Spies is the story of four Mizrachi men.[1] They were not related to one another despite the fast that three of them shared a surname. They were Gamliel Cohen and Isasc Shoshan, who grew up in Syria, Havakuk Cohen from Yemen, Yakuba Cohen, from Palestine.[1][2] All four were native Arabic speakers.[1] They operated as mista'arvim, "Ones Who Become Like Arabs," but Friedman raises an interesting question, "They were native to the Arab world," Friedman writes, "as native as Arabs. If the key to belonging to the Arabic nation was the Arabic language, as the Arab nationalists claimed, they were inside.