cial and cultural life of the Syrian community of Buenos Aires and be-
came known as a wealthy businessman. Cohen had a reputation for in-
dulging in nightlife, and he made contacts through dinners, social occa-
sions, and friendships with senior figures. He soon became accepted,
well liked, and respected and befriended politicians, diplomats, and mil-
itary officials working out of the Syrian embassy. One of them was
Colonel Amin al-Hafez, a supporter of the secular-leftist Ba’ath party.
Soon he received invitations to visit Damascus and to set up a business
venture there and was promised backing in any such initiative. His suc-
cess in effectively penetrating the Syrian social and political/diplo-
matic/military strata far surpassed the MI’s greatest expectations.
At the end of 1961, Syria dissolved its fleeting three-year union
with Egypt. The Ba’ath Party was increasing in strength, and Cohen
wanted to be present when it actually took power. He arrived in Dam-
ascus in January 1962 as a businessman from Argentina returning
home. He nurtured contacts with the Ba’ath leadership, including his
earlier acquaintance, the former Syrian military attaché in Argentina,
General Amin al-Hafez. His lively social life included gatherings at
his own apartment, often attended by Syrian ministers and army gen-
erals, who talked freely of their work and of Syrian army plans. In
time Cohen gained the trust of the top Syrian echelons. He became a
confidant of George Saif, a senior official in the Syrian Ministry of
Information, where he was a frequent visitor and even had access to
classified documents.
By the time the Ba’ath Party took power in 1963, Cohen was
firmly entrenched in Syrian high society. Every few days he con-
veyed important information to his Israeli base via a radio transmit-
ter he had hidden in his room. Three times between 1962 and 1965
Cohen returned to Israel to speak with his Israeli handlers and to be
with his family. His wife Nadia knew that he was working for the
Ministry of Defense, but she did not know where or in what capacity.
She was told that he would be completely safe, and she believed that
he was until his capture in 1965.
Two senior Syrian army officers who were among Eli Cohen’s clos-
est friends informed him of the Syrian plan to divert the flow of the
Baniyas River, one of Israel’s main water sources. Early in 1964, Co-
hen transmitted the information to Israel that a canal was being dug
along the entire length of the Syrian Heights to receive the diverted64 • COHEN, ELI06-102 (02) A-G.qxd 3/24/06 7:23 AM Page 64