Feigning interest in buying land in the area, he was able to “acquire” a map with the intended project delineated. The project was consequently blown up by the Israeli air force.
In January 1965, while sending a message to Israel, he was apprehended by new tracking equipment that detected his illicit transmitter. The photography laboratory, microfilm, soap filled with plastique, a second transmitter, and a tape recorder built into the wall of the green guest room, were all discovered in the search of his apartment.
Initially the Syrians thought he was an Arab but when questioned in depth on Muslim customs, it became apparent that he was not. He underwent third-degree torture methods under which he admitted, “I am an Israeli operative employed by the Mossad. My name is Eliahu ben Shaul Cohen, and I live with my wife and three children in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. All I will add is that I have operated in the best interest of my country.”
He was condemned to death by a Syrian military court. Despite worldwide appeals for clemency (from the pope, President Charles de Gaulle, etc.), he was publicly hanged in Damascus. Many attempts have been made to have his body returned to Israel but the Syrians have refused. An attempt made by agents to retrieve his body was aborted when the group was pursued by border guards and forced to leave the body behind.