Whenever I visit the beautiful Golan Heights in Northern Israel, I can’t help but think of Israel’s most revered spy, Eli Cohen.
Eli was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His parents were Syrian Jews from the once great town of Aleppo. The same Aleppo that has been torn to shreds by the Syrian civil war.
He was raised as a Zionist. When Israel became a nation most of his family made Aliyah, moved to Israel, but Eli stayed behind and worked on behalf of Israel in Egypt. In 1956 he was arrested by Egyptian authorities and eventually deported along with the rest of the Alexandrian Jews in Egypt.
He started a new life in Israel at the age of 29 in 1957. He assumed that because if his background, Israel would want to train him as a spy but he was rebuffed by the Mossad. Despite scoring high on all the tests: IQ, bravery, amazing memory—there was concern that he had a bit of a hero complex and could put himself and maybe others in danger.
However, the Mossad never forgot Eli Cohen. About a year after he married Nadia, they remembered the Egyptian Jew who had so much potential and truth be told, the Syrian border was heating up. They desperately needed intelligence. And here was an Arabic speaking Jew who could blend right in.
Finally, the man who would become his mentor, approached him. He went through rigorous training but the most important part was to learn to speak Arabic with a Syrian accent. He would be of no use speaking with his Egyptian dialect and accent. It would be like someone from New York blending in in Alabama.
Eli Cohen became Kamal Amin Ta’abet. The Mossad created a complete life story for “Kamal” complete with photo albums full of family pictures—no small task, decades before Photoshop. Eli was first going to Argentina, where he would blend into the Syrian community there. His wife knew he was working for the government, but she had no idea he was a spy.
Everyone loved “Kamal” in Buenos Aires. It wasn’t long before he befriended a Colonel Afez Al Assad, who would one day become the Syrian President. They become close friends. Everyone believed that Eli was a wealthy importer/exporter. Once he was established in the Syrian community he announced that he was going to back to the homeland—returning to Syria.
Eli used the cash provided to him to buy favors. Many high level Syrians wanted to help Eli as they knew they would benefit from his success—“Kamal” would see to that. Eli often had parties where drunk officials would speak freely about government issues. Eli, would only pretend to be intoxicated as he carefully documented the government secrets.
Syria had a plan to divert precious water coming down the Golan heights away from the Sea of Galilee. He befriended two colonels who knew of the project. He provided this information to Israeli intelligence who promptly blew it up.
He was so trusted that they took him to the Golan Heights—then in Syrian hands. The Syrians would bomb Israel from the Golan Heights, terrorizing our northern residents. Eli was allowed to take pictures and transmitted to Israel the exact location "positioning of every Syrian gun, trench, and machine-gun nest in each Golan Heights fortification; tank traps, designed to impede any Israeli attack, were also identified and memorized for future targeting." He actually convinced the Syrians to plant trees at a certain installation so the Israelis wouldn’t see it. Of course, it was those trees that enabled the Israelis to hit their target. At one point his name was considered for defense minister!
By now, Eli’s wife had figured out what he was doing. He told his wife that he had one last mission and then he would quit. However, it was during that mission that his radio frequency was picked up. A sweep of his building led the Syrians right to him in the middle of transmitting information.
He was caught and tortured. The Syrians were extremely embarrassed that an Israeli spy had become best friends who so many government officials. Despite months of international public pressure to release him, the Syrians decided to execute him by hanging. And now you know why he is considered our greatest spy.
In our last episode we talked about the kibbutz movement—the collective farming system that began in Israel in 1909 in Degania just south of the Sea of Galilee. While I am no fan of socialism, it was successful as long as Israel’s existence depended on it. But what happened once Israel stabilized?
First, let me tell you how a kibbutz worked. The ideology came out of Eastern Europe and Russia. The layout of a kibbutz was simple. You had a residential area. The children, at least for the first few decades, would sleep not in their homes, but in the children’s house. Remember, everything was equal. There were common grounds for swimming and dining and an auditorium for meetings and entertainment. Elana and I once went to a costume party on the Jewish feast of Purim at a kibbutz.
The kibbutz life is simple. Everything you needed is on the kibbutz. In most cases, cars are not needed, as you either walk or bike to your destination. In comes cases, golf carts are used.
AD Gordon, was the father of Israel agricultural movement. He was an exhorter credited with getting the Jews of Eastern Europe to get their hands direty and become farmers. He said,
You work here [on the farm] simply without philosophizing; sometimes the work is hard and crowded with pettiness. But at times you feel a surge of cosmic exaltation, like the clear light of the heavens... . And you, too, seem to be taking root in the soil which you are digging, to be nourished by the rays of the sun, to share life with the tiniest blade of grass, with each flower; living in nature's depths, you seem then to rise and grow into the vast expanse of the universe.
He turned farming into a religion.
In the early years, there was a large focus on equality in all things. Women would do any job that the men did. However, things have changed today. While the women still work, no so much in hard labor. Teachers are needed in every kibbutz, not mention doctors and nurses.
Everyone in the kibbutz works on the kibbutz. In rare situations, some are sent outside of the kibbutz because of their skill in a particular area. One of my wife’s childhood friends is a leader in his kibbutz outside of Beersheva in the desert. Each day he leaves to go work in the computer industry. But, according to the ideals of kibbutz life, he freely turns over his entire paycheck to the kibbutz. Why would he do that? He loves the kibbutz life. It is called voluntarily socialism.
If ever there was a model of socialism that should have succeeded it was the Israeli Kibbutzim. Why? Unlike in the Soviet Union and its satellites, there was no one getting fat at the top at the expense of the workers.
What held them together was not a totalitarian government as we see in Cuba, but a shared desire to see Israel succeed as a nation—they were committed to the prophetic declarations, such as we see in Ps. 102 verse 16, “For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.” And Amos 9,14 “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.”
Nevertheless, the Kibbutzim were dependent on the state to forgive their debt. But in the mid-80s the state could no longer afford the status quo. Things had to change. While a minority of kibbutzim remain loyal to the founders’ motto, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” most have abandoned the socialist system. When kibbutzim kids would go to university, they were often presented with a new and exciting world of opportunities. To make ends meet, most of the Kibbutzim, in addition to farming opened up wedding halls, hotels and even water parks.
In nearly 80% of kibbutzim there have been massive reforms. Children sleep together, but with their families. Members get paid according to their contribution, not need. Home ownership is now allowed. And members can work outside jobs and contribute a portion to the kibbutz.
This has led to a revival in the kibbutz movement which still contributes over 80% of Israel’s produce. It is hard to separate the Kibbutz movement from the Zionist dream. They go hand in hand. And while communism never works long, it did work long enough in Israel’s kibbutz movement for the nation to stabilize.
Would you believe it if I told you that socialism helped young Israel survive? That was what I told a conservative talk show radio host some 30 years ago and he simply could not believe it.
Personally I am a fan of the free market. But about 40 years before Israel become a nation, they realized that the only way they could survive was to start collective farms where everything was equal. They called these farms Kibbutzim.
When the Jews returned to the promised land, it had been badly neglected by the Ottoman Empire and the Arabs who lived there. It was unfarmable. In the south, rocks had to be cleared and in the north malaria infested swamps had to be drained. The Jewish people worked together for the common good.
Degania—from the Hebrew word for grain—was the very first kibbutz, located at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. The idea of reclaiming the soil had become something of a religion for the early Jewish Chalutizm, or pioneers. The young men and women came mostly from Eastern Europe. They were not used to physical labor and knew little about agriculture. But they had memorized of the prophecies about rebuilding the land.
They overcame these odds to create the foundation for Israel’s booming agriculture. Israel is famous for her creativity, but few people believed you could grow potatoes in the desert. Kibbutz Yotvata, after failing with fruits and vegetables, determined to grow potatoes. They were told it wouldn’t work, and yet 60 years later it is one of their main products.
By bringing the Jewish people back to this barren land, the Lord would test his people. It would take faith. Author Moshe Kempinsky says, “God says, ‘I’m going to do something miraculous—I'm going to create a land that even though those climate issues don't call for it, it's going to be a land that's going to be filled with dates and honey, and also with milk so that you know that... nothing in this land comes here except when it’s from Me.’”
Is that not what we see in the Scriptures? Did not God say that the dessert will blossom like a rose? Isaiah predicted that, “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit (Isa 27.6) and Ezekiel said, “The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase” (Ezek 34.27)
And Did not God promise a land flowing with milk and honey?
CBN’s Julie Stahl writes, “It appears God has delivered on that promise. Despite the heat, humidity and limited resources, Israeli cows produce more milk per year than cows in the United States, European Union, and Australia.”
The aforementioned Kibbutz Yotvata is the largest milk producing facility in the country. They were laughed at when they said they would raise cows in the desert heat. It was an impossible mission, but by 2008 they were churning out 62 million liters of milk per year.
Stahl claims that ancient honey came mainly from dates. She writes, “Today, Israel's dates are still famous throughout the world. Israel exports some 12,000 tons of dates each year to 20 countries.”
The Kibbutz movement is largely to thank for Israel’s becoming a world leader in agriculture. But it was not without controversy. Socialism is a failed economic system. The Kibbutz movement was great when Israel’s existence depended on it, but would it survive once Israel stabilized? I will let you know in part 2.