Our Man in Damascus: Elie Cohn

Bnei Brak, Israel: Steimatzky House, 1969. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Good. 143, [1] pages. Cover has some wear and soiling. Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen (6 December 1924 - 18 May 1965), commonly known as Eli Cohen, was an Egyptian-born Israeli spy. He is best known for his espionage work in 1961-65 in Syria, where he developed close relationships with the Syrian political and military hierarchy. Syrian counterintelligence eventually uncovered the spy conspiracy and convicted Cohen under pre-war martial law, sentencing him to death and hanging him publicly in 1965. Cohen was born in 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt to a devout Mizrahi Jewish and Zionist family. Israel's secret police recruited a sabotage unit of Jewish Egyptian citizens in 1955 which attempted to undermine Egypt's relationships with western powers in the "Lavon Affair". The unit bombed unoccupied American and British installations, expecting that this would be considered the work of Egyptians. Egyptian authorities uncovered the spy ring and sentenced two of the members to death. Cohen had aided the unit and was implicated, but they found no link between him and the perpetrators. The Mossad recruited Cohen after Director-General Meir Amit, looking for a special agent to infiltrate the Syrian government, came across his name while looking through the agency's files of rejected candidates, after none of the current candidates seemed suitable for the job. For two weeks Cohen was put under surveillance, and was judged suitable for recruitment and training. Cohen was then informed that the Mossad had decided to recruit him and underwent an intensive six-month course at the Mossad training school. His graduate report stated that he had all the qualities needed to become a katsa, or field agent. He was then given a false identity as a Syrian businessman who was returning to the country after living in Argentina. To establish his cover, Cohen moved to Buenos Aires in 1961. In Buenos Aires he moved among the Arab community, letting it be known he had large amounts of money to put at the disposal of the Syrian Ba'ath Party. At this time the Ba'ath Party was illegal in Syria but the party seized power in 1963. Cohen provided an extensive amount and wide range of intelligence data for the Israeli Army between 1961 and 1965. He sent intelligence to Israel by radio, secret letters, and occasionally in person; he secretly traveled to Israel three times. His most famous achievement was the tour of the Golan Heights in which he collected intelligence on the Syrian fortifications there. According to an unconfirmed but widely believed story, he feigned sympathy for the soldiers exposed to the sun and had trees planted at every position, placed to provide shade. The Israel Defense Forces were alleged to have used the trees as targeting markers during the Six-Day War, which enabled Israel to capture the Golan Heights in two days. In January 1965, Syrian officials increased their efforts to find a high-level spy using Soviet-made tracking equipment and was assisted by Soviet experts. They observed a period of radio silence, in the hope that any illegal transmissions could be identified. They successfully detected radio transmissions and were able to triangulate the transmitter. Syrian security services led by Suidani broke into Cohen's apartment on 24 January and caught him in the middle of a transmission to Israel. Derived from a Kirkus review: In 1965, the Syrian government discovered that Kamal Tabat (millionaire, Moslem, friend of the regime) was actually Elie Cohn, an Israeli spy. He was summarily tortured, tried, and hanged in Martyr's Square in Damascus. The case had attracted world interest, and despite strong outcries for clemency, the execution was televised and the body was allowed to hang in public view for six hours. All the facts of Cohn's initiation to intelligence, his careful training in Argentina, and his infiltration into the Syrian elite are described. Conversations are reconstructed, and details of torture are surmised. The author stresses the rancor (and surprise) the Syrians felt to discover their betrayal and points out that Cohn's infiltration allowed Israel to counter the Syrian plans to divert the Jordan and wipe out military catacombs along the border. The author is an Israeli journalist and businessman who tells his essentially true story in a glossy, occasionally lurid, fashion; it was a bestseller in Israel.