David Barnea took the reins of the Mossad from Yossi Cohen on Monday following a final ceremony and a five-and-a-half-year term that began in January 2016.
In his last speech as Mossad director, Cohen said the agency had “struck deep in Iran’s heart” by virtue of operations revealing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear secrets and its lies, as well as actively preventing it from moving forward beyond certain redlines.
In his speech, Barnea said to Cohen: “You leave behind you a strong institution with astounding capabilities, an institution with infrastructure and timeless foundations from which it will continue and grow.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Cohen credit for his personal role in holding back Iran’s march toward a nuclear weapon.
Both Netanyahu and Cohen referenced the January 2018 raid on Tehran’s secret nuclear archives, which served as a turning point toward the Trump administration pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The operation also placed new pressure on Iran from the IAEA for explanations about its past nuclear dimensions – a process and associated tensions that last to this day.
Netanyahu went out of his way to credit Cohen for his role in establishing the Abraham Accords, despite not being in Washington for the final rounds of negotiations in the summer of 2020.
He noted Cohen’s talent for converting “the hearts of the leaders of the region... long before the emotional ceremony in Washington and, by the way, also after.”
“This may be goodbye, but this is not the end of the story,” Netanyahu said.
“When I look back at my time as Mossad chief, I see pride and humility,” Cohen said. “We accomplished so much against so many threats.”
The ceremony was attended by former US secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo, with whom Cohen has remained close friends.
It was also attended by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Nadav Argaman, former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen, Finance Minister (also a former intelligence minister) Israel Katz, Israel Atomic Energy Agency head Zeev Shnir and former coronavirus commissioner Ronni Gamzu.
Cohen worked intensely with Gamzu in fighting the coronavirus in the early months of the crisis in 2020.
At an acceptance speech for an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University on Sunday, Cohen urged Israel to not stop its “activity” against Iran.
“Today’s security operation is no less important than tomorrow’s war,” he said.
After successfully swiping the archives in 2018, Cohen met with Pompeo two months later to update him on the mission.
Cohen began his intelligence service in 1989 at the age of 22. He served in the Mossad’s Tsomet division recruiting agents and eventually headed it.
He eventually served as deputy chief of the Mossad until departing the organization to become Netanyahu’s national security council adviser in 2013.
Most analysts view the National Security Council adviser position and working daily with Netanyahu as part of what helped Cohen beat out other major contenders for the top Mossad spot in 2016.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.