In today’s time, Israel has a different status in the whole world and the biggest reason behind this is its intelligence agency Mossad. Israel and Mossad have the power to confront anyone on the basis of the brave spies spread all over the world. One such spy was Eli Cohen, who at one time was about to become the defense minister of the enemy country. However, later the same Eli Cohen, who spied under the nose of the Syrian government, is publicly hanged.
Eli Cohen was born in 1924 to a Syrian-Jewish family in Alexandria, Egypt. Eli’s father immigrated to Egypt in 1914 from Aleppo, Syria. When Israel was formed in 1948, Eli Cohen’s family also immigrated from Egypt to Israel. Eli Cohen was in college at that time and he came to Israel after completing his studies in 1957.
When the 60s came, Eli Cohen was married to a girl named Nadia. In Israel, Eli worked as a translator and accountant for a few days. During this time he got an opportunity to join Mossad and Eli Cohen was sent to the enemy country Syria for espionage voluntarily. Upon reaching here, Eli Cohen made such inroads into the Syrian government that the then President Amin al-Hafiz agreed to make him his Defense Minister.
In 1961, Eli Cohen arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and became a Syrian businessman, Kamel Amin Thabet, and made inroads among several officials. Among them was the name of Military General Amin al-Hafiz of the Syrian Embassy. Eli Cohen, taking everyone into confidence, described his old struggle and said that he now wants to return to Syria. When he reached Damascus in 1962, he contacted the Syrian authorities.
Eli Cohen used to send every small and big news from Syria to Israel via radio transmitter. When the year 1963 came, General Amin al-Hafiz took power in a coup d’état. Eli Cohen and General Amin Al Hafeez had longstanding contacts. Meanwhile, Syrian President Amin al-Hafiz offered Eli Cohen alias Kamel Amin Thabate to become Defense Minister.
At that time Syria was failing in many missions. However, the Syrian president did not know that Eli Cohen was behind this. In 1964, Eli Cohen came back to Israel on leave and when he returned to Syria, he started sending news via radio transmitter. In 1965, Ahmed Suidani, the defense adviser to the President of Syria, became suspicious. Ahmed Suidani felt that someone was leaking inside news.
Ahmed Suidani, with the help of the Soviets, ordered a device for tracking radio transmitters. Just Eli Cohen’s luck deceived him right here. The intelligence agency was forbidden to use the radio transmitter several times a day, but Cohen made a deliberate mistake. In the year 1965, Ahmed Suidani raided the house of Eli Cohen alias Kamel Amin Thabet with full security. After which Ahmed Suidani got the radio transmitter from Eli Cohen’s house.
When Defense Advisor Ahmed Suidani set up an investigation, it was discovered that Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy. He was giving all the information to Mossad while sitting in Damascus, Syria. Subsequently, on May 18, 1965, Eli Cohen was publicly hanged at a crossroads in Damascus. After this his body was kept hanging for the common people for several hours. Despite several attempts, Syria did not return Eli Cohen’s body to Israel.