Yossi Cohen

Joseph (Yossi) Cohen was born in Jerusalem in 1961.[1] He grew up in the city’s Katamon neighborhood in a religious-Zionist family and attended the Or Etzion religious high school.[8] His father, Aryeh, had served in the pre-state Irgun and later held a senior position at Bank Mizrahi.[8] His mother, Mina, was an educator whose family roots were in Hebron.[8] By the time he was selected to lead the Mossad in 2015, Cohen was married to Aya and had four children.[8]

Cohen served in the Israel Defense Forces’ Airborne Nahal Brigade, including during the First Lebanon War.[1] He subsequently specialized in human intelligence, working as a Mossad case officer who recruited and handled agents.[9] His early intelligence career included overseas postings in Europe, and he eventually headed Tzomet, the division responsible for the agency’s case officers.[10] He received the Israel Security Prize for an operation he led while heading a Tzomet department.[10] In 1997, he earned a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Bar-Ilan University.[1]

Cohen maintained a connection to Jewish religious practice during his security career.[11] Shortly after his appointment as the next Mossad director, he spoke at his synagogue in Modi’in and connected the weekly Torah portion, Miketz, with strategic planning and intelligence work.[11] In that address, he emphasized strategy, a convincing cover story, and intelligence information, and invoked Proverbs 11:14, identified in the account of the speech as the Mossad’s slogan.[11] At the time, he was described as a traditional Jew who generally observed mitzvot and attended synagogue on Shabbat.[11]

Cohen became Mossad deputy director and head of its Operations Directorate in 2011.[1] In 2013, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu selected him as national security adviser and head of the National Security Council, moving him from intelligence leadership into government-wide security consultation.[1] He held the national security adviser position until 2016.[6]

In December 2013, Cohen joined other Israeli officials for White House meetings with U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken, and senior State and Treasury Department officials.[12] Their discussions concerned the P5+1’s efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement addressing international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.[12] In May 2014, Cohen met Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres before participating in U.S.–Israel Consultative Group meetings in Jerusalem.[13] Those sessions covered bilateral and regional security questions, including Iran, and Cohen and Rice agreed that the group provided an effective forum for strategic interagency security consultations.[13]

At a February 2015 White House meeting, Cohen and Rice discussed Iran’s nuclear program, U.S.–Israel relations, and Israeli–Palestinian relations, agreeing to continue close consultations.[14] His contribution to the bilateral security relationship was also acknowledged after he left the national security adviser’s office.[15] At the September 2016 signing ceremony for a U.S.–Israel security-assistance memorandum of understanding, Israeli acting national security adviser Jacob Nagel thanked Cohen and former adviser Yaakov Amidror for giving him the mission to reach the agreement.[15]

Iran was a prominent subject in Cohen’s public remarks before his Mossad directorship.[16] Addressing students at Or Etzion in 2014, he called handling the Iranian nuclear threat a leading international priority.[16] In the same speech, he argued that a large-scale conventional war between Israel and a Muslim country was not foreseeable in the near term, while describing Israel’s security environment as one of asymmetric conflict involving formal armies and non-state terrorist organizations.[16]

Netanyahu announced Cohen’s selection to succeed Tamir Pardo as Mossad director in December 2015.[10] Cohen took office in January 2016, after serving as national security adviser and National Security Council head.[9][10] Speaking at a March 2017 conference at Netanya Academic College in memory of former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, he described Iran’s government as a continuing central threat to Israel, whether or not a nuclear agreement was in place.[17] He also advocated studying regional adversaries in depth and identifying shared interests that could support agreements with partners and, at some level, even with adversaries.[17]

Countering Iran’s nuclear program was a central priority of Cohen’s directorship, during which he played a major role in covert campaigns against Iranian facilities and scientists.[1] The best-publicized operation of his tenure was the removal of an archive of Iranian nuclear documents from a Tehran warehouse on January 31, 2018.[3] Cohen said preparations took two years and included constructing a replica of the warehouse for training.[2] Twenty operatives, none of them Israeli nationals, were trained for a mission that had to be completed in less than seven hours.[2]

The agents entered the building at night and identified 32 safes inside the warehouse.[3] They aimed to leave by 5 a.m., before guards arrived, and Cohen instructed them to remove original documents rather than merely copy them.[3] Participants later described encountering changed conditions during the mission and deciding to proceed despite them.[18] They also found that the archive contained discs as well as paper files, with the digital material including experiment recordings, photographs of sites, and bomb-design material.[18]

Cohen recalled the moment the team began opening the safes: “Only when they broke into the formidable safes and began to go through the images and Farsi descriptions did we realize that we have what we wanted on the Iranian military nuclear program.”[2] The agents removed more than 55,000 pages and nearly 200 computer discs, while another account gave totals of 50,000 pages and 163 compact discs.[2][3] Cohen said none of the operatives was captured, although some had to be rescued from Iran.[2] The technical material subsequently required analysis by Farsi speakers and nuclear scientists, and the archive was used in investigations of Iran’s nuclear program.[19]

Cohen was reported to have briefed U.S. President Donald Trump about the operation during a January visit to Washington.[20] Netanyahu later publicly presented the documents as evidence of an Iranian nuclear-weapons program and described their acquisition as one of Israel’s greatest intelligence achievements.[20] In Netanyahu’s presentation, the material brought to Israel weighed half a ton and included 55,000 pages and 55,000 files on 183 CDs.[20] Cohen supported making the operation public, saying that disclosure had a major diplomatic impact.[19] He later said senior security officials had participated in the decision and that publication served efforts to influence the United States, France, and China.[18]

Cohen also discussed other aspects of the intelligence campaign against Iran after leaving office.[21] In a 2021 interview, he said Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh had been a Mossad intelligence-gathering target for years and that the agency had been physically close to him before his killing near Tehran in November 2020.[21] In the same interview, Cohen described the Natanz nuclear site and said Israel would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, without explicitly confirming responsibility for sabotage there.[21]

Clandestine diplomacy formed another substantial part of Cohen’s work as director.[4] The Mossad functioned both as an intelligence-collection organization and as a channel for contacts with countries with which Israel lacked formal diplomatic relations.[4] Cohen arranged Netanyahu’s 2018 visit to Oman, an example of the agency’s role in facilitating high-level regional contacts.[4] He also accompanied Netanyahu on a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2018.[22]

Cohen helped lay groundwork for the 2020 normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.[1] At his departure ceremony, Netanyahu credited Cohen and the Mossad with establishing contacts with regional leaders before and after the Washington signing ceremony for the normalization agreements.[23] Cohen also accompanied Netanyahu to a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Neom, Saudi Arabia.[24] Netanyahu arrived on a direct flight from Israel and remained there for approximately four hours; publication of the report was immediately permitted by Israeli censorship.[24]

Contacts with Qatar were another part of Cohen’s regional responsibilities, undertaken through the Mossad because Israel and Qatar had no direct diplomatic relations.[25] These contacts included efforts to facilitate Qatari funding for Gaza under Israeli approval.[25] Cohen described the underlying policy as an attempt to improve civilian living conditions and the economy, including support for medical care, health, and education.[26] He said the expectation had been that better living conditions would reduce incentives for conflict.[25]

Following the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, Cohen said the approach had not produced the settlement that had been hoped for and that matters had “got a little out of control.”[25] He acknowledged that his expectation about the effect of improved civilian conditions was probably wrong.[25] In an April 2024 interview, he again described the policy as a mistake and said Hamas had used the money for tunnels, weapons, training, and the October 7 attack.[26] His later explanations of his own responsibility for the mechanism became a subject of public dispute.[27]

In July 2020, Netanyahu asked Cohen to extend his directorship by six months because of Israel’s security challenges.[28] Cohen agreed to remain until June 2021 rather than leave in January, when his initial five-year term was due to end.[28] At his farewell, he said the Mossad had “struck deep into Iran’s heart” through operations that exposed nuclear secrets and helped prevent Iran from crossing certain red lines.[9] Shortly before leaving office, he urged Israel not to stop its activity against Iran, saying: “Today’s security operation is no less important than tomorrow’s war.”[9] David Barnea succeeded him on June 1, 2021, bringing Cohen’s five-and-a-half-year directorship to an end.[9]

After leaving the Mossad, Cohen joined SoftBank in 2021 to lead its activity in Israel through Vision Fund 2.[6] His work included identifying and supporting growth-stage technology companies, among them Israeli cybersecurity businesses.[6] Discussing the transition in August 2021, he described the move from “the world of shadows” into public business as a major change.[29] He also emphasized that technology had been integrated into Mossad operations and characterized the organization as innovative and entrepreneurial.[29]

In August 2026, Cohen became a strategic adviser to SoftBank, with work extending into artificial-intelligence infrastructure, cloud data centers, and semiconductors.[6] The following month, he was appointed president of the Scientific Advisory Board of Quantum X Labs, an Israeli quantum-technology company.[6] The company said he would help shape its technological and commercial strategy, including commercialization in fields involving quantum computing, cybersecurity, communications, and sensing.[6][30]

Cohen continued to participate in public discussion of regional diplomacy after his retirement.[31] At a May 2023 conference, he said an Israel–Saudi Arabia normalization agreement was “absolutely possible,” explaining that his view rested on personal knowledge of the subject.[31] He described the Middle East as entering a new era in which leaders had an opportunity to create normalization.[31]

His personal relationships with Qatari officials also figured in efforts to recover Israeli hostages held by Hamas.[5] Cohen had cultivated close ties with senior Qatari figures, including desert “glamping” trips, and believed those relationships could assist hostage-release efforts.[5] In 2024, he and Mossad director David Barnea were reported to have visited Qatar to negotiate for the hostages’ release.[5] Cohen said Netanyahu had authorized his visit, and additional diplomatic sources confirmed that he acted with the prime minister’s authority.[5]

Cohen published the memoir The Sword of Freedom in 2025.[1] In an interview that year, he called for a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 failures and said political responsibility should be examined alongside intelligence lapses.[1] His public comments also increasingly addressed the possibility of entering electoral politics.[7] Whereas in 2021 he had not ruled out a political career but said he was not then contemplating one, by June 2025 he was seriously considering the possibility of forming an independent party.[21][7]

Cohen said that after the war Israel needed “a major change,” including elections.[7] He had received approaches from Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, and Netanyahu, although his plans remained under consideration.[7] His statements at that stage expressed interest and deliberation rather than an announced decision to establish a party.[7]

The Tehran archive operation became a defining achievement associated with Cohen’s Mossad directorship, combining a lengthy intelligence preparation effort with the removal of original nuclear-related material from inside Iran.[2][3] At his departure ceremony, Cohen said obtaining the archive had exposed what he characterized as Iran’s military nuclear program, preservation of nuclear-weapons capabilities, and deception.[23] Netanyahu credited him with helping hold back Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon.[9] The archive also contributed to increased pressure from the International Atomic Energy Agency for explanations of Iran’s past nuclear activities.[9]

Cohen’s record also encompassed the use of intelligence relationships to develop regional diplomatic contacts.[4] His involvement in the Oman visit, contacts with Saudi Arabia, and the groundwork for normalization with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain linked his tenure to Israel’s expanding engagement with Arab states.[1][4] Netanyahu’s farewell remarks credited Cohen and the agency with building relationships with regional leaders around the Abraham Accords.[23] Cohen’s later advocacy of Saudi normalization continued that diplomatic emphasis after his retirement.[31]

In 2021, CIA Director William J. Burns awarded Cohen the George J. Tenet Award for his contributions to joint U.S.–Israel operations.[1] His earlier role as national security adviser had included repeated high-level consultations with the United States on Iran and regional security, as well as a contribution acknowledged at the signing of the bilateral security-assistance memorandum.[12][15] His post-government career extended into Israeli technology investment, cybersecurity, and quantum-technology strategy through SoftBank and Quantum X Labs.[6]

Cohen’s role in Qatari funding for Gaza became a major dispute over responsibility for a policy he later called mistaken.[27] In 2025, he said he had acted on government instructions and recalled that the transfer mechanism originated with the Shin Bet and the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories; the Shin Bet denied initiating it.[27][32] Cohen said he had tried to ensure the money reached residents rather than Hamas, acknowledged hearing warnings that the mechanism was failing, and said he had issued warnings himself.[32] He denied conducting business with Qatar, receiving its money, or acting on its behalf.[32]

A separate dispute concerned counter-terrorist-finance work.[33] Former terror-finance unit head Ehud Levi accused Cohen of responsibility for closing the unit and said profits from Hamas business activities in the UAE and Turkey continued to reach the organization.[33] Cohen disputed the report’s accuracy and said financial warfare had been pursued intensively before, during, and after his tenure; the competing claims were not resolved in the cited coverage.[33]

Public disclosure of the Iranian archive operation also drew criticism.[18] A former Mossad official argued that publicity harmed the organization and Israel, while Cohen defended disclosure as a collective security decision with diplomatic value.[18] The operational narrative rests on accounts of covert activity by Cohen, officials, and participants rather than independently available operational records.[20] Netanyahu’s public presentation of the archive did not establish that Iran had actively pursued an atomic weapon after the 2015 nuclear agreement.[20]

Cohen’s close working relationship with Netanyahu prompted questions about the Mossad’s independence.[21] He maintained that their trust benefited the agency, denied that Netanyahu had demanded personal loyalty, and said: “I work for the highest purpose. I don’t work for the prime minister.”[21] Separately, a 2021 report described a Justice Ministry complaint alleging that Cohen had shared classified information with a flight attendant, then under review by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.[34] Cohen denied the allegations, denied any such close relationship, and said the attorney general had not contacted him; the report described an allegation, not an established finding.[34]