Written by Mohamed Abdel Rahman
Thursday, May 18, 2023 12:00 PM
Today marks the 58th anniversary of the execution of Israeli spy Eli Cohen in Syria on May 18, 1965, after the Israeli Mossad implanted him in Syrian society before the Syrian counterintelligence authorities finally exposed him, as Cohen was convicted under military law, and sentenced him to death before the sentence was carried out. .
Eliyahu or Eli Cohen was born in the Jewish quarter in Alexandria on December 16, 1924, after his father, Shaul, and his mother, Sophie Cohen, emigrated from Aleppo to Egypt. “Historians of Group 73” In 1964, following the inclusion of the Aman apparatus in the Mossad, Cohen provided his leaders in Tel Aviv with full details of the Syrian defense plans in the Quneitra area, and in another report he informed them of the arrival of a Russian T-54 tank deal and its distribution locations. As well as the details of the Syrian plan, which was prepared by Russian experts to invade the northern part of Israel in the event of war, and Eli Cohen’s success increased, especially with his lavish funds on the Ba’ath Party, power gathered around him, and he was close to being nominated as party leader or prime minister!
According to the writer Jaber Rizk, in his book “The Muslim Brotherhood and the Conspiracy Against Syria,” the empowerment of Israel and securing its presence in the Arab region was through the military coups that swept the region, indicating that the spy Eli Cohen was able to rule Syria through his relationship with the leaders of the Baath Party, especially the President of the Republic, Amin. Hafez, Prime Minister Salah al-Bitar, and party leader Michel Aflaq.
The book “The Great Encyclopedia of Armed Islamic Groups” written by Belhoul Nassim explains that the Israeli intelligence officer Eli Cohen, who went to Argentina and established a friendship with Amin Al-Hafez, entered Syria under the name “Kamel Amin Thabet” and lived in the “Abu Rummaneh” neighborhood in Damascus, and his apartment became the fortress Al-Hussein, which housed the leaders of the Baath Party.
The book hinted that the ministry offered Eli Cohen to be Prime Minister of Syria, and the Israeli spy consulted the Prime Minister of Israel at the time, Ben-Gurion, who refused to take this position, pointing out that “Cohen’s” empowerment in Syrian society made some call him the first revolutionary youth, and he was a civilian person The only one who enters airports and military bases.
And when a car monitoring external communications of the Syrian security was passing in front of Eli Cohen’s house, a message was seized from the building in which he lives, and the building was immediately surrounded, and the security men investigated the residents and did not find anyone suspicious, and they did not find anyone suspicious of him in the building, However, they returned and arrested Cohen after observing the broadcast from the apartment.
For many years, the family of the Israeli spy kept commemorating his memory in the occupied northern Golan, as they chose a site near an old building used by the Syrian army, as they were convinced that this place was the closest to his burial area.
