{"id":1150,"date":"2019-04-01T10:47:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T07:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2019-04-01T10:47:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T07:47:45","slug":"the-jewish-spies-who-posed-as-arabs-new-york-times-review-march-22-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/2019\/04\/01\/the-jewish-spies-who-posed-as-arabs-new-york-times-review-march-22-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jewish Spies Who Posed as Arabs (New York Times review, March 22, 2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Neal Bascomb<\/em><\/p>\n

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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 \u2014 or, more aptly, their humanity. Matti Friedman\u2019s \u201cSpies of No Country\u201d stands out as a wondrous exception.<\/p>\n

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 \u201con 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four men, Gamliel, Isaac, Havakuk and Yakuba \u2014 all in their 20s \u2014 were members of the Arab Section, a secret unit led by the Jewish militia in Palestine. Called the \u201cOnes Who Become Like Arabs,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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: \u201cThe distance between alive and dead had already become negligible \u2014 the length of an incorrect verb, an inconsistent reply to a sharp question.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n