Israel finds Syrian archive of renowned spy 60 years after his execution

TEL AVIV – Israel has retrieved thousands of items belonging to the country’s most famous spy after a covert operation in Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently shared a portion of the Syrian archive, which consists of 2,500 items related to Israeli spy Eli Cohen, with Cohen’s widow. The archive sheds light on Cohen’s infiltration of the political leadership in Syria. This sharing occurred on a significant day, as it marked 60 years since Cohen was executed in Damascus.

The items brought into Israel from the archive are diverse, including documents, recordings, photos, and personal belongings collected by Syrian intelligence after Cohen’s arrest in 1965. Among these items are letters penned by Cohen to his family in Israel, photographs documenting his activities in Syria during his mission, and personal possessions seized from his residence post-capture.

Several suitcases containing the archive items were transported to Israel. These suitcases held worn folders brimming with handwritten notes, keys to Cohen’s apartment in Damascus, passports, forged identification documents, Mossad mission directives for surveillance operations, and records detailing Nadia Cohen’s endeavors to seek help from global leaders in securing her husband’s release from captivity.

Cohen’s success in Syria was one of the Mossad spy agency’s first major achievements, and the top-secret intelligence he obtained is widely credited with helping Israel prepare for its swift victory in the 1967 Middle East War.

Eli Cohen managed to forge close contacts within the political and military hierarchy of Israel’s archenemy in the early 1960s, ultimately rising to become a top adviser to Syria’s defense minister. In 1965, Cohen was caught radioing information to Israel. He was tried and hanged in a Damascus square on May 18, 1965. His remains have yet to be returned to Israel, where he is regarded as a national hero.

In 2019, actor Sasha Baron Cohen portrayed Eli Cohen (no relation) in a six-episode Netflix series called “The Spy.”

“We conducted a special operation by the Mossad, by the State of Israel, to bring his (Eli Cohen’s) archive, which had been in the safes of the Syrian intelligence for 60 years,” Netanyahu told Nadia Cohen on Sunday in Jerusalem.

Ahead of viewing the items, Nadia Cohen told Netanyahu that the most important thing was to bring back Cohen’s body. Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to work on locating Cohen’s body. Last week, Israel recovered the body of an Israeli soldier from Syria who had been missing for more than four decades, after he was killed during a clash with Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1982.

“Eli is an Israeli legend. He’s the greatest agent Israeli intelligence has had in the years the state existed. There was no one like him,” Netanyahu said.