A model agent steps out of the shadows
The Hebrew media obsess over Israel’s newly appointed Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, focusing on his operational success, but also on his ostensible good looks
Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced Yossi Cohen as the new head of the Mossad intelligence service, and the Hebrew media attempts to shed light on the man of shadows working behind the scenes to ensure Israel’s security and safety.
Both Israel Hayom and Yedioth Ahronoth lead with the same headline, “Agent number 1,” alongside an almost full page photo of Cohen, 54, who served as the deputy head of the Mossad from 2011-2013, and was then appointed head of the country’s National Security Council. In a reference to his ostensible good looks and sleek appearance, both dailies also make it a point to note that the new Mossad chief is nicknamed “the model,” no less. More substantively, they note that Cohen’s name has been tied to an impressive array of successful, mostly covert, operations.
Israel Hayom contributor Dan Margalit advises the incoming Mossad chief to focus on the changing atmosphere in the region, and the hostile forces which have become major players in the local arena. “The Middle East that faced [outgoing Mossad head Tamir] Pardo when he first assumed his position was stable and committed to the Sykes-Picot borders from 99 years ago,” Margalit writes. “But this is no more. There is no Syria and basically no Iraq, and no man expected such a collision between Turkey and Russia against the backdrop of the war against the Islamic State group.”
Yedioth, on the other hand, takes a more feel-good approach to the new appointment, and quotes Cohen’s mother on hearing that her son will take on arguably the most influential security position in the Jewish state. “It is a wonderful feeling,” 80-year-old Mina Cohen tells the paper. “I am proud of my son… I am very excited, and believe he will fully succeed at his job.”
Haaretz’s front page includes, aside from a typically no-nonsense report on the Mossad head, an exclusive on several tax-exempted American NGOs which promote and help to establish Jewish settlements in the West Bank. According to reporter Uri Blau, US organizations associated with the Israeli right invested $220 million in settlement projects between 2009-2013. “The meaning of this is that the US is indirectly funding Israel’s West Bank policy, which every American government in the past 48 years has opposed,” Blau asserts.
Back in Israel Hayom, analyst Boaz Bismuth tears apart US President Barack Obama’s recent speech on the threat posed by the Islamic State group, following the killings of 14 people in California’s San Bernardino, carried out by a couple apparently associated with the extremist organization. “The Americans are left with no bottom line and with no promises for a change in policy with regards to the Islamic State,” Bismuth writes. “In his last year at the White House, it seems Obama will not leave the world a safer place.”
While the president announced no significant shift in US strategy and offered no new policy prescriptions for defeating the Islamic State, it should be noted that he did call on Congress to tighten America’s visa waiver program and to pass a new authorization for military actions underway against IS in Iraq and Syria.
Finally, Haaretz reports that while Israelis with post traumatic stress disorder are allowed by law to use medical marijuana to treat their condition, the Health Ministry has made it increasingly difficult for patients to receive the drug. The paper reports that many Israelis who suffer from PTSD face bureaucratic hurdles, and many are denied the drug for such ridiculous reasons as giving in the application for the drug in a handwritten letter, rather than a printed one. The unappealing concoction of psychological disorders, Israeli bureaucracy and medical marijuana, one can imagine, makes for one hell of a bad trip.
