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From the trial of the spy Eli Cohen to the hoisting of the Israeli flag in Egypt: the life of the diplomat who saw everything - Walla! News

2021-02-06T04:58:06.224Z


Yosef Hadas, a Syrian-born man, joined the Foreign Ministry as a young man and retired more than 40 years later as director general. Died at the age of 93


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A song to go

From the trial of the spy Eli Cohen to the hoisting of the Israeli flag in Egypt: the life of the diplomat who saw it all

Yosef Hadas, a Syrian-born man, joined the Foreign Ministry as a young man and retired more than 40 years later as director general. Died at the age of 93

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  • Eli Cohen

  • Peace agreement with Egypt

  • Syria

  • Egypt

Eli Ashkenazi

Friday, 05 February 2021, 15:16

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In the video: Eli Cohen's widow turns to Assad to return his bones (recording: courtesy of the Galilee Medical Center, Stills: Thomas Solinsky; editing: Itai Amram)

In May 1951, Yosef (Yossi) Hadas entered the Foreign Ministry's research department as a young man, until he returned to engineering studies, which he began in Paris.

After 42 years he retired as CEO of the firm.



Between, for decades, was Hadas historical junctions and was involved in key processes in the foreign policy of Israel, represented the state around the world, wove ties, gave reports on security crucial and also participated in peace talks.



Last week he died And he is 93 years old.

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The diplomat who saw it all.

Yosef Hadas (Photo: Official Website, Yosef Cohen, GPO)

Hadas was born in 1928 to Bolisa and Aharon Adas in Aleppo, Syria, as part of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world.

The couple raised four children and lived well: they owned a carpet shop, and the father also brokered real estate.

They lived in a large, two-story house, with each child having their own room - and a water well in the yard.



At the age of 4-6, he studied at Kutab (Talmud Torah - AA) and later at the Alliance School, and at the same time was a member of the "Jewish Scouts of France" movement. During school hours, private teachers of general subjects, as well as "smart" (religious) for religious studies, would come to the family home.

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Upon graduation, Adas decided to pursue academic studies in Paris, and in 1947 he traveled there and began studying engineering.

The timing was successful: a month later, following the UN decision on the partition of Israel, the Jewish community in Aleppo suffered riots.

Hadas with Golda Meir in the Great Synagogue in Strasbourg, a week before the Yom Kippur War (Photo: courtesy of the family)

The boy Joseph, who was alone in Paris, kept in constant correspondence with his family.

However, when he stopped receiving letters from his brother Mordechai, he began to worry.

A few years earlier, in 1944, Mordechai had immigrated to Eretz Israel with illegal immigration, and enlisted in the Palmach.



In August 1948, Adas received a letter from a childhood friend who also immigrated to Israel, informing him that his brother Mordechai was killed in June of that year. After receiving the news, Yossi interrupted his studies and immigrated to Israel. His parents could not pass on the bitter news because the Syrian censors would read the letters addressed to its Jewish citizens. He arrived in Israel, went to his brother's grave in Kiryat Anavim, and two days later was drafted into the IDF.



Adas was placed in the Syria and Lebanon section of the Armed Forces. When he finished his military service, he was convinced that he would return to Paris to complete his studies, but because he has six months left in the next school year, he is offered a temporary job in the Foreign Ministry.

Between two wars

Hadas went on to postpone the date of his return to Paris, extending the period of work at the Foreign Ministry.

He changed the family name from Madas to Hadas, as the office workers were asked to do.

In the meantime, he also met Stella and the two married in 1955, when the then foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, also attended the young employee's wedding.

The couple had three sons over the years: Roni, Merom and Ilan.



He was gifted with good analytical skills and from the very beginning of his career in the department, in 1955, he recognized a growing trend in Russian involvement in Syria and Egypt, and stated that Moscow's support for these countries would not only be political and public, but also military.

His surgery was postponed, but it soon became clear that he was right.

This subject fascinated him, and later, in the 1970s, he wrote a doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne on Soviet policy in the Middle East between 1967 and 1947.



His name and skills went before him.

"A man like Yossi has a memory archive, good connections and also a kind of sixth sense that allows him, relying on partial data or even a report in a foreign press, to notice the current very early on, in any change in the policy of one of the countries he follows," wrote journalist Edwin. Eitan, "This feature makes him one of the best experts of the Arab world in Israel or elsewhere."

Impressed by Soviet policy in the Middle East. Hadas welcomes Soviet Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev (Photo: courtesy of the family)

In 1960 he went on a mission with his family to Africa, first as a second secretary and deputy consul in Senegal, and later placed at embassies in Senegal and Niger.

At that time he began to identify the rise of Islam in West Africa, and wrote reports on it to the Foreign Ministry, but his claims were not then adequately treated.

Indeed, over the years, this trend has intensified, led by radicals.



Three years later, in 1963, Hadas was appointed First Secretary at the Embassy in Paris and later served as Adviser on Middle East Affairs.

He forged good relations with French Foreign Ministry officials, and received various reports originating from French missions in various countries, and the reports he subsequently passed helped Israel assess the situation before the Six Day War.



"Hadas met with French Foreign Ministry officials and heard from them about meetings of the French ambassador in Cairo with the Egyptian foreign minister. Things were difficult and especially dangerous," Brigadier General Israel Lior, the prime minister's military secretary at the time, described in his memoirs. The defense agreement between Syria and Egypt, and the Soviet Union's promise to provide aid to Syria.

Disaster in Damascus, celebration in Cairo

During his time at the embassy in Paris, spy Eli Cohen was caught in Damascus, and Hadas was appointed to coordinate Cohen's defense efforts, most notably work with French lawyer Jacques Marseille.

But the effort was in vain: four months later, Cohen was executed.



"I have a hard time describing what happened to me. Deep sadness. Feeling frustrated and helpless," Hadas wrote in his autobiographical book "From Milk to Jerusalem," "I did not know Eli personally, but I was with him in his loneliness in the Syrian prison day in, day out." Today I am accompanied by a picture of Eli Cohen, the hero of Israel. "



In 1967 he returned to Israel and was appointed Deputy Director of the Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later was appointed to head the Research Department where he made his first steps.

In 1971 he returned to the embassy in Paris as a delegate.

Yossi and Stella Hadas with Pope John Paul II, Brussels, 1986 (Photo: courtesy of the family)

His experience led him to key positions on the front lines of Israeli diplomacy in the following years.

At the beginning of the peace talks with Egypt, Hadas was asked by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan to prepare a document recommending the establishment of autonomy in the territories, and was later appointed in charge of implementing the peace agreements with Egypt.



In fact, Hadas was the first Israeli diplomat in Egypt, and he was tasked with preparing and opening the embassy in Cairo.

On February 18, 1980, he hoisted the Israeli flag on the roof of the embassy building, declaring, "This is a historic moment. Israel has a home in Egypt, and in a few days Egypt will also have a home in Israel."

When he finished his work in the Foreign Ministry, he said that this class moved him more than any other class.

"We were like dreamers," he said of those historic days.



In Cairo, too, he forged warm ties and "managed to break down barriers," as journalist Smadar Perry wrote about him in those days.

"A sympathetic personality and a ready smile that helped break the ice with officials, knowledge of Arabic, Egyptian culture and 29 years in the Foreign Service - all stood by his side in Cairo, and Dr. Hadas managed to get invitations to Egyptian homes from all walks of life," she described. The embassy returned to Israel and was appointed deputy director of the ministry in charge of relations with Egypt.

"A man like Yossi has an archive of memory, good connections and also a kind of sixth sense."

Hadas (Photo: Official Website, Hernik Nati, GPO)

In the early 1980s he was appointed ambassador to Denmark and later to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union.

In 1987 he was appointed Vice President for Africa, Asia and Oceania and later as Vice President in charge of Western Europe and Latin America.



After many years in the service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1991 he was appointed Foreign Minister David Levy as Director General of the Ministry, and he was also part of the Israeli delegation to the Madrid Conference. He later headed Uri Lubrani with the Israeli delegation for talks with Lebanon. Kosher for the ministry, and retired in 1993. Two years later he returned from retirement and accepted a request from Peres to head the Israeli delegation for talks on displaced persons in 1967.



Hadas was buried on Sunday in the cemetery in Kiryat Anavim, near the military section where his brother Mordechai's tomb fell. The trajectory of his life.

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Source: walla

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