Eli Cohen
28
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 28 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Eli Cohen".
Sep 24, 2026
Herman PoppleberryHOST
And the cross-pollination is real, which is what makes the management necessary.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
The same officer I quoted, Cohen, describes a unit that shares data internally across the IDF and externally with Mossad.
CornHOST
So the fame gap is structural, not a measure of importance.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Peter Roberts at RUSE 2015 said Unit 8200 is probably the foremost technical intelligence agency in the world and stands on a par with the NSA in everything except scale.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Ammon doing military intelligence, warning of war, estimating enemy means, target identification.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
They tell you a lot.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
At one point, there were only a handful of military liaison officers working with the CIA.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Today, there are hundreds of uniformed personnel, active, guard and reserve, serving in the building.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Please verify facts.
CornHOST
Daniel's been turning over the Eli Cohen story since the Netflix series, and he's landed on something that's been nagging at him.
CornHOST
The documentary gives you the legend, the man in Damascus, the parties, the eucalyptus trees on the Golan.
CornHOST
But what actually killed Cohen, the mechanism, the counter-surveillance, gets maybe ninety seconds of screen time.
14 MINS LATER
Herman PoppleberryHOST
And the story they told the world became the story Israel eventually adopted.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
That's the strange part.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Nachman Tepper's book is called Eli Cohen Open Case, and it's based on Syrian intelligence documents and the testimony of the officer who led the raid.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
He's not some fringe theorist.
Philip KurataGUEST
And it takes it.
Philip KurataGUEST
up to 1965, when Eli Cohen was executed by the Syrians.
Chris VossHOST
All right.
Chris VossHOST
And so you decide you want to tell this story.
Chris VossHOST
Yeah, lots of fun.
Chris VossHOST
The beginning of the never-ending Arab-Israeli conflict.
Chris VossHOST
What sort of man was this Eli Cohen that you write about? Tell us a little bit more about maybe his character, his motivations, what maybe drove him as a person.
Philip KurataGUEST
First of all, he was a brilliant man.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
Language and cultural knowledge are crucial.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
One classic spy that we know throughout history is Eli Cohen.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
And finally, spying carries a profound human cost.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
And this is where I want to go with this.
Emmett HirschGUEST
Well, yes.
Emmett HirschGUEST
And in my fantasy, they say, why did you reveal these secrets that we've been keeping all these years? That's what I would love to have happen.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
To give a bit of a profile to some of the work that Israelis have done as spies, Eli Cohen comes to mind, our man in Damascus.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
He poses a Syrian businessman, Kamil Amin Thabat.
Emmett HirschGUEST
And in my fantasy, they say, why did you reveal these secrets that we've been keeping all these years? You know, that's what I would love to have happen.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
To give a bit of a profile to some of the work that Israelis have done as spies, Eli Cohen comes to mind, our man in Damascus.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
He posed as a Syrian businessman, Kamil Amin Thabat.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
Cohen penetrated serious political and military leadership.
Emmett HirschGUEST
These all appear in Bergman's book, all these characters that you're mentioning.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
Very good.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
So what you were doing by creating Joseph Freeman, a fiction character, is in essence bringing to the fore of the reader the beauty, if you will, the danger of of being a spy in israel individuals who decided that they were going to give of their life if necessary to protect the state of israel it's really beautiful what you've done you send in your book joseph back into lebanon and again we don't want to give it away because it's fascinating to read And while he was there, he did what Eli Cohen did, which was that he rose up in the ranks of society and became an important business person with much respect from all aspects of society, including political, military, and so on.
Avrum RosenzweigHOST
Was Joseph at all built around Eli Cohen's history and his experiences? David
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
But a six day war, again, it was a war that really we shouldn't have won.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
But we did have some intelligence, and that was this famous spy, Eli Cohen.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
He was an Israeli.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
His family had immigrated from Syria.
1 HR 11 MINS LATER
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
And remember, they were backed by the Russians.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
They had Russian equipment, night vision, surveillance.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
This is actually how Israel's spy, Eli Cohen, was found.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
So, yeah, they were well-advanced.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
But a six-day war, again, it was a war that really we shouldn't have won.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
But we did have some intelligence, and that was this famous spy, Eli Cohen.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
uh the the he was in israeli um his family had immigrated from uh syria no not syria uh iraq they were iraqi jews that were expelled they came to live in israel he spoke perfect arabic So he was recruited by the Mossad.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
And he was sent into places like Syria.
1 HR 10 MINS LATER
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
And remember, they were backed by the Russians.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
They had Russian equipment, night vision, surveillance.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
This is actually how Israel's spy, Eli Cohen, was found.
Aaron LavarcoGUEST
So, yeah, they were well-advanced.