Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti FriedmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
During the pre-state days of the Palestine Mandate, years before the creation of the Modern State of Israel there was constant fighting between Jews and Arabs. While during the day to day routine they worked and lived side by side but as things progressed relations began to deteriorate.
The Yishuv or prestate government ran the Jewish settlement and the Hagannah was the self defense force for the Jews. The striking arm was called the Palmach. By and large these Jews had socialist.communist leanings. They were secular and very European. Events in Europe propelled them to Palestine. Yet as fighting increased and more lives were lost the Zionists needed a set of eyes within the Arab world to gather intelligence and to commit acts of espionage.
To get those spies in on the Arab side the Palmach created a division to infiltrate the other side. This unit was called the “Dawn” it was comprised of Mizrachi or Middle Eastern Jews who could look and act Arabic. This unit would operate both within the Palestinian Arab community and within the Arab world at large. The book focuses on 4 of them. They formed Beirut unit and sent messages via Morse code. All 4 of them had family from the Middle East.
Among some of the operation they performed were 2 inside pre-state Palestine. One operation involved the attempted assassination of a terrorist leader/preacher, which ultimately failed but in the end scared the fanatic into silence. Another operation involved hearing about an ambulance that was going to be rigged with bombs and set off to blow up in the Jewish areas. They blew it up in the garage killing the mechanic and other Palestinian fighter.
Most of their action though takes place in Beirut where they assumed the identity of Palestinian refugees. They ran the Three Moon kiosk and gathered tidbit of information which they radioed back to Palmach. Among some of their exploits are blowing up a ship and attempting to blow up a refinery only too have it cancelled at the last minute.
The book gives good insight into their lives and backgrounds. The scene in Palestine is described as well. Great book and too bad it was not longer.
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