Our Man in Damascus
Our Man in DamascusIsrael news photo

The widow of Israeli spy Eli Cohen has hopes that her husband’s remains might receive an honorable burial in Israel if Assad is ousted.

“We are in contact with Israeli security officials and are following what is happening in Syria, and we hope an overthrow of the regime will be good for Syrians and also good for us,” Cohen’s wife Nadia told Arutz Sheva in an interview. “We pray that change in the government will bring an answer to our requests; I have never seen the gravesite of my husband. I do not know where he is buried but I will know in time.”

She spoke at a ceremony in Nazareth Illit where a defaced monument to Cohen was restored.

Eli Cohen is perhaps Israel’s best-known spy, and a memorial headstone has been erected in the Garden of the Missing Soldiers on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Born in Egypt, Cohen worked for Israeli intelligence in Syria, posing as a native, and developed close relationships with the political and military hierarchy in the 1960s until he was exposed and executed in Syria in 1965. He sent intelligence to Israel by radio, secret letters, and occasionally in person.