Award winning journalist and author Matti Friedman joins Eve to discuss his new release, ’Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel’. This fantastic book tells the true story of four Jewish young men from the Arab world who play a risk laden, integral role in establishing Israel via a nascent organization that eventually becomes the legendary Mossad. The idea of Israel as a haven for mainly European Jewry gets wiped out with the Holocaust; instead it becomes home to ‘Mizrachi’ Jewish refugees whose continuous discrimination by -but ultimate influence on and integration with- ‘Ashkenazim’ is a huge part of what defines Israel today. The Jewish state’s current conservative tilt, emphasis on faith and family, melding of music and fabulous food is all part of a unique culture that can’t be understood outside a Mid East context. There’s no place like it, and this book pays homage to little known individuals whose willingness to live as Arab Muslims was an incalculable sacrifice that led to the birth of the state.
