Lawrence and Aaronsohn: T.E. Lawrence, Aaron Aaronsohn, and the Seeds of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

How Lawrence of Arabia and a Jewish agronomist from Palestine mapped the land and conflicts of the modern Middle East

In the turmoil of the First World War, while the Great Powers secretly plotted the future of the Middle East, a second lieutenant from Oxfordshire and a Jewish agronomist from Palestine audaciously imagined new nations—Arab and Jewish—rising from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. T. E. Lawrence, who would later become the iconic Lawrence of Arabia, used his assignment of coordinating Arab support for British war strategies to advance the dreams of an Arab state. Aaron Aaronsohn gave up a distinguished career in science and, with his sister Sarah, established a secret spy network in wartime Palestine, providing the intelligence that enabled the British victory over the Turks.

Their arguments in wartime Cairo and at the Peace Conference in Paris presaged the political battles of the Middle East today. In this gripping narrative history, Ronald Florence resurrects the exploits and sacrifices of an unsung Zionist hero, deconstructs the legend of Lawrence of Arabia, and provides new perspectives on the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict.