Spies of No Country: Israel's Secret Agents at the Birth of the Mossad Kindle Edition

On the surface, this concise book is a thrilling untold history of Israel’s first spies. It is in some ways a tale out of a Daniel Silva Gabriel Allon novel. As the title tells us, these were spies of no country: they become spies and operated before the state came into existence. Friedman focuses primarily on four men of the Arab Section. They were recruited to be spies because they could pass as Arabs: they knew the language, the customs, the way of life, in a way only a local could.And this gets to the second layer. These four men were born and raised in the Arab world: they were from Syria, Yemen, and Jerusalem. They were not from Warsaw or Minsk. The Mizrahi, Jews of the Islamic world, were largely invisible in the early days of Israel and in the founding stories of Israel. Friedman’s book is telling the story of these four to help us see the Mizrahi and their importance to Israel; then and today. The title is, I suspect, also part of this layer: the Israel that they become spies for didn’t fully see them. They believed in and spied for the Land of Israel: but the state of Israel came into existence when they were already operating in Beirut and Damascus. By the time they returned to Israel, it was already a very different from the place they left. In this sense too, maybe, they were spies of no country.Another layer of the book is the slipperiness and messiness of identity. This was a time of gigantic shifts and things got very messy, very quickly. The uneasy, yet relatively stable world in Europe was finally destroyed by WWII and now that was happening in the Middle East as new countries, including Israel, created themselves with new identities. This is given some measure of reality with the lives of these four spies. They were Jews born in the Arab world; they grew up speaking Arabic. As these shifts began, they left the Arab world to live among the Jewish, Hebrew speaking communities in what soon would be Israel. But then as spies, they are sent to live as Arabs among the Arabs. This is highlighted by this quote about the men as they were training to be spies: “But were they Arabs? They would have said no, and most Arabs would have said no. But they were native to the Arab world—as native as Arabs. If the key to belonging to the Arab nation was the Arabic language, as the Arab nationalists claimed, they were inside. So were they really ‘becoming like Arabs’? Or were they already Arabs? Were they pretending to be Arabs, or were they pretending to be people who weren’t Arabs pretending to be Arabs?” (58). It’s enough to give anyone an identity crisis!Another layer is the ambiguity of founding stories and myths. This not unique to Israel. Americans face this too in trying somehow to make sense of the intellectual and practical achievements of liberty by men such as Jefferson and Washington with the horrors and evils of slavery in which they partook. Friedman’s book highlights the seeming paradox that Israel born out of the ideas in 19th century Europe is peopled by a population half of whom have grandparents from places like Iraq rather than Poland. Friedman’s spies come from and teach us something about this half of the population. Largely invisible for the first part half of Israel’s existence, they are becoming more and more a prominent part of the country’s culture and politics. Understanding the future of Israel means, in part, understanding this invisible past.Friedman’s book is an opening, an invitation to this past.

This book is very well-written, and conveys the feeling of anxiety, zeal and internal confusion being a spy. The setting of the action - Palestine in the late British Mandate, Lebanon in 1947-49, and Israel just after that is well sketched. The lives of the several Mista’aravim (Arab-speaking Mizrachi Jewish spies) is very well fleshed out. I learned quite a bit, and enjoyed the book.

This book is more than a history of four men who were involved in the gathering of intelligence during the founding of the nation Israel. It also sheds light into the mindset that Israel will always have to fight. The Arab desire to kill the Jews.Also I was reminded that when Israel became a state/nation in 1948 there was no military, no government, no infrastructure, no ... Just a declaration that a new nation exists. This new nation faced enemies on every side save the Med, that were bent on her destruction. This is the reality that Israel faced in 1948 and to a large degree still faces today.What is also interesting is to pay attention to who was arming the Arab countries fighting against Israel.

While the book is very interesting from the spy craft aspect; I took away a lot about the chaos of the middle east in that timeframe and the displacement of many people during this process.

This is the story of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence told from the perspective of four spies from Israel’s “Arab Section” — a precursor of what would eventually become Mossad. Although the book includes a lot of background about the Middle East and the War itself, it is primarily a personal account of the experiences — both internal and external — of the spies.The spies were Jewish men of Arab descent who wanted to be pioneers in the new, experimental (Zionist, socialist, and paradisical) country. Instead they were asked to “live like an Arab” — far from family and friends and amidst people with completely antithetical views (such as “Death to all Jews”). They were given false Arab / Muslim identities and sent out to gather intelligence and sometimes engage in sabotage. When they were finally able to come back to Israel two years later, it was to a completely different place — the reality of the country was a stark contrast to the ideal which they had held. Drawn from interviews, personal writings, and historical reports, the book did a good job of detailing the time and place as well as the attitudes and activities of the spies and those upon whom they spied.The writing is uneven with an irregular structure resulting from the mashing together of personal accounts, historical documentation, and the author’s occasionally inserted opinions. A little more synthesis and coherence would have been very welcome. However, I did learn a great deal and appreciated the way the many details brought the time and place to life for me.While I’ve known the rough history of Israel for a long time, I had either forgotten or never had known many of the specifics that I picked up from the book. At the time Israel declared independence in May 1948, 90% of its Jews were European — and looked down on the “black” Jews of Middle Eastern descent. The creation of Israel was a solution to a European, not Middle Eastern, problem. The declaration of Independence caused a massive influx of Jews from the surrounding Middle Eastern countries — not because they were enamored with the idea of a Jewish state but because they were fleeing a sudden and drastic increase in persecution in their home countries. As an example, according to the book Baghdad was 1/3 Jewish prior to 1948 (pretty much 0% now). So the solution to a European problem resulted in a much more widespread and amplified problem for the same target population in the broader Middle East.Middle Eastern history is long and complicated and this book did not dissuade me from my largely pro-Israel stance. However, it certainly gave me a deeper comprehension of the experiences of the every-day people of the time on both sides of the fluid borders.

Fantastic book! The author takes us on a real life journey of a spy. It isn’t the portrayal seen in Hollywood but immensely compelling nonetheless. The insight and impact of the Arab Section of Israeli intelligence (even before Israel became a state) reveals the sacrifice and courage of these spies in these early days.

This was a great and quick read that opened my eyes to the self identity of the Arab Jews in the beginning years of the state of Israel.

Very nice read and not too heavy going.

I have a totally different perspective now on the creation of Israel.

A fascinating and little known facet of the "dark side", political fumblings and "trial-and-error" information-gathering sagas which preceded the founding of Israël. Very interesting for those who lived through this period, were subjected to its convulsions and are, in general, interested in the Middle East. Political and military objectives and their consequences on the personal lives of men used as "spy guinea-pigs" are presented in such vivid ways that one sometime substitues oneself to the spy and shivers in his place. Well Worth reading.

At last these brave men's lives have been revealed. The unsung story's of greate heroism and patriotic sacrifice for the State of Israel. May G-D continue to watch over their soles and those of their living relatives.

Good read.By someone who really knows the history and paints a colourful picture of the dynamics of spying on a shoestring budget.