Israel negotiating with Syrian rebels for spy Eli Cohen's remains
Israel is negotiating with Syrian rebels to
obtain the remains of Eli Cohen HY"D (May God Avenge his blood), an Israeli spy who was executed in the 1960's. Information provided by Cohen enabled Israel to liberate the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War.
The Pan-Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi
on Monday published a story on its website claiming that Israel is
having secret contacts with the Syrian rebels in order to search for the
remains of executed Israeli spy Eli Cohen as well as to secure the
Golan Heights.
Eli Cohen is known as one of Israel's greatest
spies, who infiltrated the highest levels of the Syrian government in
the 1960s and was publicly hanged in Damascus in 1965.
Cohen was
sent to Syria disguised as Kamel Amin Thaabet, a Syrian who decided to
return to his homeland after spending many years in Argentina.
Upon
his arrival to Damascus in 1962, Cohen - disguised as Thaabet - quickly
rose to prominence as a tour operator and businessman, gaining the
friendship and trust of many officials in the Syrian elite. Throughout
the next four years, he would regularly correspond with his handlers in
Israel, passing information that contributed to the IDF's victory in the
Six-Day War.
In 1965, Cohen was caught in the act of
transmitting information to Israel. He was tried and found guilty of
espionage, and hanged publicly in May of that year.
According to Al Quds Al Arabi, Israel, with the cooperation of Jordan, also is laying the groundwork for a possible Israeli-American operation in Syria.
In the past, the release of Cohen's remains was discussed as a
goodwill gesture for future negotiations between Israel and Syria, although the Assad regime has claimed that a
shopping mall was built atop Cohen's remains. Israel has also
offered money to secure Cohen's remains' return.
Hmmm.
Labels: confidence building, Eli Cohen, Golan Heights, Six Day War, Syria, Syrian uprising
Syria claims Eli Cohen's grave is 'inaccessible'
Approximately six weeks ago, a Syrian-born American citizen named Ibrahim Suleiman - who is ostensibly close to the Assad family - addressed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and claimed that Bashar al-Assad wishes to make 'peace' with Israel. The Syrian news agency SANA promptly
denied the accuracy of Suleiman's report. Today, there is another indication that Suleiman was naive at best and a fraud at worst.
When discussing 'confidence building' measures between Israel and Syria, the one item that always comes up is for the Syrians to return the body of
Eli Cohen HY"D. Cohen, who was executed by the Syrians in 1965 for spying for Israel, spent three years as a Mossad agent in which he penetrated the inner reaches of the Syrian government. Information supplied by Cohen is credited with enabling Israel to liberate the Golan Heights in the 1967 War, forty years ago at the end of this week (on the Jewish calendar). For example, during Suleiman's appearance in the Knesset, the
following exchange took place:
Committee members suggested Syria stop smuggling arms to Hezbollah, cool ties with Iran or initiate 'even something that does not have strategic significance such as return the remains of Eli Cohen,' suggested committee chairman Tzahi Hanegbi. Cohen was an Israeli spy hanged in Damascus in 1965.
'Syria is at war with Israel, theoretically. Why do you expect Syria to do anything to help Israel if you don`t answer (its initiative)?' asked Soliman.
'In the Middle East you don`t give your cards before you feel an indication the other side is ready to give its cards,' added Liel [a former director general of the Israeli foreign ministry. CiJ].
Olmert would not meet Soliman, and a scheduled dinner with a senior Foreign Ministry official was canceled.
'Why do we have to meet him?' asked Olmert`s media adviser Miri Eisin. The Syrians 'don`t want peace. They want the peace process,' she said. The Foreign Ministry said dinner would have been 'inadequate.'
However, Hanegbi felt Soliman did have 'very direct and very intimate contacts and access to the Syrian leadership, including the Syrian president, and before that also with the president`s father,' President Hafez Assad.
Soliman would not identify the Syrian officials to whom he reported after every meeting with Liel.
'I have friends in Syria, high official friends. ... We got advice,' he said.
Today, there's word that there's another reason why the Syrians won't return Eli Cohen's body back to Israel, and it has nothing to do with him being a spy. One also has to wonder
whether Suleiman was aware of it:
Syria has erected buildings and created a park over the grave of Eli Cohen, a Mossad agent who was murdered 42 years ago in Damascus after being exposed as an Israeli spy, a former Syrian bureau chief said on Monday.
"He is buried in the area of al-Maza in Damascus, and over his grave are houses, roads, and parks," Monjer Motsley, who worked with former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, said in an interview with the al-Arabia internet site. "Nobody is able to reach him."
Some of you may recall that there is a controversy here in Jerusalem (yes, it's still going on although it has not been widely reported in the press recently) over
building a museum atop portions of
what was a Muslim cemetery until it was
declared abandoned more than
forty years ago. I wonder what the Wakf and the Islamic Movement - Northern Front (which are behind that controversy) would have to say about this. At least in the Jerusalem case, the graves are to be relocated or construction will not take place directly on top of them. But no, I don't expect the Wakf or the Islamic Movement to say anything about Eli Cohen. After all, he was just a kuffar spy.
Labels: confidence building, Eli Cohen, Israel, Syria
