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Eli Cohen was a master spy for Israel; some believe him to have been the greatest spy in the history of the Jewish state. He was born in Egypt, was a native speaker of Arabic, and then moved to Israel, where he was recruited by Mossad to infiltrate the highest circles in the Syrian government. He was first sent to live in Argentina, for several years, establishing his cover as a Syrian businessman in exile. He then moved to Syria, where he was accepted among the Syrian community as a returning Syrian businessman. He managed to pass himself as a Syrian businessman who was returning to the country after decades living in Argentina. He soon managed to penetrate the highest official and business circles, frequently giving parties where his guests, including military men, would talk freely about their work and their plans. Eventually Eli Cohen was found out, and executed.

Several months ago, the Mossad has brought back from Syria a huge cache of material about Eli Cohen that had been held in the strictest secrecy. How those Mossad agents managed to locate the 2500 documents, and bring them all back intact to Israel is another story of derring-do that we may never find out about. The story got little notice at the time it was published, and deserves more: “Mossad seizes 2,500 document Syrian files on executed spy Eli Cohen,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post,  May 18, 2025:

The Mossad announced on Sunday that, in a special operation inside Syria, it had seized the 2,500 document secret Syrian files on executed Israeli spy Eli Cohen.

According to the Mossad, Syria had kept the files in a highly secret and secure location and it took time for the Mossad to locate and plan to take the files even after the Assad regime collapsed on December 7-8.

Within the files, the Mossad found Cohen’s original forged passports, his apartment keys, and messages and assignments he received from the Mossad.

Further, the files contain Syrian surveillance of Cohen as he met with top Syrian officials.

In addition, the files contain an original copy of the last will and message which Cohen wrote before his execution, which until now was only available to the public as a copy of the content.

The files also include cassette recordings relating to Cohen.

Further, the files have a wide range of information about the public campaign which Cohen’s wife, Nadia, made to foreign leaders as well as to top Syrian leaders to plead to spare Eli Cohen’s life.

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea met with Nadia and reiterated earlier promises to find Cohen’s body.

It was unclear why – if now the Mossad has his entire Syrian file – they have not located his body yet.

The new discoveries were revealed near the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s death….

A master spy, Eli Cohen is a national hero in Israel. Many questions remain that will now be answered definitively by these documents, which will be studied by historians and made available to the wider public. Now we will all learn how Cohen managed to inveigle so many high officials, civilian and military, to attend his soirees, what he learned about the deployment of Syrian troops, especially on the Golan Heights, how he persuaded the Syrian military to plant eucalyptus trees at military outposts so as to provide shade for their troops, trees which later served as targets for the IDF, whether Cohen — who paid a brief visit back to Israel in 1964 — wanted to remain in Israel, as some say, but was persuaded by his Mossad handlers to return to Syria, how he was caught by Syrian counter-intelligence, and how, brave to the last, he died, hung in public in Damascus, in 1965, at the age of 40.