They fled to Beirut, where they spent the next two years under cover, sending messages back to Israel over a radio antenna disguised as a clothesline. When the first Jewish-Arab war erupted in 1948 and Palestinian refugees began fleeing the fighting, a small number of Section agents disguised as refugees joined the exodus. Consisting of Jews from Arab countries who could pass as Arabs, it was meant to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations. The tiny, amateur unit known as the 'Arab Section' was conceived during WWII by British spies and by Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. In his third non-fiction book, Matti Friedman introduces us to four unknown young men who are caught up in the fraught events surrounding the birth of Israel in 1948 and drawn into secret lives, becoming the nucleus of Israel's intelligence service. Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Spies of No Country is an eye-opening look at the paradoxes of the Middle East.From the award-winning and critically-acclaimed author of Pumpkinflowers, the never-before-told story of the mysterious 'Arab Section': the Jewish-'Arab' spies who, under deep cover in Beirut as refugees, helped the new State of Israel win the War of Independence.

Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities of these young spies, but it?s also about the complicated identity of Israel, a country that presents itself as Western but in fact has more citizens with Middle Eastern roots and traditions, like the spies of this narrative. But in the end, the Arab Section would emerge as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel?s vaunted intelligence agency. Of the dozen spies in the Arab Section at the war?s outbreak, five were caught and executed. In 1948, with Israel?s existence hanging in the balance, these men went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a newsstand, collecting intelligence and sending messages back to Israel via a radio whose antenna was disguised as a clothesline.

Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage operations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. Journalist and award-winning author Matti Friedman?s tale of Israel?s first spies reads like an espionage novel-but it?s all true. The four agents at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Piercing.? The New York Times Book ReviewĪward-winning writer Matti Friedman?s tale of Israel?s first spies has all the tropes of an espionage novel, including duplicity, betrayal, disguise, clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff?but it?s all true.

Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman