[Milsurplus] "One of Mossad's Greatest Successes....and Failures"

[Hubert Miller]

"Secret Operation to Recover the Watch of a Spy Sets Israel Abuzz",    New York Times,  6 July 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/world/middleeast/israel-cohen-watch-spy.html

" Mr. Cohen, an Egyptian Jew, immigrated to Israel in 1957 and joined Israeli military intelligence in 1960. He was assigned to be an undercover agent posing as a wealthy Syrian business executive recently returned from Argentina. He befriended top Syrian officials, whom he lured to his apartment with lavish parties where he dispensed free-flowing liquor and prostitutes. Over the years, he was able to provide the Mossad with extensive information on the Syrian order of battle, the location of fortifications, Syria's relations with the Soviet Union, parliamentary gossip and power struggles within the leadership.
Under pressure from his handlers in Israel, and overconfident in his own cover story, he started broadcasting messages in Morse code on a near-daily basis using a telegraphic device he kept hidden at his home. But his transmitter caused interference with the radio used by the Syrian Army chief of staff command, which was across the street from his apartment, eventually leading to his capture.
....Mr. Cohen's mission in Syria in the early 1960s is perhaps the most fabled military and intelligence episode in Israel's history, and is considered one of the Mossad's greatest successes and failures ever.
....The operation, according to an Israeli official with knowledge of it, was part of a broader 14-year hunt by the Mossad to find Mr. Cohen's body, which 53 years after his execution in Damascus had never been located. The main goal was to recover the body and return it for a hero's burial in Israel. But part of the operation was to recover any personal items belonging to the spy.
The spy agency has invested huge sums and resources in the larger quest, including endangering life and paying bribes to agents and crooks, Israeli intelligence officials said. Still, the body has not been found. "

End quoted material.
This seems an absurdly stupid mistake, does it not ? Professionals at this craft surely should have known better.
This reminds me of an incident recounted to me many years back. It happened that a rented house in Gloversville, N.Y. was only occasionally visited by two people.
A neighbor woman listening to a radio serial 'soap opera' heard a rhythmic clicking on her program that she thought might be telegraphy. She took her story to a local
Navy recruiter station, and then the clue was sent on to the FBI - leading to a raid on the house.
-H.