New York Review of Books-Rezension
if experience is any guide, spies are not wont to emote. On the rare occasions they do speak about their perilous missions, they avoid sentiment, as if recounting a visit to the dry cleaners. For this reason, histories often fall short in tapping the depths of their lives - or, more aptiy, their humanity. Matti Friedman's "Spies of No Country" stands out as a wondrous exception. In this genesis story of Israeli intelligence, Friedman focuses on a period of 20 months, beginning in January 1948, on the ports of Haifa and Beirut, and "on four young people drawn from the margins into the center of events. I was looking less for the sweep of history than for its human heart, and found it at these coordinates." The four men, Gamliel, Isaac, Havakuk and Yakuba - all in their 20 s - were members of the Arab Section, a secret unit led by the Jewish militia in Palestine. Called the "Ones Who Become Like Arabs," they were Arab-born Jews put to work as spies and saboteurs in enemy territory. Theirs was a haunting task, where the simplest act could escalate into disaster. In the opening chapter, Gamliel is introduced. He must pick up a ticket to Beirut from a travel agency in an Arab neighborhood of Haifa. Dressed in a suit and carrying luggage, he is operating under the name Yussef el-Hamed from Al-Quds (the Arabic name for Jerusalem). To his surprise, the agency is closed. A passing local stops to interrogate him and quickly becomes suspicious, particularly since posters throughout the neighborhood warn of fifth-columnist traitors. Standing on the sidewalk, Gamliel faces a horrifying situation : " The distance between alive and dead had already become negligible - the length of an incorrect verb, an inconsistent reply to a sharp question." Such moments are the point and purpose of "Spies of No Country." In unadorned yet piercing prose, Friedman (whose previous book, "Pumpkinflowers," was a memoir of his service in the Israeli Army) captures what it was like to be part of the Arab Section. "They had no country - in early 1948, Israel was a wish, not a fact. If they disappeared, they'd be gone. No one might find them. No one might even look. The future was blank. And still they set out into those treacherous times alone." If readers are looking for a three-act narrative of events that shaped the destiny of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, they will not find it in this book. There are certainly episodes of high tension, including the James Bondesque sinking of an armed yacht originally built for Hitler, but there are also many more that highlight the daily struggles these spies faced, whether with boredom, identity crisis, loneliness or their faith in the mission. These personal struggles are just as compelling. A skilled reporter who interviewed Isaac Shoshan, the only surviving member, at length and drew on firsthand accounts of many others, Friedman knows his subject well. Often, he interjects himself, describing what it was like to sit across from the nonagenarian former spy or to visit the heart of Lebanon. At times, these first-person jaunts feel awkward, but others achieve their intent, to evoke a scene or individual more vividly. It's a fine line, but over all Friedman succeeds in portraying the "stories beneath the stories" that acted as bedrock to the rise of the Mossad and serve still as a window into Israel's troubled soul. NEAL BASCOMB is the author of "Hunting Eichmann" and "Winter Fortress," among other narrative histories.
Library Journal-Rezension
Friedman (former Associated Press correspondent; Pumpkinflowers) uses his award-winning storytelling skills to examine the spy network used by the British military and the Jewish militia in Palestine during World War II and afterward. Specifically, Friedman focuses on four members of this group, known as the Arab Section, to tell this true tale. These men, codenamed Yussef, Abdul Karim, Ibrahim, and Jamil, were tasked with intelligence gathering, sabotage, and assassination. Each of them was Jewish and born in the Arab World, which made it easier for them to assume their Arab identities. The main story line begins in 1948 when they were set up at a newsstand in Beirut and passed along vital information back to Israel. Some of the men in the Arab Section were discovered and caught. Others lived through these events to share their incredible accounts. The Arab Section was so successful that it led to the creation of Israel's powerful Mossad intelligence agency. VERDICT Readers interested in the creation of Israel, the lives of spies who assisted in that endeavor, and stories of intrigue will enjoy this tremendously.-Jason L. Steagall, formerly with Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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