January 24 1965 – 21 Shevat 5725
Syria announced the capture of an Israeli spy, the legendary Eli Cohen. Born in Egypt, Cohen came to Israel in 1957 and joined the intelligence service, Aman, in 1960. He was sent to Argentina in 1961, under the assumed identity of an Arab businessman exiled from Syria. Mixing socially with the local Arab community, he befriended a number of well-connected Syrians, enabling him to collect enough information to pass as one of them. In 1962 he moved to Damascus in the guise of a Syrian coming home after many years abroad, and rented an apartment close to Syrian army headquarters. Close acquaintances he developed with senior army personnel allowed him to visit army bases and military installations all over the country, collecting information which he then passed on to Israel.
One of Cohen’s famous achievements was to suggest that Syrian soldiers in bunkers on the Golan Heights were in need of shade, as a result of which every Syrian position was marked by a clump of eucalyptus trees. This information was crucial to Israel during the 1967 assault on the Golan. Another of Cohen’s contributions was the fact that the Golan Heights were protected by not one, but three lines of defense. He also warned Israel of planned attacks on the National Water Carrier, and of a Syrian scheme to divert the waters of the Jordan at Banyas.
Cohen had actually been captured two weeks before the Syrians chose to disclose his arrest, when he broadcast to Israel at a time when, unknown to him, the Syrian military had imposed radio silence. His cover blown, Cohen was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. Eli Cohen was hanged in Damascus on May 18, 1965, 16 Iyar. Levi Eshkol, Israel’s prime minister during the Six Day War, paid tribute to Cohen: “His deeds saved [the lives of] many units of Israeli soldiers, and the information he passed prior to the war was priceless, and instrumental in Israel’s victory.”