THE PLOT

In 1966 the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, convinced an Iraqi Air Force pilot to fly to Israel with his MiG-21, then one of the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world and one of the Arabs’ best weapons against Israel. In a harrowing flight the pilot, Munir Redfa, flew from Iraq to Israel, through Jordan, landing with just enough fuel to spare. It was an embarrassment for the Soviet Union, an intelligence coup for the West, and demonstrated the cunning and daring capabilities of Israeli intelligence. 

When a flashy, young Arab businessman showed up in Argentina in 1961, he charmed the local Arab community, especially the ex-pat Syrians. His name was Kamel Amin Thabeet and he made known his interest in supporting the Ba’ath Party in Syria, which was then illegal but rising in popularity. Within a year he moved to Syria and became good friends with Amin al-Hafiz, a Ba’ath Party official who led a coup in 1963 and became Syria’s President. Thabeet was now in a position of friendship and influence with top leaders in Syria.

The whole time, though, Thabeet was really Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy from a Jewish Syrian family who had grown up in Egypt. Eli had been recruited by the Mossad to embed with the Syrians and was tasked with collecting as much information as he could about Syrian military capabilities and political intentions.

Eli Cohen was doing very well in Syria, providing Israel a gold mine of intelligence information, particular about the Golan Heights, to which he managed to get himself take on tour. He had the ear of the President and, incredibly, was even suggested as a candidate for Minister of Defense at one point. But the Syrians soon figured out that there was a mole and began hunting for the spy. They finally caught him on January 24, 1965. The Syrians were humiliated that the Israelis had conducted such a successful operation against them and staged a huge show trial. Eli Cohen was hanged in Damascus on May 18, 1965.

The Mossad also had an Israeli spy embedded in Beirut, hosting lavish parties for the Lebanese political, military, and business elite, and sending along intelligence. Her name was Shula Cohen-Kishak, codenamed “The Pearl.” She, too, was caught, tried and sentenced to death, but under international pressure her sentence was commuted to 20 years. She was released after the Six Day War and lived to be 100, nicknamed “Grandma James Bond.”

THE PEOPLE

Eli Cohen: most famous Israeli spy in history, who infiltrated the highest levels of the Syrian government in the early 1960s. He sent back intelligence to Israel’s Mossad, but was discovered and executed. He went by the alias Kamel Amin Thabeet while undercover.

Nadia Cohen: Eli’s wife, still alive today, who has been active in lobbying governments for the return of Eli’s body.

Amin al-Hafiz: Syrian military officer and leader of a coup in 1963, at which point he became the country’s President. Had a friendship with the man he knew as Kamel Amin Thabeet, but who was really Eli Cohen.

Shula Cohen-Kishik: Mossad agent in Lebanon known as “The Pearl.” Caught and tried in 1961, she was sent to prison but later released to Israel in a prisoner exchange.

Munir Redfa: Iraqi Air Force pilot who defected to Israel with his MiG-21 jet plane. 

THE BIG IDEAS

Espionage and covert operations were essential to Israel’s success and security. One reason why Israeli intelligence was so effective was because the country was made up of Jews from every corner of the globe, speaking multiple languages, and intimately familiar with the cultures of their former homelands. They could easily blend into the communities of their former countries as effective spies. This was especially true of the Mizrahi, who sacrificed their lives in Israel in order to serve the new Jewish State in the hostile and dangerous Arab countries from whence they came. 

Fifty-five years after his execution, Eli Cohen remains a national hero and probably Israel’s most famous spy. His remarkable story, and enormous personal sacrifice, lent legendary status to the derring-do of Israel’s Mossad, and struck fear in Israel’s enemies over the Jewish State’s capabilities. 

Israels spies were daring, brave, determined, and sometimes ruthless, and their operations came at a high personal cost, even when they weren’t discovered and executed. As Nadia Cohen has said of her husband, Eli, “I am proud for what he did but I never felt that I had a husband. The children never felt they had a father.” The years he was a spy were incredibly hard on her, and she only had the barest understanding of what he was doing and where he was. It took her 30 years to begin speaking openly about her own experience.

FUN FACTS

Munir Redfa’s MiG-21 was nicknamed “007” and placed in an Israeli museum. 

By extraordinary coincidence, the Israeli agent who received the secret radio signals from Eli Cohen was his brother, who only knew Eli by a code name.

For 55 years the Syrian government has refused to return Eli Cohen’s body to Israel, perhaps even moving him from time to time to prevent Israel sending in a commando team to retrieve him.

© Jason Harris 2020