Identifer: CJF-RFC2015331

Medium
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Description
Ely Cohen was an Israeli spy who managed to infiltrate the Syrian leadership and convey to Israel a wealth of information regarding Syrian defense and weapons.  This information enabled Israel to defeat Syrain forces within a matter of hours in the 1967 Six-Day War.
 
            His father was a shopkeeper from North Syria, but Ely was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1924.  He was an outstanding pupil both at the Lycee high school and at the Midrasha (the Institute of Higher Hebraic Studies).  He considered himself a patriotic Egyptian as well as a Jew, and participated in anti-British street demonstrations, working for the Nationalist Movement for a free Egypt.  His hobbies as a youth – photography and collecting pictures of weapons – were to be very useful in the future.
 
            In Alexandria, he studied applied electricity at Farouk University but the establishment of the State of Israel saw growth of anti-Semitism, and he and other Jewish students were forced to leave the university.  He became dedicated to underground Zionist activities and was recruited to a ring of young Egyptian Jews in what became known as the Lavon Affair.  Ely was sent to Tel Aviv for three months basic intelligence training.  They were ordered to sabotage public buildings in Alexandria, the idea being to damage American and British property in order to create tension.  Fortunately no arrested members of the “ring” mentioned his name, and after four months of imprisonment due to implication from various documents, he was released.  He was jailed again after the 1956 Suez operation and interned by the Egyptians on the “Marianis Rosso” ship, which contained a miniature torture chamber.  He was later 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.  He was sent to Syria to try and infiltrate the higher ranks and send information to Israel.  He was given a new name, 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 recommendation 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 Minister of Information post in the upcoming cabinet realignment, and several influential officers suggested he be appointed deputy minister of defense.
 
            Cohen convinced his acquaintances he was a committed Marxist and he rose quickly in the Arab socialist Baath Party.  He often told 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 a number of times. The Mossad received sketches of bunkers and precise coordinates of artillery emplacement (hidden in the backgammon boards he exported to Europe).
 
            One of his missions was to obtain information about the Syrian scheme for rerouting 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 caught by new tracking equipment, which detected his transmitter.  His photo, laboratory, film, soap filled with plastique, second transmitter and 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 interrogated in depth on Muslim customs, it became apparent that he was not.  He underwent third-degree torture 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 de Gaulle, etc.), he was publicly hanged in Damascus in 1965.  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.