Profile of Eli Cohen on Famous Like Me

Eli Cohen (December 26, 1924 - May 18, 1965) was a celebrated Israeli spy. Born in Egypt, Cohen contributed to pro-Israeli activities in Egypt during the 1950s, but the important part of his career began when he was recruited into Israeli military intelligence in 1960. He was given a false identity as a Syrian Arab who was returning to Syria after living in Argentina. To establish his cover, Cohen moved to Argentina in 1961 and early the following year moved to Damascus. For the next few years, using the alias Kamel Amin Thabet, Cohen successfully gained the confidence of many Syrian military and government officials, and sent intelligence to Israel by radio, secret letters, and occasionally by visiting Israel in person. His most famous achievement was to tour the Syrian fortifications on the Golan Heights, though historians are divided over the actual importance of his report. In 1964 his control was transferred to Mossad as part of an intelligence reorganization. In January 1965 he was caught in the act of sending a radio message, and after a trial he was found guilty of espionage and publicly hanged on May 18, 1965.

While on a tour of the Syrian military with Syrian personnel before being discovered, Cohen suggested that trees should be planted around Arab guard posts and bases that targeted Israel. That way, Cohen argued, the trees would provide natural cover for the outposts. After his suggestion was implemented by the Syrian military, Cohen passed on the information to Israel, whose airforce then destroyed the majority of the bases, using the newly planted trees as a guide.

Requests by his family for his remains to be returned to Israel have been unsuccessful (as of January 2005).

The film The Impossible Spy is a depiction of his life.

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