Cohen was born in Israel to Moshe and Leah Cohen, who immigrated from
Afghanistan in 1951. Because of his origin, he was nicknamed the "Afghan". He grew up in
Tel Aviv and graduated from a religious high school in
Pardes Hanna-Karkur. He was drafted into the IDF in 1979, and did his military service in the
Golani Brigade. He served as a soldier and a
squad leader in the brigade's
reconnaissance company. In 1982, after finishing his compulsory service in the IDF, he started working at Shin Bet; his first post was security officer for the field coordinators. After studying an Arabic course and having been sent to the Shin Bet field coordinators course, he became, in 1983, field coordinator of
Binyamin Region, and in 1989 the field coordinator of
Ramallah Region. In 1991 he was appointed head of the Operative Desk in
Yehuda Region, and in 1996 he was appointed head of the Terror Prevention Division in Yehuda Region. Between 1999–2001 he served as head of the Arab-Iranian Terror Prevention Division. In 2003 he was appointed head of the
Jerusalem and
Judea and Samaria Area. In 2005 he was elected deputy to Shin Bet chief
Yuval Diskin, and engaged in policy-building and organizational decisions. In 2008 he was a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, DC. Upon his return to Israel in 2010, he was responsible for formulating the concept of service management in the coming decade. On 15 May 2011 Cohen became the twelfth Director of Shin Bet, replacing Diskin. ==Education==