Exactly 50 years ago, Syria executed Israeli spy Eli Cohen. He was hanged at Marjeh Square in central Damascus. Cohen had been in Syria for the better part of the last three years of his life, living under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet. Pretending to be a Muslim businessman, he managed to forge close ties with high-ranking officials in the Syrian military and political establishment. This made him an invaluable intelligence asset. The copious amounts of data he transmitted helped Israel emerge victorious in the Six-Day War in 1967. With superb social skills, Cohen awed his surroundings by his mere presence. He managed to win over senior members of the ruling Ba'ath Party and the Syrian general staff. Even the Syrian military's chief of staff and the Syrian president respected him. But over time, the Syrian government began suspecting that state secrets were being compromised. Following a Syrian counterintelligence investigation, Cohen was discovered secretly transmitting information to Israel. He was subsequently put before a military tribunal and executed. Cohen's death marked the end of an era in the evolution of Israel's intelligence community. That era has its roots in pre-state Israel, when Jews were dispatched to Arab countries under aliases. These spies were considered combatants and their "tour of duty" could extend to several years, during which they would live in the midst of a hostile and dangerous community. They would lead a double life, forge ties with a variety of people in the upper echelons of power, all the while collecting information that would prove vital to the Zionist movement and, later, Israel. Cohen's execution and the arrest of other agents during that era convinced Israeli leaders to focus more on technology and less on human intelligence, at least when it came to Arab countries. The strategic surprise of the 1973 Yom Kippur War had Israeli intelligence chiefs sparring over the measures taken in the run-up to the war. The debate, which is still ongoing, centers on whether Israel activated the intelligence tools known as the "special means of collection" that would have allowed a more accurate intelligence assessment (according to foreign sources, these "means" involved advanced listening devices that penetrated the very heart of the Egyptian regime). Today's intelligence gathering relies mainly on technology that includes observations from afar, satellite imagery, online data-mining and cyber intelligence. There are a variety of options to choose from and their sophistication would put James Bond to shame. But this technology has only one drawback. While it is instrumental in uncovering facts and data, it cannot relay back what goes on in the mind of any specific individual: his plans, his aspirations, his feelings and senses, all of which have immense influence on humans. To get a sense of what someone thinks, you have be close to that person and earn their trust. Thus, despite their technological prowess, intelligence agencies are duty-bound to preserve their human intelligence (HUMINT) capabilities. Back in the day, governments would send spies to quietly build ties with their surroundings, spending days on end at smoke-filled caf s. "Classic espionage" is still very much relevant, despite what some would say. The fact of the matter is that human intelligence can come in handy precisely where technology falls short. The U.S. learned this the hard way in Iraq, in northern Syria, and most recently, in Yemen. Only a combination of trailblazing technology and people who are willing to risk their lives in far-flung and dangerous territories will ensure Israel's continued success as an intelligence superpower. Israel's very existence relies on such information.
Prof. Shlomo Shpiro is the chairman of Bar-Ilan University's Political Studies Department and a fellow at the Begin-Sadat For Strategic Studies.
In defense of classic espionage
מערכת ישראל היום
מערכת "ישראל היום“ מפיקה ומעדכנת תכנים חדשותיים, מבזקים ופרשנויות לאורך כל שעות היממה. התוכן נערך בקפדנות, נבדק עובדתית ומוגש לציבור מתוך האמונה שהקוראים ראויים לעיתונות טובה יותר - אמינה, אובייקטיבית ועניינית.
