On May 18th, 1965, Eli Cohen, one of the most infamous spies in Israeli history, was executed. While undercover, he rose through the ranks of the Syrian government and was instrumental in gathering intel that would allow Israel to win the Six-Day War, which wouldn’t happen until two years after Cohen’s death. Cohen was born in Egypt in 1924 to Syrian-Jewish parents. In 1956, he traveled to Israel for the first time and underwent a short espionage-training course. He returned briefly to Egypt afterwards, but in 1957, in the wake of the Suez Crisis, he was expelled, along with the rest of the Egyptian Jews. In 1960, he was officially recruited to serve in Israeli intelligence. Cohen’s first assignment, in 1961, was in Buenos Aires. He posed as a Syrian businessman named Kamal Amin Thaabet and built relationships with the large Syrian community in Argentina, including officials in the Syrian embassy. In 1963, some of the people Cohen had become acquainted with in Argentina returned to Syria and seized the government’s power. After the coup, Cohen had new access to high levels of information about the Syrian military. He was invited to tour military bases and installations, particularly in the strategically important Golan Heights, which spanned Syria’s border with Israel. From the Golan Heights, the Syrian military was able to launch shells into Israel, striking civilian communities in the Galilee. Cohen’s preferred method to communicate with his handlers was to use frequent radio transmissions in Morse code. The handlers warned him that this was not secure but were unable to persuade him to use another method. Still, Cohen’s cover was so secure that he was promoted to being right under the Defense Minister of Syria. Then, in January 1965, Syrian counter-intelligence picked up Cohen’s radio signals; he was caught mid-transmission, arrested, taken into custody, tortured, and interrogated.Cohen was found guilty in a military tribunal and sentenced to be executed. Despite Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s plea for leniency, backed by Belgium, France, and Canada, Eli Cohen was hanged in Damascus on May 18, 1965. His execution was broadcast on Syrian television, and he was covered in cloth with anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric. His body was left hanging in the city square for six hours afterward. Cohen’s body was never recovered, and rumors about its whereabouts have circulated throughout the years, although none of them were ever validated. The Israeli government has never commented on these allegations.