Spies of No Country: Israel's Secret Agents at the Birth of the Mossad Paperback – February 4, 2020

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.

Highly recommend this book.

Worth reading

Friedman's meticulous research and passion for the subject are obvious throughout this book. As he tells the story of Israel's first spies, sent out before Israel was even officially a country, the reader learns about one of the fascinating episodes in Jewish history.Despite having never heard this story before and being a fan of historical nonfiction, this book just didn't grab me. I found myself interested enough each time I picked it up, but not interested enough to pick it up that often. I began it on December 8th and finished it on February 21st, during which time I finished 47 other books - this speaks volumes! The publisher's blurb makes it sound like this novel is full of intrigue and suspense, a lot like a Tom Clancy or Dale Brown novel. Sadly, though the intrigue, betrayal, and danger are all there - there just wasn't any suspense. I felt no emotion while reading this book. Sure, the facts were interesting enough and I continued reading, but the only compulsion I ever felt to pick the book back up was guilt because I accepted the book in exchange for providing a review. Honestly, had I not felt obligated to complete a review, I may not have finished the book. But, I contrast that with the fact that each time I did pick it up, I read without boredom.So, I'm giving this one 3 stars: 2 for the actual book itself and a bonus 1 for the obvious research that went into making sure it was an accurate portrayal of a story that really needs to be told.Disclaimer: I received a free advanced copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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.

I felt their isolation, lost in this no man’s land. Their destiny running parallel to Israel’s, twisting in the wind.

It's almost an oxymoron to be a "spy of no country," and yet here it is: spies of a yet-to-be country, so immersed in their work that they were unaware of Israel's birth. The danger was palpable, and Friedman portrays it with tasteful restraint.Words rarely fail me, but in trying to describe the book, here they do. It's small, but it's intensely moving. It was hard to put down.