“People with no fantasy,” the late Israeli politician Shimon Peres once observed, “cannot create the extraordinary.” The Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, has become legendary for its extraordinary feats, some of which could be pulled from a James Bond novel. But as Yossi Cohen reveals in his new book, The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad, and the Secret War, the agency’s stunning capabilities are the result of Israel’s unique place in the world.
The Mossad is uniquely capable because it has to be, Cohen notes. “We have the ultimate incentive to prevail, because our struggle is existential,” he writes. And Cohen knows of which he speaks—he had a front row seat for events that shaped the region.
After a stint in the Israel Defense Forces, Cohen spent decades as a Mossad operative before he was chosen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as his national security adviser. In 2016, Cohen was appointed to lead the Mossad. During his nearly five-year tenure, Cohen oversaw the agency’s operation to steal Iran’s nuclear archive and served as one of the chief negotiators for the Abraham Accords.
Memoirs written by former spies—especially top spies—are seldom revealing. In fact, they shouldn’t be.
(Read the rest of CAMERA’s Oct. 5 2025 Book Review at the Washington Free Beacon)