Yossi Cohen, former Mossad Chief

Inside the mind of Yossi Cohen: A Mossad chief’s adventures 

In conversations over the years, there were moments when Cohen left the Post speechless

There are still many things about former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen that The Jerusalem Post Magazine cannot reveal.

But after he published his book in September – The Sword of Freedom – bringing the world much deeper into his personal world and history, the Post can reveal a somewhat more inside picture of the ex-spy chief than has been conveyed to date.

Many top Israeli defense officials waffled over the years about whether they could physically stop the Iranians’ nuclear program.

For Cohen, Israel and the Mossad’s ability to stop the Islamic Republic’s march toward a nuclear bomb was never in question.

The former Mossad chief backed up his confidence with results when it came to combating Iran’s nuclear progress.

As he revealed to the Post in July, only weeks after the Iran war, much of the Mossad’s operations against Tehran had their forerunners during his term.

Another aspect of Cohen’s personality the Post saw firsthand is Cohen’s temper.

The former Mossad chief was a phenomenal recruiter.

In an early meeting with the Post, he made several cultural references to show how much he knew about the reporter’s lifestyle, encouraging a remarkable amount of positive motivation for the relationship from the start.

Cohen tries to mesmerize

But there is that inevitable point in any journalist-source relationship, where regardless of whether certain levels of friendship have been reached, reporters – in order to do their job – must ask unwanted questions.Suddenly, Cohen could turn on a dime from being your best friend to your scariest enemy, just as he explains he sometimes had to do as a handler of certain spies he was recruiting if they did not produce what he wanted or failed to follow the rules of spycraft in a way that could endanger all involved.

This anger was not reserved for the Post but also came out loud and clear against political officials.

Regarding policy the Mossad chief is a strong right-winger and has plenty of criticism for excessive judicial activism.

Cohen will say publicly that he has never committed to going into politics.

His tremendous talents as an intelligence agent and his natural charisma have not translated into forming anywhere near the concrete political power and leverage he would need.

New operational revelations

The intel chief had some fascinating new disclosures.

The three most important ones were the process of detecting where Iran was keeping its nuclear secrets hidden; that the operation was accelerated when the Mossad found out that Tehran was planning to move the materials to a different location; and that the operation was delayed for 24 hours by the commander on the ground, essentially overruling Cohen, who wanted to move ahead.

Regarding detecting where the materials were, Cohen identified sources involved in the movement of the materials to help identify, film, and follow shipping containers with the nuclear archives, surveillance of the trucks that were used to move the materials, intercepting communications, and spying on the sites from the sky and from street level.

Cohen’s said there was no one piece of intelligence but a sophisticated puzzle of many different ones.

The operation had to be replanned from scratch after the nuclear archives were moved.

Mossad also had to deal with guard dogs and their surveillance covered many nearby buildings to avoid any external force surprising them, besides just the facility’s immediate guards.

Cohen's book also has a variety of new details relating to the assassination in November 2020 of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s nuclear program founder.

How did Cohen evolve from being an academic student in London into a spymaster with a list of stunning accomplishments to his name?

Becoming a spy

In his account, Cohen details how, as a young man fresh out of the army, the Mossad initially made contact with him. He admits that he didn’t know at first what the agency saw in him, aside from his clear commitment to Israel – and that, as a potential recruit, it is impossible to determine with precision what traits you are being assessed for.

Still, the tests prospective cadets are put through, as confusing and incomprehensible as they may seem, are “designed to tease out a way of operational thinking.”

Cohen describes tasks he was given, from breaking into apartments to planting microphones in hotels, where things are supposed to go wrong. Under these conditions, where it is unclear what is or isn’t part of the assessment, you have to be clever, calm, self-sufficient, subtle, and quick enough on your feet to withstand the pressure designed to break your cover in order to succeed.

After being accepted as a Mossad cadet, those traits are stressed and tested even further during training. By the time you’re approved to work in the field, Cohen notes, you’ve proven that you can handle danger, interrogation, and physical stress.

Being able to perform under intense pressure was indispensable for him to work as a case officer in the field.

“Everything is a risk from the moment you take off from Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to the instant you plant your feet back on home soil,” Cohen writes.

During that time, to accomplish the mission, Mossad operatives have to adopt alternative roles that must be airtight. For an extended period of time, they cannot be themselves.

“Playing a different person is what you do for a living. You swap roles like an actor.” And just like in improv, where acting is reacting, the former Mossad chief notes that it is imperative for agents to not just be in control of their own emotions but to have a grasp on those of their targets as well.

As a case officer, one of Cohen’s primary areas of focus was human intelligence, or HUMINT, a field where a lot of the work is related to turning targets into assets.

Target courtship process

In order to accomplish this, a case officer must understand his target on a profound level; everything from his interests, likes and dislikes, to what motivates him in life. What follows is a sort of courtship process. The agent forms a relationship with the target that grows closer and closer, involving them bit by bit in the mission at hand. Ultimately, the target will understand that he is working with the Mossad.

It’s an inherently risky endeavor, and it’s not always successful. At the moment of truth, when the Mossad agent reveals who he is, the target may pull back.

Being a Mossad agent attempting to penetrate the ranks of groups like the IRGC, Hezbollah, or a Palestinian terror organization, the risks associated with failure are severe. It is a job rife with danger, but one on which Israel’s national security relies.

As an agent, Cohen emphasizes, you must know everything and trust no one. Writing about the international intelligence community, he puts the need for distrust succinctly: “If you are inside the Mossad, you are my colleague. If you are outside the organization, you are regarded as my enemy.”

On the other hand, while the agent must be the phantom in plain sight – the passenger on the Metro, the shopper in the mall, the stranger you see but don’t register or know anything about – it is also vital that the operative know everything, Cohen reiterates.

“We have a saying in intelligence circles that you don’t know what you don’t know, so you have to know everything, or know that you don’t know everything,” he writes, noting that when he was Mossad director, he lived by the tenet that ignorance was something inexcusable.

Cohen writes about a perception that those who want to harm Israel should have: “We are the Mossad. We know you. We know where you live. We know your apartment number. We know your car. We know your movements. We know what you are working on – so be aware.”

Cohen and his interactions with world leaders

Cohen details how, in his roles as Mossad director and national security adviser, as well as afterward, his position and expertise brought him in contact with a number of international leaders and security establishment officials.

Among those are former US presidents, as well as the current one. Cohen reveals that for President Donald Trump, whom he lauds throughout the book, he undertook a mission at his “personal request.” He doesn’t go into details about what the operation entailed, but he notes that it was approved by Netanyahu and that it was successful.

Cohen offers consistent praise for Trump, celebrating the American leader as an “unorthodox peacemaker” for his success in various peace deals, such as the signing of the Abraham Accords. He also applauds Trump’s decision to back out of the 2015 Iran deal.

In mentioning the other two American presidents he worked with, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Cohen refrains from criticism, but his praise is certainly less forthcoming.

With Obama, he describes a somewhat colder relationship than the one he had with the Trump administration.

He writes that in a 2015 conversation he had with Obama, Cohen warned the then-American president against the Iran Deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. In response to his warning, Cohen recalls, Obama told him, “Yossi, you are so wrong.”

In a nearly identical conversation with Trump the following year, he recalls that Trump told him, “You’re so right – it’s the worst deal ever.”

Cohen describes his relationship with president Biden as somewhere in between. He notes that he “unequivocally” views the former president as a friend of Israel, and adds that Biden frequently quoted David Ben-Gurion.

Additionally, the Biden administration, Cohen emphasizes, did support Israel, pointing to the THAAD antimissile battery the Americans sent following Iran’s 2024 missile attacks. Nevertheless, there were areas of discordance.

“So, we are best friends, but we may have disagreements,” Cohen recalls Biden telling him.

The former Mossad chief describes good relationships with other world leaders beyond Israel’s closest ally.

One of those is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), whose wisdom Cohen says he values. Notably, in a November interview with Fox News, Cohen predicted that the Saudis would “be in line” for negotiations for peace.

In the book, he writes, “I have great faith in MBS as a pivotal figure in the region. I have found him to be tough, but fair, perceptive, and pragmatic.”

Writing of an interaction with the Saudi leader, Cohen recounts, “I once asked him, at a pre-dawn meal, to expand on his solution to the Palestinian problem. ‘What is yours?’ he replied, with a knowing smile.”

The same practicality is a trait he says is mirrored in Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Cohen says that when he first met the Russian president at the Kremlin, he joked that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t need to introduce him to Putin because the Russian president already knew everything about Cohen – a reference to their shared intelligence background.

Putin laughed in response, Cohen writes, setting the tone for their professional relationship. Given their shared background, the former Mossad head notes, the Russian president referred to him as his kollega, his colleague.Having met with Putin a number of times, including in a couple of private meetings, Cohen likens him to a chess grandmaster, always thinking a number of moves ahead.

The former Mossad director presents a dual vision of Putin. On the one hand, Cohen assesses him as “a great listener” and skilled negotiator, thinker, and leader who is “far stronger and infinitely smarter” than his Ukrainian foe and counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

On the other hand, he slams Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “ruinous, nationalistic war.”

Overall, Cohen’s attitude toward Putin seems to be captured in recollections he shared from his days working with the Obama administration.

During one visit to the Obama White House after a meeting with Putin, he writes, then-national security adviser Susan Rice sourly asked him, “How are your Russian friends, Yossi?”

Cohen responded, “They are not my friends. I work with them to improve Israel’s defense.”

Like a tightrope walker

The former Mossad head acted like a tightrope walker, balancing his apparent professional admiration for his Russian “kollega” – and desire to not burn bridges with one of the most powerful world leaders – with a recognition that he is a leader who continually chooses to assault his neighbors – in part because he knows the world will not militarily force him to stop.

Between righteous condemnation and good-faith negotiation, Cohen writes, he chose the latter because ultimately, Russia is a critical player in the Middle East, particularly in Syria. Therefore, he emphasizes, Israel must be able to work with Moscow in order to secure its regional interests and meet its security requirements.

The former Mossad chief’s book is an adventure into the shadows of the clandestine services, a journey that shaped him and framed much of his future.

What new chapters he may write going forward are yet to be seen.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-881315