Magdy Saeed - London
Arab Television Network broadcasts on its screen at ten in the evening today, Monday, 23 March, Mecca time, a new documentary film, "Spy 88", produced by the network, that deals with the story of the Israeli spy in Syria, Eli Cohen, a story that was previously covered by the Netflix network last year. Titled "The Spy", as well as a previous American movie produced in 1987.
According to the press release issued by the network, the film speaks for the first time about the nature of the secret mission in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the main goal of the espionage process, as among those tasks was the monitoring of Nazi officers hiding in Syria after World War II, specifically Louis Brunner, the Nazi officer who was close From the Syrian Baath regime, but Cohen's mission changed at a particular moment for a reason that Mossad has not disclosed to date.
The film also talks about the failure of the Israeli spy to protect himself and his disregard for the mission for which he was sent, in addition to the Mossad's failure to acknowledge the existence of errors committed in this process to preserve the heroism of Eli Cohen.
Eli Cohen’s story has been in existence for more than half a century, and has been covered by the media and a lot of information and accounts circulated about it, and this is why we asked the film’s art producer, Susan Qetaz, about the reason for choosing this story to prepare a new documentary about her, so she said by phone to Al-Jazeera Net that he is still There is an interest in the general viewer of the story.
She added, "The story was presented by the Arab and Israeli sides in a distorted way. On the Israeli side, some people saw that there was a distortion and falsification of the facts in order to present the Eli Cohen operation as a major operation, and therefore it was presented as a super hero, and on the Syrian side and in an attempt to save their face, it was underestimated and considered An unsuccessful spy despite the strong relationship and friendship between Eli Cohen and the head of the Ba'ath Party regime at the time, Amin al-Hafiz.
Qetaz also confirmed in her contact with Al-Jazeera Net that what distinguishes the film from what was previously produced is that they were keen to focus on two main aspects, the first related to the other side of Eli Cohen's mission, which is tracking down Nazi officers in Syria, and the second is related to revealing the extent of Eli Cohen's penetration of the Syrian Baath regime. .
She added that the media could not obtain testimonies from people very close to the story of Eli Cohen, and "The Spy 88" was able to conduct a personal and in-depth interview with Abraham, the brother of the spy Eli Cohen, as well as an interview with Noam Nahman Tipper, author of the book "Eli Cohen .. File The Open, ”and Dr. Ian Black is the author of" Secret Wars of Israel ... History of Israeli Intelligence. "