"Countries have secret histories and secret identities, just like their spies."It was 1948, the year of the end of the British mandate in Palestine. The State of Israel does not yet exist, but its secret agents are already playing a complex intelligence game. Infiltrating the Arab environment, gathering information, preparing sabotage, dangerous meetings and working under someone else's guise-this is the vocation of fearless young spies. They do not yet have their own country, but they are ready to give their lives for it. They rely only on the ingenuity, luck and support of their comrades. The price of a mistake is death.Journalist Matti Friedman, a former reporter for the Associated Press, presents a new investigative piece on the creation of Israel's famous political intelligence service, the Mossad, one of the most powerful intelligence services in the world. The fascinating story is based on the testimony of surviving intelligence officers and first declassified documents from the Israeli military archive.