The cunning and derring-do of Israel’s Mossad is the stuff of legends – and Hollywood blockbusters – from the infiltration of the highest levels of the Syrian government and the abduction of Adolf Eichmann from Argentina to the systematic elimination of the murderers of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games and the recent exploding pager coup that crippled Hezbollah operations in Lebanon.
More importantly, those exploits have provided Israel a critical bulwark against its enemies that we have glimpsed from news reports and films but rarely heard about from an insider.
Until now.
For more than forty years, Yossi Cohen served as a critical asset in the defense shield that is Mossad, first as a case officer, then as head of the division that recruits and runs foreign agents, as deputy director and, finally, as Mossad’s director. In the latter capacity, he oversaw the operations that resulted in the recent successes against Hezbollah, Mossad’s theft of Iran’s nuclear archive, which paved the way for Operation Rising Lion, and played a critical role in the Abraham Accords negotiations.
In his new memoir, The Sword of Freedom, Cohen pulls back the curtain on how Israel has defied existential threats by outwitting its adversaries and building the world’s most cutting-edge defense system. Blending personal stories and tales of his own escapades into Israeli history, he reveals how Israel transformed itself from a vulnerable state to a global power.
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is honored to welcome Yossi Cohen to discuss how Mossad counters terrorism around the world, the future of Gaza, the mistakes Westerners make when they look at the Middle East, even what Donald Trump’s second presidency means for Israel.
Yossi Cohen served as the chief Israeli official in charge of Israel’s largely clandestine relations with Arab nations and chief negotiator of the Israel-UAE peace agreement. In addition to his work in Mossad, Yossi Cohen, a ninth-generation sabra, served as National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.