Award-winning journalist 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 tells a remarkable story of the founding of the State of Israel through the lens of four men in the fledgling state’s Arab Section ... The book tells their stories in a way that makes the reader empathize with Israel and the Jews and understand why Israel was a much-needed homeland for the Jewish people ... a fascinating account ... in these pages, there is a wealth of information and various tidbits that make it so worthwhile to read.
... wondrous ... 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 Bond-esque 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 ... 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.
If you’re pro-Israel, Friedman’s book offers a cast of humble, hardworking and brave characters who overcame prejudices in their old and new homelands for the greater cause of Judaism. But if you think of Israel less as a victim and more of a victimizer, then Friedman’s book might feel like hagiography, yet another work that idealizes the history of the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus ... admirably, Friedman seems to be telling this story for larger purposes. He wants to shine a light on a band of Arab-born operatives often overlooked in the stories of Israel’s founding as a Holocaust refuge led by Europeans in the Zionist movement ... The book is most engaging when Friedman sticks with one character, in one timeline and in one scene. But often, “Spies of No Country” veers from one timeline to the next and from one spy to the next, and it’s hard to keep track of who’s doing what and when, especially because each of the four spies has aliases that Friedman also uses ... Despite those obstacles, Friedman’s book was still illuminating.
