Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:11and that he was only
00:00:16about his story.
00:00:29episode in a series
00:00:35How did you meet Tahin? To
00:00:38imagine that this will Rossello? It was a coincidence. I took him to Rossello's house.
00:00:42Only.
00:00:47in the Egyptian army. And what did you do there? We talked about Eichmann's
00:00:50case.
00:00:53and comes to gossip, insults And what do you know about not have more information than
00:00:54meaning he is
00:00:55that officer, insults Eichmann? He was responsible for crimes
00:00:58committed against Jews.
00:01:00to this myth. Even from And Israel
00:01:01arrested him.
00:01:08who wrote with a kind be composed of combining many Cohen told me that Syria? Don't he was interested in finding other assistants for Eichmann who live here in
00:01:11Damascus. And what is Rossello's connection
00:01:15to the matter? No, he is a German living in
00:01:19Damascus. He is a good person, nothing more, nothing
00:01:22less. And did you know that his real name is Rad
00:01:26Maichr and that he was a former Nazi officer?
00:01:30No, never,
00:01:32case. The sir.
00:01:34Mr. Cohen,
00:01:36was born in tell me now, were you looking for Louis
00:01:40Brunner in Damascus or were you looking for
00:01:43something else?
00:01:48moved to live in
00:02:10May 11th, 1960,
00:02:12Mossad launched a secret operation in Buenos
00:02:16Aires. The goal was to bring the most
00:02:19wanted Nazi alive.
00:02:23Adolf Eichmann,
00:02:30head of the Nazi SS
00:02:34of his acquaintances from the Syrian officers organization, responsible for the extermination of thousands of Jews during
00:02:37World War
00:02:38II.
00:02:47The group arrived in Argentina, and after
00:02:51surveillance and investigation, the bird entered
00:02:54the cage.
00:02:59And Eichmann was in the hands of the Mossad, and then they flew
00:03:03with their precious catch to Tel
00:03:06them for decades, Aviv. the Syrian who lives abroad
00:03:12realized who sent this The operation had a terrifying impact on those involved Nazis, especially
00:03:16since Israel had prepared a list to pursue
00:03:21from Buenos Aires and bring them in. At the top of the
00:03:24Nazi list was a mysterious name. The
00:03:27Mossad followed him for more than four
00:03:30decades continuously. Lois Brunner, Eichmann's
00:03:34assistant and right hand, the Nazi
00:03:36officer who managed to escape from all
00:03:40of a special unit in his pursuers. In the early sixties,
00:03:43all information reaching Israel indicated
00:03:48places around the world. that Brunner was now hiding in
00:03:49Damascus.
00:03:59Thank God and with His help. And with His help, the
00:04:02United Arab
00:04:05where there is a large community of Republic
00:04:05was established
00:04:11today. At the same time, the Mossad was preparing to carry out
00:04:14a secret operation that would begin
00:04:17shortly, especially after Nasser succeeded
00:04:20in annexing Syria to Egypt. Therefore, the
00:04:24Mossad decided to send a spy with special
00:04:27specifications who would infiltrate the United Arab
00:04:30Republic.
00:04:38greater than their The Mossad began working on recruiting a new Jewish Arab spy
00:04:41who had just arrived in Israel from
00:04:44Egypt. He was from the city of
00:04:47Alexandria, where he was born and raised.
00:04:51His name is Eliyahu Cohen,
00:04:54the spy who would be known as Eli Cohen,
00:04:58The spy started the Mossad spy. The most famous in its history
00:05:01will embark on
00:05:04he met in a secret mission to
00:05:05Damascus.
00:05:09And who soon introduced him to He was the only
00:05:12Israeli who was caught as a spy
00:05:16and executed. This means that he is one of a kind
00:05:19and has a heroic case
00:05:23many legends are told
00:05:28So I think it's
00:05:30difficult to make a
00:05:34real judgment, especially with the gap between
00:05:36legend and reality, unless
00:05:40it is available, and it will probably not be available.
00:05:44Documented evidence from both sides.
00:05:47And it is difficult to
00:05:50happen anytime
00:05:52soon.
00:05:58He continued Eli Cohen is a purely
00:06:01Israeli operation, meaning he was made a superhero and special,
00:06:07unique. Of course, many factors contributed
00:06:12the Syrian side,
00:06:15they made him a legend, meaning he was a very dangerous spy
00:06:18and that the Syrian intelligence managed to finally arrest
00:06:22him. The truth is, of course, they arrested him, and this is
00:06:25an achievement for the Syrian security services at
00:06:28that time, but if we put Eli Cohen
00:06:31in his true size, we will see that he is just
00:06:35a spy below average,
00:06:39even a failed spy.
00:06:44Eli Cohen, a handsome young man in his thirties,
00:06:49Alexandria in
00:06:501924.
00:06:54An Egyptian Jew whose family originates from
00:06:57Aleppo, but they
00:07:00Alexandria before immigrating to
00:07:03Israel.
00:07:09In Egypt, Eliyahu or Eli
00:07:12was involved in secret Jewish activities for the benefit
00:07:15of Zionism, as he was responsible for smuggling
00:07:19Egyptian Jewish families to Israel. In the
00:07:22mid-fifties, Cohen's name
00:07:25was mentioned in the investigations of the Egyptian authorities in
00:07:29the Lavon affair, or what was known at the time as the
00:07:32Pinhas Lavon scandal. A
00:07:35Jewish cell in Egypt sought to carry out bombings in
00:07:38government and foreign institutions.
00:07:44But it was soon discovered and a number
00:07:47of involved Jews were arrested, including Eli
00:07:51Cohen. But he emerged from the case without
00:07:55any conviction due to the weakness
00:07:56of the evidence.
00:08:02In 1957,
00:08:05Cohen immigrated to Israel to begin
00:08:08a new phase of his life.
00:08:11It was very different from what an Arab Jew had envisioned
00:08:15in his imagination, as Israel was not the Promised
00:08:18Land they longed for in
00:08:20their imagination.
00:08:25After a period, Cohen married an Iraqi
00:08:28Jewish nurse, Mrs. Nadia
00:08:31Michael, the woman who would soon become one of
00:08:35Israel's most famous women because
00:08:37of her husband, who did not know that she was related
00:08:41to the world's most famous spies, or that
00:08:44her husband would soon embark on a journey
00:08:47of no return to
00:08:48Damascus.
00:08:55I know you are looking for work, and I want to offer
00:08:58you a proposal. It is an interesting
00:09:01job. You will travel a lot.
00:09:05I just got married and I don't want
00:09:07to travel. I can translate for you what
00:09:11they are saying.
00:09:16We will pay you two hundred dollars and we will train
00:09:20you for six months. After that, you can
00:09:22stay or leave.
00:09:34I don't think he joined them like that since
00:09:37the first day he arrived in
00:09:39Israel. They placed him.
00:09:46I don't know exactly how the recruitment happened, but
00:09:49the Mossad provided us with a secret
00:09:52document dated February
00:09:5613,
00:09:571957.
00:10:04That is, five days after his arrival in
00:10:07Israel, Eli had submitted
00:10:11an eight-page resume in French
00:10:14and detailed what happened
00:10:18to him in Egypt, specifically about his connection
00:10:21to the Lavon affair, and then he wrote
00:10:24the languages he knew
00:10:25and mastered.
00:10:33And there were about seven
00:10:35languages.
00:10:41At the end of the document, he volunteered to undertake
00:10:44an intelligence mission in any Arab
00:10:47country. And he signed
00:10:51his application afterwards. Two years later,
00:10:55it was decided to send him on a mission
00:10:57to Syria.
00:11:04A security report issued by the Mossad after Cohen's
00:11:07execution states that Eli had applied for Mossad exams
00:11:11seeking a job, but after
00:11:13some tests, it was found that he was excessively
00:11:17confident to the point of risk-taking, so he was
00:11:20excluded.
00:11:27Meir Amid, director of the Mossad at that
00:11:30time, was leading networks of agents in
00:11:34his Arab surroundings. He was looking for an agent
00:11:38with specific specifications, but he did not find
00:11:41a suitable person, so he had to search the files
00:11:44of rejected agents,
00:11:46and he found Eli Cohen, who was the only
00:11:50option for him.
00:12:10After settling in Damascus, Brunner changed his appearance,
00:12:14as well as his name. He became
00:12:18Dr. George Fischer.
00:12:20Brunner was not the only Nazi who fled to
00:12:23Damascus. Rather, it was a coherent group
00:12:27that went to Egypt and then finally settled in Damascus.
00:12:40I am older than you and know life better than you. There is no
00:12:44other way out. They brought him to
00:12:46Israel.
00:12:50But maybe we can free him. Are you
00:12:53crazy? From inside an Israeli
00:12:56prison?
00:12:58Who knows? We have to stay here until things
00:13:02calm down.
00:13:06That man was named Franz Radi Macher, a Nazi
00:13:10officer who preceded Brunner to Damascus. Rad Macher
00:13:13headed the Jewish Affairs Office in the German
00:13:17Foreign Ministry during Hitler's time.
00:13:21All these Nazis had found a safe haven
00:13:24in Syria. Security reports indicate that the Syrian
00:13:27security services hosted
00:13:31as their security expertise was highly
00:13:34valued and appreciated.
00:13:38Eli Cohen's main mission
00:13:42was to provide periodic reports
00:13:45on military intelligence.
00:13:48However, in the hierarchy of missions,
00:13:51the mission of searching for or tracking Nazi criminals
00:13:55was in the fifth or
00:13:57sixth place,
00:14:01because that was the responsibility
00:14:05the Mossad, which is responsible for tracking
00:14:08Nazi criminals who hid in various
00:14:25Syria was under Nasser's leadership during the unity
00:14:28period, and the Arabs had decided to divert the waters of the Jordan
00:14:31River, which raised alarm bells in Tel Aviv.
00:14:48Pay attention, we will send you to an Arab country
00:14:51to carry out a secret mission. You must establish
00:14:55local connections. You will get Syrian
00:14:58citizen
00:15:02documents. Why did they give
00:15:05me Egyptian documents? I know everything
00:15:07about them.
00:15:11Impossible, you have a security file with the Egyptians.
00:15:29I asked myself a hundred times, was Eliyahu
00:15:33the right person? Can
00:15:35he do what I want?
00:15:38I wasn't entirely sure. I showed
00:15:41him that he had my
00:15:43trust, and I didn't want to think
00:15:48one step away from an unknown
00:15:51fate. Nevertheless, we proceeded with the mission. And you
00:16:11also have
00:16:14special operations, people you recruit
00:16:17and information that arrives successively. The overall
00:16:21picture of intelligence is that it relies on sources. You
00:16:25cannot rely on rumors. Therefore, you will need
00:16:28spies. Spies are the crown
00:16:32jewel, the most reliable ones. They receive their information from
00:16:35other people, and that's
00:16:38why the complete intelligence picture must
00:16:42things. You must have a bit of everything.
00:16:46We needed to get close to the state leaders, as Eli
00:16:50Cohen did. You will hear what they are talking about, and all this
00:16:54gives you the picture. And if you are looking for someone for a mission,
00:16:57you will choose them carefully to withstand the enormous
00:17:00pressures.
00:17:09The secret mission in Damascus was and
00:17:12still is an unsolved enigma, as some
00:17:16reports indicated that it was not a specific
00:17:19mission, but rather a set of objectives, including discovering the
00:17:23Syrian internal situation during the unity
00:17:27period, in addition to Israel's
00:17:29desire to obtain more information about the diversion
00:17:33of the Jordan River's water. However,
00:17:36one report, which was issued after Cohen's execution,
00:17:39stated that one of his missions, at a certain stage,
00:17:42was to monitor Nazi officers hiding
00:17:45in
00:17:46Syria.
00:17:56Okay, your full name and your father's name are
00:17:59Amin Thabet. Your mother is Said
00:18:02Ibrahim. Your parents are Syrians and you have a sister
00:18:05who was born in Beirut, then your family left for Lebanon.
00:18:09Remember your Syrian family. And after
00:18:13years, you immigrated to Argentina, specifically in
00:18:171947.
00:18:20In 1956, your father passed away.
00:18:23And six months later, your
00:18:26mother passed away, then you lived alone.
00:18:29But you entered the business field and achieved
00:18:32great success. Remember, you are
00:18:36Kamal Amin Thabet,
00:18:39and wishes to return to his homeland.
00:18:54The first phase of the operation will begin
00:18:58in Argentina. It is currently the shortest way to Damascus.
00:19:02There is a large Syrian and Lebanese
00:19:06community there. One of our men
00:19:09will be waiting for you there and will give you new
00:19:12identification documents. He will take care
00:19:15of everything.
00:19:18We do not know the full details of how
00:19:21he was trained. However, it is certain that it
00:19:23involved him living for a certain period
00:19:26under a false identity. This was
00:19:30in northern Israel, in the Galilee region,
00:19:32specifically. Where he lived with a family of Syrian
00:19:36origin. After that, he went
00:19:38to Argentina,
00:19:42Syrian and Lebanese immigrants.
00:19:46He built a good network of friendships
00:19:48there. All
00:19:51of that was the basis for moving
00:19:54eventually to
00:19:57Damascus.
00:20:05In late 1900
00:20:08in Buenos Aires, Cohen began to find
00:20:12his way towards the Arabs, as he managed to infiltrate the world
00:20:15of Syrian immigrants, introducing himself as the expatriate
00:20:19businessman, Mr. Kamal Amin
00:20:21Thabet.
00:20:26Cohen soon became acquainted with Abdul Latif Al-Khashan,
00:20:29one of the most prominent Syrian figures in Buenos Aires.
00:20:33Al-Khashan was an important key and a link between Argentina and Syria.
00:20:38He knew a lot about politics
00:20:40and politicians.
00:20:44Al-Khashan quickly admired Kamal Amin Thabet and his vision
00:20:47for the future of Syria,
00:20:50who spoke to him about a strong desire to return to
00:20:53the homeland.
00:20:58After several months of his arrival in Argentina, on
00:21:01September 28, 1961,
00:21:05the Syrian side announced its secession from
00:21:08Egypt, as the Syrian Colonel Abdul Karim
00:21:11Al-Nahlawi led a coup against Nasser.
00:21:15The time of secession was the right moment and the loophole
00:21:18through which he infiltrated
00:21:20Syria.
00:21:30By early 1962, everything was
00:21:33ready, and Cohen was one step away from
00:21:37Damascus, then zero hour
00:21:40arrived.
00:21:45You have one last stop in Munich.
00:21:48We will send some with you. How will I cross with it into
00:21:53worry, we have arranged everything. You will go
00:21:57from Genoa to Beirut. And on board
00:22:00the ship, one of our men will be waiting for you.
00:22:03He will help you cross the border between Lebanon and Syria.
00:22:16He is Majed Sheikh Al-Ard. One of the mysteries in the Cohen
00:22:22Mossad had to find an escort and support for Cohen during
00:22:25his journey, so Majed Sheikh Al-Ard was
00:22:28the one who remained close to Cohen throughout three years in
00:22:31Damascus. He only left him when each
00:22:34of them was put in a separate cell,
00:22:37according
00:22:42to security reports in the Cohen case, Majed Sheikh
00:22:46Al-Ard was a Syrian businessman. He married
00:22:50an Egyptian Jewish woman, and during the
00:22:53war years, he lived in Nazi Germany,
00:22:56which made him a greedy
00:22:59partner, which attracted Israeli
00:23:02intelligence, so they made him a close
00:23:04man.
00:23:10The ship carried both Cohen and Majed until
00:23:14they reached Lebanon, and from there they set off to the Syrian
00:23:18border. Here,
00:23:20Majed had an appointment with one
00:23:24at the border, who would facilitate the passage
00:23:27of the two men. Indeed, Cohen crossed the Syrian
00:23:30border with ease, and within
00:23:33hours, he was in the heart of Damascus.
00:23:51In the middle of Damascus, in the Abu Rummanah neighborhood, he chose a luxurious
00:23:55house that overlooked the presidential guesthouse.
00:24:34And from the center of Damascus, Eliyahu sent the first whispered
00:24:38sound after arriving safely.
00:24:40A two-digit code
00:24:43only. 88.
00:24:47And it means, I found a house to live in
00:24:50in Damascus. Then the mission began.
00:25:11The situation in Damascus was fragile, and Syrians
00:25:14needed any support, no matter how
00:25:16small. Syria during the secession
00:25:20was suffering from a difficult situation as a result of the unity
00:25:22with Egypt, and the Syrians' fear of Nasser
00:25:26and his return was
00:25:28fear of the Israelis. All of
00:25:31that paved the way for Kamal Amin Thabet's mission,
00:25:35the nationalist millionaire returning
00:25:37home, who was considered the
00:25:40right man at the
00:25:41right time.
00:25:48working. He was from Kamal
00:25:52Al-Khashan's son, the person
00:25:54Argentina.
00:25:59the young officer Maadi Zahr El-Din.
00:26:03The nephew of the Syrian Army Chief of Staff, Abdul
00:26:06Karim Zahr El-Din.
00:26:10And every day he secretly sent his information to
00:26:14his superiors in Tel
00:26:15Aviv.
00:26:18Historians
00:26:21believe that this was the deepest
00:26:25military infiltration that Eli Cohen managed, while
00:26:28some believe that it was only the first
00:26:31of infiltrations that came
00:26:33after that.
00:26:37The officer, First Lieutenant Maath Zahr El-Din, a First Lieutenant in the Syrian
00:26:41Army. What information could he have? Like
00:26:44a corporal today in the Syrian army itself or
00:26:49Junior officers do
00:26:52gossip. He hears a story
00:26:57the commander. His sources were very limited. I mean, okay,
00:27:01gossip, from which Eli Cohen extracted a lot
00:27:04of information, but my assessment
00:27:08and the assessment of others, in fact,
00:27:11of impartiality or objectivity about Eli
00:27:14Cohen, is that the information was not enormous because he was not
00:27:18organized at all. Senior officers had not become
00:27:22agents for him, the senior
00:27:23officers.
00:27:50who was an important source for Cohen due to his
00:27:54journalistic relations with regime
00:27:56circles. The paradox is that George
00:27:59Seif personally hosted Cohen more than once
00:28:03on Damascus radio.
00:28:19What were Cohen's information sources in Damascus? According to all
00:28:22his biographies, whether Syrian or Israeli, or those who
00:28:25wrote in another way, his information source
00:28:29was a civil servant in the Syrian Ministry of Information named Al-Sali. He
00:28:32used to give daily what is called
00:28:35newspaper summaries, a daily journalistic report from which
00:28:39Eli Cohen selected some news and sent it to
00:28:42Israel. And what alerted the Syrian
00:28:45authorities that there is a spy in Damascus,
00:28:49and then Muhammad Imran resigned, who was one of the senior
00:28:52Syrian leaders at that time. Of course, the Syrian leadership has a way
00:28:56of broadcasting its news. It delays the announcement of the resignation
00:28:59for certain arrangements, two, three days, a week, and so on.
00:29:03The news reached him through George Sali, who broadcast
00:29:06it to Israel. The next day, the news appeared on Israeli
00:29:09radio in Arabic. Here the Syrian
00:29:14news to Israel. That means there is an agent
00:29:17for them, a spy. And this news is not
00:29:21important because if it is not broadcast today, it will be broadcast in a few
00:29:25days, meaning it will become free. And this is a sign of lack
00:29:28of professionalism. If you are professional, you do not arouse
00:29:31suspicion in the enemy with such
00:29:34news that is not of paramount importance or of
00:29:38high importance.
00:29:41Months later, Syria was one step
00:29:44away from a more mysterious
00:29:47future. The March
00:29:498, 1963 coup, which brought the Ba'ath Party to
00:29:53power.
00:30:00The Ba'ath and Cohen.
00:30:02A relationship shrouded in mystery
00:30:04to this day.
00:30:07While some reports indicate that he was close to the new
00:30:11rulers of Syria, the Ba'athists deny that relationship
00:30:14completely. I mean, the Ba'ath Party issue,
00:30:18I was at that time a member of the Damascus
00:30:21branch leadership at that time, and I have been accompanying the party
00:30:25experience since its birth in Damascus after the era
00:30:29of unity in the process of re-establishing the party.
00:30:33And no one entered the party except those
00:30:36who are known to us. At the same time, no
00:30:39sane person can believe
00:30:42that it is possible to join the party with such simplicity,
00:30:45because he has to go through long stages. First,
00:30:49he must be a supporter, then a sympathizer, then an active member,
00:30:52then he enters party conferences until he rises
00:30:55and becomes a party member. And what is the relationship
00:30:59between this person