(Photo Credit: Reuters)
By: Daniel Sonnenfeld/The Media Line - February 26, 2021
Russian news giant RT recently released a video it says shows Eli Cohen, the famous Israeli spy, walking in a Damascus street. The video, unclear and no more than a few seconds in length, has generated headlines throughout the region, both in Arabic and in Hebrew. Experts attribute the interest to Cohen’s legendary status and recent Russian efforts to try and facilitate a normalization agreement between the two enemy countries.
This story is one that could easily have found its way to the pages of a thriller novel. An Israeli agent, born and raised in Egypt, infiltrates the highest strata of Syrian political and military leadership at the height of animosity between the countries. Using his connections, he visits military bases and outposts, gathering information that former Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol later said “saved Israel many brigades” during the 1967 war, and brought victory to the small country.
While it may seem beyond the limits of imagination, this is exactly the story of Eli Cohen, an Israeli intelligence agent who was later caught, tried and hanged in a Damascus square. And despite the decades that have passed, his memory continues to be strongly present in the region.
Read More: Jerusalem Post