Episode Overview
Podcast: Ask Haviv Anything
Host: Haviv Rettig Gur
Guest: Matti Friedman (author and journalist)
Episode: 36: How marginalized Mizrahim became Israel's first spies
Date: August 15, 2025
This episode delves into the remarkable but often overlooked story of pre-state Israeli espionage—specifically, the “Arab Section,” a ragtag group of young, marginalized Mizrahi Jews who, by virtue of their background, were among the Jewish community’s first deep-cover spies. Through discussion of Matti Friedman's book Spies of No Country, Haviv and Matti examine how these spies’ identities both marginalized and empowered them, and the enduring impact of Mizrahi Jews on Israeli society, culture, and history.
Key Themes & Discussion Points
1. Setting the Scene: Pre-State Vulnerability and Urgency
- (07:23 - 10:35)
- Haviv frames the stakes: The run-up to Israel’s declaration of independence, a time of intense vulnerability for the Jewish community (the Yishuv).
- Jews were outnumbered, poorly armed, and had almost no intelligence on Arab military intentions. The founding of a Jewish state was by no means a given.
- The need for espionage arose "because everything on the other side of the barbed wire fence is very mysterious to them." (Matti, 09:18)
2. The Birth of Israeli Espionage: The Arab Section
- (10:35 - 15:20)
- The “Arab Section” started as a tiny, makeshift operation—basically a dozen young men, mostly recent arrivals from the Arab world, who could naturally blend in as Arabs.
- The project’s roots trace to British intelligence needs during WWII, leveraging Jews’ linguistic flexibility; some Jews could pass as Germans, others as Arabs, etc.
- After WWII, visionary Jews (notably Shimon Samech/Saman, an Iraqi Jew) insisted that “becoming like Arabs” could be an existential asset—even as these Jews were often otherwise treated as “suspicious” and marginal.
"He saw that that wasn’t just a disability. He saw that that was a superpower and he started picking them up. And that’s who forms the Arab section."
– Matti Friedman (14:38)
3. Flawed Training, Fatal Consequences
- (17:06 - 21:06)
- The “training” for these early spies was rudimentary—learning surface-level Islamic practices, refining accents, and improvising as they went.
- Their accents and lack of knowledge of daily Islamic ritual often gave them away.
- Example: Two Jewish agents in Jaffa were captured in 1947 after failing to properly perform Muslim ablutions; their bodies were not discovered for decades.
"So they were trained, but their training was pretty shoddy. And of the 12 guys or so who are active at the beginning of the war, about half of them die as a result.”
– Matti Friedman (21:02)
4. Not-So-Glamorous Espionage: Ragtag Heroes
- (21:06 - 27:05)
- Anecdotes highlight improvisation bordering on the absurd:
- The “Haifa bomb” episode illustrates a plan to destroy an Arab truck bomb using a car bomb which required finding a condom for a timer and involved two agents who barely knew how to drive.
- Israeli proto-spies lacked resources: they owned no cameras, had to borrow equipment, and only later smuggled rudimentary radios into Lebanon.
- Anecdotes highlight improvisation bordering on the absurd:
"It’s a real spy story where no one knows what’s going on, and it’s impossible to predict the results of your operations.”
– Matti Friedman (25:39)
5. Poignant and Painful Moments
- (29:58 - 32:29)
- The real stakes were life and death; agents in Beirut saw a newsreel showing two colleagues executed in Egypt.
- The lack of sophisticated cover stories and support systems led to high casualties and created persistent uncertainty about whether they even had a country to return to.
6. Marginality as Double-Edged Sword
- (32:29 - 39:24)
- The Arab Section’s Mizrahi Jews were “too Arab” for mainstream (Ashkenazi-dominated) society, but this difference was their “superpower” in intelligence and almost nowhere else.
- Most entered a still Eurocentric state where their backgrounds remained a liability outside the intelligence world.
- Their stories are almost absent from the conventional Israeli canon, even though their contribution was foundational.
"Their social disability is also their superpower. And that’s really the kind of the heart of it... The only place where they were appreciated was in the spy world."
– Matti Friedman (34:45)
7. Reframing Israeli Identity: Beyond Victimhood
- (44:01 - 47:38)
- Matti cautions against reducing Mizrahi history to victimhood—stressing their heroism and lasting influence.
- The intelligence community was, for decades, one of the only places where the backgrounds and skills of Jews from the Arab and Islamic world were fully valued.
"The state that we have today was built in equal measure by Jews who came from Europe and Jews who came from the Islamic world… I wanted to tell a story that was a story of heroism. These are Zionist heroes. I mean, these people founded the State of Israel for us…"
– Matti Friedman (44:29)
8. Cultural Legacy and Lasting Transformation
- (49:31 - 55:04)
- Today, more than half of Israeli Jews descend from immigrants from Arab and Islamic lands.
- The mix transformed core aspects of Israeli identity, from language to food, music, religion, and even politics.
- Mizrahi cultural influence can be seen in “almost every way that [Israel] thinks about itself.”
- Haviv reflects humorously on the accents of modern Hebrew and cultural fights about food, using these as fodder to highlight this legacy.
"If you start looking at Israeli politics as Middle Eastern structurally, you’ll suddenly understand what the heck is going on... We are deeply, in deep, subtle, profound ways, a Mizrachi country."
– Haviv Rettig Gur (54:03)
9. Rewriting the Story of Israel
- (55:04 - 56:21)
- Matti suggests flipping the standard narrative: "There were always Jews in the Islamic world... and they were joined by the remnants of the Jews of Europe."
- Placing Mizrahi Jews—and their story—at the center, he argues, "things in this country make a lot more sense."
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On vulnerability and improvisation:
“The Jews do not have artillery, they do not have an Air Force, they do not have an Army. This is February 1948. So they have nothing really. It’s just a gang war at that point.”
— Matti Friedman (23:55) -
On accidental comedy:
“They had to drive this car into that garage and discovered that neither of them knows how to drive a car.”
— Haviv Rettig Gur (26:37) -
On marginalization and its ironies:
“The fact that they knew they were doing it, the fact that there was a lot of criticism even within the state and the elites... didn’t mean they didn’t do it.”
— Haviv Rettig Gur (43:28) -
On reframing Israeli history:
“It makes more sense to see this country in its Middle Eastern context than it does to try to insist that it has something to do with, you know, the Warsaw Ghetto or with Herzl’s Vienna.”
— Matti Friedman (55:53)
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 07:23: How the Yishuv realized it needed intelligence and the origins of the Arab Section
- 10:55: British influence on early Jewish espionage and the crucial role of Shimon Samech
- 17:06: The mishaps and risks of early spy training and its real consequences
- 21:33: The Haifa bomb story and what it reveals about their improvisation
- 26:37: Arresting moments of comic ineptitude—"couldn't drive a car"
- 30:20: Watching friends’ execution in a Lebanese newsreel
- 34:42: How the same qualities that made them outcasts empowered them as spies
- 44:01: Heroism vs. victimhood: the dual legacy of Mizrahi Jews in Israel
- 49:31: Mizrahi influence on language, food, music, politics, and national culture
- 55:04: Rethinking Israeli identity: Mizrahi Jews as the central pillar
Tone & Style
The conversation is thoughtful, often wry, and always personal—blending scholarship and storytelling, high-level historical context, and on-the-ground anecdotes. Haviv’s articulation is probing and warm, with a mix of gravity and humor, while Matti Friedman is earnest, sharply insightful, and quietly passionate about reclaiming the complexity—and centrality—of Mizrahi experience in Israel’s national saga.
Summary Takeaways
- The first Israeli spies were a marginalized, largely Mizrahi group whose “outsider” identities paradoxically made them invaluable to the survival of the Jewish state.
- Their story is one of raw improvisation, immense peril, and neglected heroism.
- Modern Israel’s language, culture, and even politics bear the deep imprint of this Mizrahi legacy—often more than most realize.
- Rethinking Israeli identity through these stories offers a richer, more nuanced understanding of both the past and present.
For listeners interested in unsung heroes, the intersection of identity and nation-building, and the secret history that shapes modern Israel, this episode is a must-hear—and Friedman's book, Spies of No Country, is highly recommended.