‘Iran’s hate for Israel is beyond comprehension’ – former Mossad chief lifts the lid on Israel’s shadow war

Yossi Cohen lived in the shadows for three decades, devoting what he estimates to be 70 percent of his career to thwarting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Then, on 12 June, as his memoir The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad and the Secret War was being prepared for publication, the book rewrote itself.

Cohen was at dinner with friends in New York when he learned Israeli jets had hit Iranian nuclear and military sites, sparking a 12-day war culminating in the United States striking key underground facilities in Natanz, Fordon and Isfahan. In that moment, a book meant to expose the past was overtaken by the present. The ending was torn up and rewritten, giving Cohen’s riveting autobiography an urgency more commonly found in thrillers.

Indeed, The Sword of Freedom reads in part like a Tom Clancy blockbuster. The 64-year-old darts between personal confessions and accounts of covert wins and crushing losses, from life undercover as his alter-ego “Oscar” in the early 1990s to outmanoeuvring the ayatollahs one shadowy operation at a time as director of Mossad.

He ran Israel’s fabled international intelligence agency for five years until 2021, presiding over two of its greatest coups: the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive in 2018 and, two years later, the assassination of its nuclear chief, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Cohen’s no-nonsense worldview drives every page. For him, Israel’s survival in a bad neighbourhood relies on moral clarity, sharp intelligence, technical ingenuity, the power to instil fear before a shot is fired and – as last year’s pager attack on Hezbollah showed – a healthy dose of chutzpah.

As he writes. “When I see someone conducting terror activity against Israelis, or Jewish people anywhere on the planet, I’ll chop his head off. You will stop, or I will stop you. That’s not because I’m a bad boy. It is because you are.”

Cohen is unflinching in his criticism of leadership failures around the 7 October Hamas attack, warns Western leaders hopelessly misunderstand the realities of the Middle East and subtlety frames himself (despite shrugging off direct questions) as a possible political alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Sword Of Freedom is both a breathless autobiography and an aspirational blueprint for the future.

Cohen is unflinching in his criticism of the failures of 7 October and maintains the West hopelessly misunderstands the harsh realities of the Middle East

How successful does he think June’s Israeli-American strikes on Iran have been? Cohen, in London for a whirlwind week of talks and interviews, chooses his words with care. “We know Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan very well. We know what’s above ground and underground. I no longer hold the full intelligence picture, but my educated guess is that Iran can no longer enrich uranium to the level required. In the past it’s felt immune, despite international agreements to curb its programmes. Now they know that if we see them moving back toward enrichment, we will come knocking again. We also need to deal with their ballistic missile systems, which caused so much damage to our cities during back in June.”

Despite his vantage point, he struggles to grasp the depth of Tehran’s animosity towards Israel. “Major Sunni countries have accepted the Jewish state. The Egyptians, Jordanians, Emiratis, Bahrainis, Sudanese, Moroccans. Even the president of Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim country, recently said the state of Israel should be secure. Yet the ayatollahs have always stubbornly refused to accept our existence.”

He is unforgiving about Keir Starmer’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state. ‘It seems the decision was less about Middle East politics than trying to keep the streets of London quiet’

Iran, he argues, is “the only country on earth conducting terrorism as a nation”. Will it survive the next decade? “We’ve worked with opposition groups inside and outside the country for years. If the West maintains sanctions and Israel and the Americans prevent a nuclear capability, then who knows? The country might change course. If it does, the entire region would become safer and more prosperous overnight.”

Might this change finally arrive when the ageing Ayatollah Khamenei, said to be in poor health, finally leaves the stage? Cohen is doubtful. “I’m not holding my breath that Khamenei’s successor will be a Swiss diplomat.”

His tone hardens as we turn to 7 October. Were the seeds of the intelligence failure sown as far back as 2005 – a consequence of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal? “When we disengaged, we lost vital intelligence sources and military capabilities inside the Strip. When you cannot enter and exit as you do in other places, you lose capacity. Over the years that led to misunderstandings about what was happening on the Hamas side.”

London is a city he knows well, from his time as a student at Hendon College to running joint operations with MI5 and MI6

The price of that failure was the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. “The intelligence gap was shocking. Our lines of defence collapsed. We are talking about 1,500 terrorists working together – logistics, communication, vehicles, weapons, training and timing. Imagine how many people were behind it and had knowledge of it. We learned a painful lesson about what it takes to keep our people safe.”

Has Benjamin Netanyahu, who Cohen is not shy to criticise, really put the hostages first? “Most have been released because of war pressure, not negotiations. The priority for the prime minister and his cabinet is the defeat of Hamas. To take their sovereignty away for good. The future of the hostages is entirely tied up with that. The day the remaining hostages are home will be the day the war ends.”

To be a successful spy you need the instincts of an actor. And you need to come to terms with the fact that you are on your own

He knows London well, from studying English at Hendon College to a career that saw him run joint operations with MI5 and MI6. “I had wonderful relationships with UK administrations and national security advisers. I worked with Alex Younger (former Chief of MI6) and Andrew Parker (former director general of MI5), who told me that Mossad has saved many British lives over the years. There has always been a strong intelligence relationship between London and Jerusalem.”

He is unforgiving of Keir Starmer’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state. “It seems his decision was less about Middle East politics than trying to keep the streets of London quiet after two years of protests and maintaining allies in the Labour Party when he needs them most.

“A Palestinian state will not be created in London, Paris or any other European capital. I have to be optimistic because that’s my nature, but I don’t see a serious Palestinian leadership that can create space to negotiate even the framework for future talks.”

Finally, the obvious question. What, beyond the basic rule of not telling anyone you’re a spy, makes a good one?

He smiles for the first time. “You need a range of skills. An acute self-awareness and a feel for your surroundings. The instincts of an actor. And you need to come to terms with the fact that you’re on your own. There’s no friendly helicopter or F-35 above your head to swoop down and rescue you. The only thing between you and exposure is your cover. That sort of bravery comes from a deep love for your country and the urge to protect it from those who wish it harm.”

 • The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad, and the Secret War by Yossi Cohen is on sale now in hardback