Yehoshua Cohen

Yehoshua Cohen (Hebrew: יהושע כהן; June 22, 1922 – August 8, 1986) was a leading member of Lehi, a Zionist militant group, who assassinated United Nations envoys Folke Bernadotte and André Sérot on September 17, 1948. Cohen was never charged for his role in the assassination, and was one of the founders of the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev Desert, where David Ben-Gurion later lived. While Ben-Gurion lived at Sde Boker, he and Cohen became close friends.

Early life and activity Cohen was born in Petah Tikva in 1922, the son of a farmer. He was one of two sons born to Yaakov and Bluma Cohen. Cohen grew up in Kfar Saba. He joined the Lehi at age sixteen, and soon became a prominent fighter within the organization. In 1942, after the arrest of a number of Lehi members, Cohen was "among the few who remained at large and recruited a new generation" of members.

In September 1942, Cohen helped Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir escape from a British prison. Cohen smuggled two Polish Army uniforms to Shamir and another prisoner, Eliahu Gilaldi, who disguised themselves in the uniforms and then crawled under the barbed wire surrounding the prison. For his role in the escape, Cohen became recognized as "Lehi's most valued fighter".

Moyne assassination

In 1944, the leaders of Lehi decided to assassinate Lord Moyne, the British Minister of State for the Middle East. Yitzhak Shamir originally planned the assassination, and chose Eliyahu Bet-Zuri and Eliyahu Hakim to carry it out. Cohen was picked to train the two assassins for their mission, and traveled from Tel Aviv to spend several weeks training them in Jerusalem. After the assassination, Cohen became "a legend" within Lehi, and a reward was once again offered for his capture.

After the attack, Cohen was also involved in planning an attack on Harold MacMichael that failed. Shortly thereafter, Cohen was apprehended by the British and sent to a detention centre in Africa. On July 6, 1948, the British released Cohen, along with a large number of other detainees in response to Israel's independence. Lehi saw Bernadotte as a British and Arab puppet, and thus a serious threat to the emerging State of Israel, and feared that the provisional Israeli government would accept his plan, which it considered disastrous. The Lehi leadership approved the assassination, and Yehoshua Zeitler began to make plans for it. Cohen was chosen to lead the actual attack on Bernadotte and picked two other long-time members: Yitzhak Ben Moshe and Avraham Steinberg, to join him.

Cohen began training his team in West Jerusalem in August, practicing with the weapons and tactics they would use in the assassination. During the planning stage, Zetler and Cohen chose to ambush Bernadotte on a narrow road in the Katamon neighborhood, blocking his vehicle with a Jeep across the road and then attacking.

On September 17, 1948, Cohen and his team put their plan into action. As planned, they placed a Jeep across the road to stop Bernadotte's convoy at around 5:00 PM. Moshe and Steinberg then opened fire on the tires of Bernadotte's vehicle, while Cohen fired inside the car with a MP40 machine gun, killing Bernadotte and his aide, Andre Serot.

The identity of the assassins remained unknown for some time, with various nations accusing each other of complicity until eventually it became clear that Lehi was responsible. Although Cohen's involvement was an open secret within Lehi and other groups, his role was not made public for over forty years.

Later life

After the assassination, Cohen was one of the founders of the Sde Boker kibbutz, established in 1952. The kibbutz later became home to David Ben-Gurion, the former Prime Minister of Israel, in 1956. At Sde Boker, Cohen became Ben-Gurion's unofficial bodyguard and confidant, and the two grew very close. According to a New York Times article from 1964, Cohen became Ben-Gurion's "closest companion." Cohen also served as the head of security at Sde Boker.

Cohen died at Sde Boker of a heart attack in 1986 at the age of 64, with his role in the attack still unclear,