Who were the Mossad’s Arab Spies? | Unpacked

the most successful spies are the ones you've never heard of the ones who move in the shadows who learn to blend in maybe that's why few people outside of Israel know the names of the Spy Masters behind the mad's legendary reputation but the Jews of Palestine who fought to build the Jewish homeland weren't thinking about their future reputations they were too busy focusing on Survival their home was surrounded by enemies and if they wanted to win the war that everyone knew was coming they needed intelligence that's how Israel's first undercover agents ended up Behind Enemy

Lines armed with little more than a DieHard commitment to protect a state that barely existed half of these men wouldn't live to see 30 but every single one can be credited with building a piece of the mosad this is the story of Israel's first undercover spy unit As Told in mati fredman's book Spies of No Country in November of 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two countries one for Jews one for Arabs both sides had spent the day glued to their radios when the decision came through the wires palestine's Jews poured into

the streets crying and dancing with joy the attacks on Jews began the next day at first palestine's Arabs played offense while the Jews went on the defense but soon Hardline Jewish groups were setting off bombs in marketplaces and theaters each one a message to palestine's Arabs we ain't going nowhere but Wars are not one with bombs and bullets alone there's a cliche that knowledge is power in this case knowledge was the difference between dead Jews and living ones and this is why the Jews of Palestine needed spies but not just any spies they needed spies

who could blend in the cafes of the Arab world striking up conversations and combing for any hint of future plans spies who could drive undetected through Arab cities tracking the location of Fighters and weapons spies who could slip into to weapon storehouses with bombs or grenades who could follow around the most violent Arab leaders until they knew their routines and their vulnerabilities by heart they needed spies who could think on their feet who could inhabit their characters who could watch without getting too close who could shoot to kill never losing sight of their mission in

other words they needed Spies Like Gamel Cohen and Isaac Shoshan neither one had come to Palestine to be spies but they were tired of living like second-class citizens in their native Syria Isaac was tired of being too poor to afford a pair of shoes too afraid of his Muslim neighbors to say the word Zionism out loud so at 18 years old he scraped together whatever money he could find and then without telling his father he paid a Smuggler to speared him over the border to Palestine Gamel was tired of praying towards Zion of ending every

Passover seder with the words next year in Jerusalem when Jerusalem was right there at the age of 21 he decided he wouldn't wait for next year he'd walk to Palestine if he had to and that's where they met the Pak fight wrers that would change the course of their Futures in the 6 months between the UN vote on partition and Israel's Declaration of Independence the Jews of Palestine were in a strange position they had the world's approval to build a state they had plenty of infrastructure and institutions but they didn't actually have a country and

that meant they didn't actually have an army just three paramilitaries that would soon combine to become the IDF the Pak was the most elite Strike Force within the biggest Jewish paramilitary but this wasn't exactly the Navy Seals the palak Fighters were under funded and underresourced their most powerful weapon was their determination and now they're cohort of arabic speaking Jews Like Isaac and Gamel they learned the intricacies of Muslim prayer five times a day before they took to their mats they washed thoroughly first their hands then their mouths around their noses well into his '90s Isaac

could still perform the choreography by memory they learned how to load clean and take apart guns how to shoot quickly and accurately no matter the target they learned to build explosives out of whatever was handy how to shake a stalker they learned how to think quickly how to maintain a cover story when a stranger prodded too hard how to get someone talking without realizing what they were saying in short they learned how to become the men they pretended to be because though they spoke and dressed and ate and looked like their Arab neighbors they were

not Arabs it didn't matter which country they were from it didn't matter how high they Rose in society how much wealth or education they had even how many centuries they lived in their homes soon sooner or later their neighbors reminded them that they were not Arabs they were not Muslims they were not the masters of their own Destinies not until they came to Israel but once they joined the undercover spy unit creatively named the Arab section they were no longer Jews either at least not most of the time they were MIM literally those who become

like Arabs but what does it mean to be like an Arab today Israel has extensive training protocols for its undercover agents in fact you might even be familiar with some of them if you watch the TV show faala the men and women of that unit are also mvi they have far more resources than their predecessors from trained snipers to fancy Tech they can jam communication signals or watch their targets from drones but Gamel and Isaac's training was a far cry from the extensive well organized Protocols of the 21st century their Handler made up everything as

he went along including what it means to be like an Arab for Gamel being like an Arab meant going to the beautiful mosque in hia to listen to a fierce preacher known as the tiger it meant pretending to pray with great sincerity while the tiger lectured the mosque's 700 men about their holy duty to fight the Jews it meant watching the tiger carefully counting his bodyguards assessing his influence and his influence was huge he had managed to Rally much of Arab HPA to his side the Jews could not afford to lose the coastal city with

its Port access and its bustling industry and its worldclass research University it was decided the tiger must be stopped and it was Isaac who would help stop him as the shikh traveled back from Damascus where he'd gone to ask the San government to supply more guns to the Arab fighters in Palestine Isaac watched the highway like a hawk he gave the signal and the Jewish assassins pulled up along the Tiger's car they aimed their machine guns and then they sprayed these were the kinds of missions the Arab section carried out slightly haphazard very low Tech

and a far cry from some of the mad's future missions as the tiger put it later lead fell upon us like the patter of rain most of his companions were killed somehow he survived but the spies of the Arab section had been triumphant the shikh left K and his burgeoning force of Fighters never to return hia was now vulnerable after a chaotic battle the city fell to the Jews the Arabs of the region knew something was a foot they plastered Arab cities with posters warning people of spies and imposters Arab Society kept their eyes and

ears out for anyone with the suspicious accent or fumbled prayer or lack of familiarity with cultural norms many of the spies were caught their deaths are too gruesome to describe still the rest of the Arab section kept going they had no other choice theirs was a flinty bravery born of desperation less than 5 years before a third of the world's Jews had been systematically exterminated every Jew understood the stakes if their fragile little Homeland caved under the constant Arab assault and that's how Gamel Cohen Alias YF Al hammed ended up in beut entirely alone he

had no Jewish neighborhood to slip back to no Strike Force around him no friends who knew his real name he'd watched Men get dragged off buses and beaten on suspicion that they were Jewish spies he'd even heard it suggested over and over that he himself was not what he seemed and each time he'd had to calm his racing heart and react with the appropriate mix of insult and ridicule me YF Al hammed a spy a Jew are you nuts for 2 years he sold candy and school supplies in Beirut and watched his neighbors closely at

first he was alone he couldn't make contact with the local Jewish community that would blow his cover and endanger them beirut's Jews were already under constant attack as revenge for the war in Israel but gamiel wasn't alone for long soon his fellow spies showed up together they began sending home their reports they monitored the mood in Lebanon the newspaper coverage of the war to the South the sympathies of the Christians the anger of the Muslims the plight of the refugees who had left Palestine for safety in another Arab land they also reported that beut had

no way to defend itself from aerial attack that weapons and cars were being unloaded at the port to help Arab states in the war effort against the Jews that there were several good targets to bomb in the city like warehouses and petroleum stores if it came to that the kind of knowledge you need if you're going to attack a city but the war did not come to beut Hitler's yacht did the men of the Arab section hadn't lost family in the Holocaust but they were just as eager to see Justice done as the next two

and so when they learned that a yacht that had once belonged to Hitler was now anchored in Beirut they became obsessed as if its history wasn't bad enough the yacht was on its way to Egypt where it might be used in the fight against the Jews unless the spies could stop it the mission was risky it couldn't look like it was coming from the Israelis it certainly couldn't come from inside Beirut so when the yacht went out to sea the Spy sent a swimmer armed with two mines into the water under the cover of Darkness

he attached both mines to the boat and then they waited for the explosion and waited and waited and waited 2 weeks later as they were planning a new Mission they heard a mighty explosion from the harbor the blast was dramatic the swimmer had attached the explosive to the fuel tank for weeks Lebanese papers speculated about the mysterious explosion but no one even considered that it was the Jews who had destroyed the yacht this was of course a good thing it would have been disastrous for both the spies and the Jewish community of Beirut if anyone

had suspected that Jews of any nationality were behind the attack the out was never sent to Egypt so we don't know what damage it could have done maybe its elimination saved lives maybe not but the psychological benefits were huge a symbol of Hitler had followed Jews across the world to their Homeland their safe place but they blew it out of the water as if to say we will never be weak again and that is the real Legacy of the Arab section their successes aren't measured in their dramatic defeats and thrilling assassinations or daring escapes they're

much quieter and deeper than that we don't know for sure how many lives they saved though we do know that many gave their lives for the cause and we know that without the expertise they built through trial and error through Years of Living Undercover the Massad would not be the same Israel would not be the same by definition a spy works in the shadows and behind the scenes and for every Spy whose name we know whose accomplishments we can list there are 10 more whose contributions will never come to light but we know Isaac and

gamel's names and stories they're a symbol of every Spy that served with them and every Spy that came after