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The Spy Israel Couldn't Save May Finally Come Home - Eli Cohen · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I am Li Coin, I was a spy for Israel.
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  Speaker 1: As families in Israel get ready for happy reunions with
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the first twenty hostages coming home from Gaza, another reunion
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  Speaker 1: may be quietly unfolding. Sixty years after his execution, Ali
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  Speaker 1: Cohen might finally come home, not alive but unforgettable. According
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  Speaker 1: to Asaudi state run news outlet Alhadad, they transfer could
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  Speaker 1: accur imminently as part of quiet diplomatic overtures between the
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  Speaker 1: two long time adversaries. While Israeli officials have yet to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: confirm the development, and Cohen's widow, Nadia, stated that the
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  Speaker 1: Mosad appears unaware of any such plans, the news has
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  Speaker 1: ignited cautious hope among Cohen's family and sparked widespread speculation
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  Speaker 1: about a thawing in regional tensions. Li Cohen's story reads
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  Speaker 1: like a thriller scripted for the espionage history. Born in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty four in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Jewish family,
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  Speaker 1: Cohen emigrated to Israel in nineteen fifty seven amid rising
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  Speaker 1: antisemitism in the Arab world. A charismatic linguistics teacher with
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  Speaker 1: Enak for languages and accents, he quickly caught the eye
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  Speaker 1: of Mosad recruiters. In nineteen sixty one, at the age
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  Speaker 1: of thirty seven, Cohen was tapped for one of the
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  Speaker 1: agency's most audacious operations infiltrating the upper echelons of Syrian society.
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  Speaker 1: Posing as kamel Am and Thabat, a wealthy Arab businessman
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  Speaker 1: returning from Argentina with fabricated tales of exile and fortune,
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  Speaker 1: Cohen slipped seamlessly into Damascus high society. His cover was
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  Speaker 1: air kite, complete with a fictitious family backstory and even
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  Speaker 1: a sham marriage to bolster his image as a devoted
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  Speaker 1: family man. Over four years, Cohen's assent was meteoric. He
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  Speaker 1: cultivated friendships with Syria's political and military elite, hosting lavish
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  Speaker 1: parties at his hillside villa overlooking the Golan Heights, a
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  Speaker 1: strategically vital plateau then under Syrian control. It was here,
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  Speaker 1: amid champagne toasts and whispered confidences, that Cohen's through genius
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  Speaker 1: shown befriending then Defence Minister Amen al Hafiz and other
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  Speaker 1: top brass He gleaned invaluable intelligence on Syrian military deployments,
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  Speaker 1: fortifications and vulnerabilities. One of his most ingenious ploys involved
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  Speaker 1: subtly suggesting the planting of eucalyptus trees along Gonan artillery
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  Speaker 1: positions to provide shade for soldiers in the scorching summers.
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  Speaker 1: The Syrians obliged unwittingly marking their own gun in placements
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  Speaker 1: like neon signs for Israeli forces. This seemingly innocuous advice
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  Speaker 1: proved catastrophic for Damascus during the nineteen sixty seven Six
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  Speaker 1: Day War, when Israeli air strikes and ground assaults, guided
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  Speaker 1: by Cohen's maps swiftly overran the heights in a matter
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  Speaker 1: of hours, reshaping the Middle East's geopolitically map and securing
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  Speaker 1: Israel's northern flank. Kohen's betrayal was uncovered in early nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty five through a combination of Syrian counterintelligence and a
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  Speaker 1: fatal transmission error. His radio signals were intercepted during a
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  Speaker 1: passover holiday when he transmitted from home without precautions, arrested, tortured,
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  Speaker 1: and subjected to a sham trial. He was convicted of
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  Speaker 1: espionage and sentenced to death. On May eighteenth, nineteen sixty five.
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  Speaker 1: Cohen was publicly hanged in Damascus Marge Square. His final
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  Speaker 1: words a defiant broadcast plea for his children's future. Syrian
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  Speaker 1: authorities buried him in an unmarked grave, the location of
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  Speaker 1: which has remained a state secret, fueling endless appeals from
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  Speaker 1: Israeli leaders across administrations. For six decades, Families like Kohen's
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  Speaker 1: have marked anniversaries with vigils, lobbying Uan mediators, and even
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  Speaker 1: enlisting Russian forces during serious civil war to scour potential sights,
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  Speaker 1: all to no avail. The prospect of repatriation now feels
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  Speaker 1: tantalizingly close, Born from a cascade of regional shifts that
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  Speaker 1: have upended the old order. Serious landscape transformed dramatically in
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  Speaker 1: late twenty twenty four with the ouster of Basha e
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  Speaker 1: l Assad, paving the way for an interim government more
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  Speaker 1: amenable to pragmatic diplomacy. This new leadership, facing economic isolation
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  Speaker 1: and reconstruction needs, has signaled openness to confidence building measures
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  Speaker 1: with Israel. The groundwork was laid earlier this year. In
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  Speaker 1: May twenty twenty five, Israel announced the retrieval of approximately
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  Speaker 1: twenty five hundred documents, photographs, and personal effects from Kohen's
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  Speaker 1: Syrian archive, including a poignant handwritten will scrawled hours before
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  Speaker 1: his execution, and audio recordings of his interrogations. That handover
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  Speaker 1: facilitated through back channel talks reportedly involving UAE intermediaries, marked
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  Speaker 1: the first major concession from Damascus on the Cohen file
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  Speaker 1: in a region still scarred by wars and proxy battles.
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  Speaker 1: This unverified but hopeful report underscores the fragile power of
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  Speaker 1: diplomacy to unearth the past, potentially paving the way for
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  Speaker 1: a future where old graves no longer divide neighbors. As
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  Speaker 1: details trickle out, the world watches will Eli Cohen finally
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  Speaker 1: come home or will this too slip into the fog
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  Speaker 1: of Middle Eastern intrigue. For now, the eucalyptus trees of
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  Speaker 1: the Goland stand as silent sentinels to his legacy, whispering
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  Speaker 1: of victories won through wit and sacrifice.