Eli Cohen is a minister named after the most famous Israeli spy and architect of the normalization agreements

Eli Cohen held several political and security positions in the Israeli administration (Reuters)

An Israeli politician, he worked as an army officer and left with the rank of major. He worked in the fields of administration, economics, and accounting, then headed to the world of politics, where he was elected as a member of the Knesset and held the positions of Minister of Economy, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Energy, and Infrastructure. He is named after Israel's most famous spy, and he is described as the architect of normalization with many Arab countries within what was known as the "Abraham Accords" in 2020.

Birth and upbringing

Eliyahu Cohen was born on October 3, 1972 in a poor neighborhood in the city of Holon, near Tel Aviv, and he is the only one of his parents. His father was the owner of a small clothing store and died when he was 43 years old due to cancer. His mother works as an auditor in a private company.

He shortened his first name, "Eliyahu," to have a name identical to the name of the most famous Israeli spy, "Eli Cohen," who managed to get close to the narrow circle of government in Syria and was executed in 1965 after his discovery.

Study and training

Cohen continued his studies during his work in the army, benefiting from the soldiers’ encouragement of education. He obtained a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Tel Aviv University, and a second bachelor’s degree in management and economics from the Open University, in addition to a certified public accountant’s certificate.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen during a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels (Reuters)

Military and professional experience

In his early years, Cohen joined compulsory military service, despite the fact that it was common for the people of the neighborhood in which he lived to do so for reasons related to exemption due to poverty or belonging to a particular religious sect.

He continued his military training until he became an officer in the Israeli Air Force, specifically in the anti-aircraft defense missile unit. He rose through the ranks of the army until he reached the rank of major, but he applied for discharge from military service at the age of 28.

After leaving the army, he worked in many companies, and among the positions he held were the position of general manager of an insurance company, executive vice president of the Israel Land Development Company Ltd., and a certified accountant for BDO Israel. He also worked as a lecturer at the Faculty of Management at Tel Aviv University.

Political experience

Cohen entered the world of politics through the Kulanu Party, which was founded by Moshe Kahlon in 2014 after his defection from the Likud Party. He was eighth on the party’s list in the 2015 elections and obtained membership in the Knesset for the first time among the 10 seats won by Kulanu.

During this period, Cohen assumed his first position in the government formation, which was Minister of Economy and Industry, starting in January 2017. He was re-elected to the Knesset for the second time in 2019, and was second on the Kulanu party list at the time, which reflected the strength of his position in the party and the acceleration of his political presence in the country. General scene.

But the party only won 4 seats in these elections, which made its leader, Kahlon, surrender to signing a deal to return to the Likud Party under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, despite previous statements in which he stressed his refusal to participate in a government whose president faces indictments and is likely to be tried.

Shortly after the completion of the merger deal, Netanyahu chose Cohen for the position of Minister of Intelligence and membership of the government’s mini-ministerial council for policy and security affairs (cabinet) in May 2020. He was then elected again to the Knesset in 2022 for the first time on the Likud Party’s list, and he now has a strong relationship with Netanyahu.

In late December 2022, Netanyahu announced the appointment of Cohen as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he remained in the position for a full year, to be appointed at the beginning of 2024 as Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.

During his term as a member of the Knesset, Cohen held many important responsibilities, including chairing the Reforms Committee, and membership in the Finance and Defense Budget Committees.

Intelligence and diplomacy file

Among several ministerial portfolios that Cohen held, his name became prominent at the international level during his tenure as “Minister of Intelligence” due to his role in the file of normalization with the Arabs within what was known as the “Abraham Accords” signed in 2020 with several Arab countries under the auspices of the administration of former US President Donald Trump.

During his tenure as Minister of Intelligence, he linked secret relations and led a negotiation process with several Arab leaders and officials, which led to the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan announcing the signing of peace agreements with Tel Aviv, whose stated goals included suspending Israel’s announcement of annexation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank, and supporting Middle East peace. And inaugurating a new phase for peace between Arabs and Israel, economic, commercial and tourism cooperation, technical cooperation, scientific research and space research.

The new rapprochement culminated in the holding of the first Negev Summit in late March 2022, which was attended by the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Morocco.

Cohen considers that these agreements “represent the most important step in the region during the past 25 years,” in addition to his pride in being the first Israeli official to visit Sudan. He was received by the President of the Transitional Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in January 2021 in his capacity as Minister of Intelligence, and then received him again in the beginning of the year. February 2023, when he was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on the sidelines of the meeting, he announced the official normalization of relations with Khartoum.

Al-Aqsa flood disrupts the path

Cohen announced on June 25, 2023, that progress had been made towards signing a peace agreement with other Arab countries before March 2024, and the indicators supporting it strengthened in the following months.

In July of the same year, Cohen held a secret meeting in Kenya with the leader of an Islamic country and leaders of African countries in preparation for normalization with Israel without revealing the identity of these countries. In the following August, he revealed a meeting he held in the Italian capital with Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush.

However, the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation launched by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), against the occupation at dawn on October 7, 2023, and the war that followed it, constituted an obstacle to this path.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies + websites