The spy who almost became president of Syria. (Eli Amin Shaul Cohen).. Eli Cohen
A name that it is impossible for any Arab or Israeli intelligence man not to know, these days, and especially after dozens of books and novels have been published about him, most of them Israeli, surrounding him with a frame of strength and heroism, and weaving around him dozens of legendary tales, that make him something like a star, in this secret world, or so the Israelis tried to present him, without indicating what befell this star..
To his horrifying fall..
And (Eli's) beginnings were simple and utterly ordinary, for his father (Hofi Cohen) was a modest Syrian merchant, who emigrated with his family to (Egypt), and settled with them in (Alexandria).
And there (Eli) was born on 16 December 1924, and there too he enrolled in the French (Lycée) school.. and there too he met (Polandi Gabi), who was the beginning of the thread..
And this (Polandi) was one of the ladies of the wealthy Jewish families, and an active member at the same time, in the (Hamosad HaBith).. or...
Or (the Mossad)...
Which decided to establish a branch for itself in (Egypt), through the Egyptian Jewish youth movement, known as (Hashomerot), so it sent one of its men (Levi Avraham), who nominated a number of Jewish youths for it, and at their head (Eli)..
And (Eli Cohen) worked for (the Mossad), before he obtained the (Baccalaureate) certificate, or the general secondary certificate as it was called at that time, and he showed remarkable activity in facilitating the departure of Egyptian Jews to (Palestine) and in contacting the embassies and consulates, and he mastered English and French and Italian, and he joined the Faculty of Engineering at (Fuad I) University - (Cairo) today - and obtained his degree, despite his entire family's emigration to (Israel).. in 1950..
And in 1953, the Israeli military intelligence (Aman) sent one of its men to (Egypt), namely (Avraham Dar), who arrived on a British passport, bearing the name (John Darling), in pursuit of forming two Zionist cells, in (Cairo) and (Alexandria), and he sent five members of the two cells to (Tel Aviv), by way of (Paris), to receive training on detonating time bombs, then these five were returned to (Egypt), carrying a special sabotage plan...
And among these five was (Eli Cohen)..
And during an operation known as (Operation Susanna), (John Darling) issued his orders to the two cells, to blow up and sabotage a number of British and American installations, with the aim of ruining the evacuation agreement, which had been signed between the Egyptian and British sides at that time.
But one member of the two cells made a fatal mistake, which set fire to his pocket, before he could blow up his target, which led one of the policemen to arrest him, and take him to the Ramleh Station police station, where he was interrogated, and he confessed the whole matter, and..
And the two cells fell.
And on the evening of that same night, a wide arrest campaign took place, in (Cairo) and (Alexandria), of all the members of the two cells and the suspected elements, and among these too was (Eli)..
And although the confessions of the members of the two cells included a large number of Jewish youths, they did not include the name of (Eli Cohen), which led to his release and his being set free, though this did not prevent a special file being opened for him, in the Egyptian General Intelligence apparatus, which was taking its first steps, in this mysterious secret world..
And the file bore the name (Eli Hofi Cohen), and this made it imperative for (Eli) to stop his activity.
Then the Tripartite Aggression against (Egypt) occurred.. and as a precautionary measure, everyone with such files was arrested, without evidence of accusation, until December 1956.. when it was decided to release them, and expel them outside (Egypt), for reasons of security..
And on the twentieth of December 1956, (Eli) left (Egypt), on a ship belonging to the Red Cross, which carried him to (Italy), with a large number of Egyptian Jews, where he spent several weeks in (Genoa).
And in (Bat Yam), south of (Tel Aviv), (Eli) spent his first days in (Israel), with his mother and his family, and he set about studying the Hebrew language, then before long he joined, in the late part of that same year, a job in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, based on translating everything published in the Arab newspapers into Hebrew, and preparing reports and analyses on it, for the military intelligence apparatus (Aman)..
And before long he tired of this work too, so he submitted a request for transfer to (the Mossad), but this request of his was met with refusal, which drove him to submit his resignation, and work in a company for marketing foodstuffs, and during this work he met (Nadia), the nurse at (Hadassah) Hospital in Jerusalem, and he married her after a short period of acquaintance..
And (Eli) did not feel at ease in his new work, but he did not complain about it this time, or try to leave it...
True, he did not seek to resign, but the matter came about in a different way this time, as he met an old friend, who had worked with him in (Aman), and a conversation took place between them about his resignation, and after it his colleague left, after they had agreed to meet a second time..
And on this second time, his friend invited him to walk along the shore, and there he suddenly asked him whether he wished to work in the Mossad, then confided to him that he was one of the (Mossad) officers, and asked him to keep completely secret what he was about to hear, even from his family and his wife, then informed him of (the Mossad's) approval of his working in their ranks.
And in the spring and summer of 1960, (Eli) passed his training program, and prepared to take up his new work, and his mission of the utmost importance, in (Syria)..
And although the mission was aimed at (Syria), it began in (Buenos Aires), the capital of (Argentina), which (Eli) reached on 21 March 1961, coming from (Zurich), and bearing the name (Kamel Amin Thabet), whose passport indicated his Syrian nationality..
And as soon as he arrived, (Eli) became active in getting to know the emigrant community in (Buenos Aires), and he set about cementing their friendships with them, carrying a story prepared with precision, saying: that he was a Syrian of Lebanese origin, who emigrated with his family to (Alexandria), then his uncle traveled to (Argentina) in 1946, and he followed him there with his family in 1947, then his father died there of a heart attack, in 1952, and six months after him his mother passed away, and he remained alone there, working in the fabric trade, then he traveled to (Europe) for several years, and has now returned wealthy..
And no more than a few weeks passed, before (Kamel Amin Thabet) became a well-known man, in emigrant circles, whose number in that period reached half a million Arab emigrants, and his ties were cemented with the editor-in-chief of (The Arab World) magazine published there (Abdul Latif al-Khashan), who introduced him, in good faith, to his friends and acquaintances, among the men of the Arab embassies in (Argentina), and quickly (Eli) became a permanent guest at most of the embassy parties..
And the strange thing is that one of the Syrian intelligence officers suspected the man, and sent to (the Second Bureau) in (Syria), requesting an investigation into him.
But the Israelis had chosen a real story, for an emigrant family, bearing the name (Thabet), which made the Syrian intelligence endorse (Eli's) story, without bothering to scrutinize it and examine it well, since the doubts about him were not of the degree that sufficed for that.
And after several months, and specifically in August 1961, (Kamel Amin Thabet) announced his desire to return to the homeland (Syria), and submitted an application to obtain an entry visa.
And in (Damascus), (Eli) spent a full month, without carrying out his activity, so as not to arouse suspicions around him, until 28 September 1961, then he began to establish a company for import and export, which specialized in exporting Arab furniture and wooden handicrafts to (Europe), and he set about benefiting his company doubly, since the conversations he exchanged with others, by virtue of work, conveyed to him a plentiful amount of information, about the state of the economic market, which he would send as soon as he returned to his home, to (the Mossad) directly, by way of a very small transmitter...
As for the photos and documents he captured, he would send them inside special cavities, in the pieces of furniture and the handicrafts, that were exported to (Europe), where one of the (Mossad) officers in (Switzerland) would retrieve them..
As for the social side, the development was more rapid, and more dangerous..
(Eli) succeeded in striking up many friendships, with the Syrian military men and media figures, and he rented a house facing the building of the General Command of the Syrian Armed Forces, where he set about monitoring the developments taking place there, which helped him send information of the utmost importance and benefit to the Israelis, who considered him an excellent agent.
Then (Kamel Thabet) landed the most important catch since the beginning of his work..
He struck up a friendship with a young officer, who was at the same time the nephew of the chief of staff of the armed forces, and he succeeded in drawing him in to obtain information of extreme danger, under the pretext of reassuring himself about the safety and security of the homeland...
He even took the officer with him to the front lines, where he saw for himself the armament and the fortifications of the Syrian units, and he went further on the next occasion, so he carried a camera with him, and took several photos of the Israeli settlements, located on the slopes of the Syrian heights, and sent them to (Tel Aviv), which identified from them the positions of the Syrian heights..
And as a member of the Baath Party, (Eli) cemented his relations with the leaders of the party, and the information minister (Sami al-Jundi), and he became one of the party cadres that are pointed to with admiration, and an almost permanent guest, at the receptions held by the Syrian presidency, and especially after his proposal to make a party visit to (Argentina), during which he collected nine thousand dollars, as donations to the Baath Party, from the Syrian emigrants there, to which he added a thousand dollars from his own account.
And the name (Kamel Amin Thabet) shone, and this helped him form stronger and more dangerous friendships, and granted him greater freedom of movement, especially after he was nominated, or his name was floated as a candidate, for the post of deputy information minister, or deputy defense minister, so much so that he was able to capture several close-up photos, of the interceptor fighter (MiG-21), which was the strongest interceptor fighter at that time.
And with his standing rising, (Eli) became one of the members of the Syrian delegation accompanying Lieutenant General (Ali Amer), the commander-in-chief of the Unified Arab Command, when he visited the Syrian Arab Republic, at the head of a large military delegation, in December 1964, to hold talks with the military leaders there..
And (Kamel Amin Thabet) was almost the only civilian, who accompanied the military men officially, on that tour, with the exception of the photographers and journalists..
And this was the mistake, which began the stage of the end..
For in early January 1965, one of the Egyptian intelligence officers was leafing through some Arab newspapers, when a photo caught his attention of Major General (Ali Amer), during his visit to Syria, and around him the members of the Syrian delegation accompanying him, and his gaze settled on one person in their midst specifically, and he knit his brows hard, straining his mind, in an attempt to know when he had seen the owner of this face specifically..
When he remembered him, panic seized him, so he snatched the newspaper, and rushed toward the office of (Salah Nasr), the director of the Egyptian General Intelligence at that time, and placed the newspaper before him, to tell him that this man, who was accompanying the military delegation, was not a Syrian.. He was a Jew named (Eli Hofi Cohen).
And (Salah Nasr) was greatly disturbed, especially since that officer had been a classmate of the spy, at the French (Lycée) school, and they had obtained the Baccalaureate together in 1946.. and that he had a complete file in the intelligence, since the bombings operation, and here (Salah Nasr) requested the file, and read through it, then carried it at once, to President (Gamal Abdel Nasser)..
President (Gamal) kept reading the file for more than forty-five minutes, then he picked up the receiver of his telephone, and asked his secretariat to contact the Syrian president, Lieutenant General (Amin Hafez), at once, and as soon as the call was made, President (Gamal) exchanged some words of courtesy with the Syrian president, then told him that he would send him a special envoy the next day, carrying a message of the utmost importance and danger..
And this envoy was (Salah Nasr) himself, who traveled the next morning to (Damascus), and met the Syrian president, and presented him with the file.
And just as happened to President (Gamal Abdel Nasser), the Syrian president was struck with overwhelming astonishment, as he leafed through the file, then before long he requested the presence of the head of the Syrian intelligence (the Second Bureau), who arrived a little later, and read through the file in turn, and the same bewilderment struck him..
For in that period, the wireless operators in the Indian embassy were complaining of interference occurring on some of their messages, sent to (New Delhi), and the Syrian security men suspected the presence of a spy sending wireless signals in the area, but they were incapable of pinpointing his location, given the wide circle of the search, and the difficulty of tracing the wireless signals at that time..
And with the information that (Salah Nasr) brought, the matter became clear, and settled..
And hours after this meeting, (Eli) was preparing to send one of his wireless messages to (Tel Aviv), on one of the nights of cold January, when he was surprised by a number of men storming his house, and aiming their pistols at him, and ordering him not to move, and when he rose up against them, Lieutenant Colonel (Ahmed Suwaidani), the head of the counter-espionage department in the Syrian intelligence, stepped in front of him, addressing him by his real name.
And then (Eli Cohen) realized that he had fallen.. and the Israelis went mad, when they learned of (Eli's) fall, and they attempted the impossible to save him, and they offered to exchange him for a group of those accused of spying for (Syria), and to pay a million dollars for his release, but (Syria) refused this insistently.
And on the eighteenth of May, 1965, (Eli Hofi Cohen) was led to the noose, which encircled his neck...
Then the executioner pushed a metal arm, and his body fell into the void, announcing the fall of a spy, and the loss of the Israeli intelligence in the round ...
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