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

This book is quite unique! Rather than aloofly discussing the seeds of the Arab - Israeli conflict, the author sets out to write biographies of two major proponents from opposite sides whose lives set the wheels in motion, or, at least, advanced the wheels that had already been set in motion. Brilliant approach. Excellent scholarship. For anyone interested in the history of the AI conflict and biographies, this is outstanding! I'd buy it again and read it again, new or used. It was worthwhile! A-.

Through careful research and telling, Florence tracks T. E. Lawrence as he seeks to help the Arabs (whom he has romanticized since childhood) help the British in WWI. Similarly, he tracks Aaron Aaronsohn, who bravely and methodically parleys his agricultural research station's observation capability into war intelligence for the British. Both men see war participation as a stragegy to advance their skeptical consitituencies in the aftermath of war. Both have to work to get the ear of the British bureaucracy. One of Florence's theses is that in the work of Lawrence and Aaronsohn we can see the beginnings of the Arab Israeli conflict. The other is that while Lawrence is better known, Aaronson's work is more lasting. I was particularly drawn to the childhoods of the two men. Lawrence's was a 99% guarantee that he'd be eccentric. Aaronsohn's brought to life the early days of Israeli settlers, how they came to the Middle East and how they contended with both European patrons and Ottoman overseers. There are many well written episodes, besides those of the childhoods these include tense moments in spying, Sarah Aaronsohn's ultimate sacrifice and descriptions of some of the Arab operations. The text devoted to Lawrence's loss of his manuscript and Aaronsohn's death is short in relation to their respective impact, but both are followed by a very good analysis of the impact of the men's lives on the future.

All too often nonfiction authors spin a captivating tale based on poorly researched nonsense, relying on secondary sources with an occasional dip into a primary source composed in the only language of which the author has full command. Ronald Florence is not such an author. He is a skilled historian with a talent for painting lush portrayals of great personalities while capturing fine details that surprise the reader. In "Lawrence and Aaronsohn," one of our heroes is a young and romantic scholar-soldier whose over-confidence drives him across the desert to victory in Damascus and personal suffering and humiliation in Deraa. The other is an ornery genius who, anxious over the fate of the starving Jews at the hands of the Turks, abandons science for espionage opening the doors of the Middle East to Great Britain while sealing the fate of his sister Sarah. Florence's narrative will not only entertain you but may also offer you some insight into the seeds of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

As in a number of new books such as Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict this book seeks to examine the 'seeds' of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But the approach here is quite original, in a dual biography of a leading Zionist and Arabist the roots of the conflict are drawn by those actors who worked to create the facts on the ground after the First World War. T.E. Lawrence was one of the most celebrated figures of the war who helped lead an irregular force of Arabs under the Sharif of Mecca, the Hussein family, to victory in Damascus. But Lawrence was more than a British officer, he was a lover of the Arabs and adopted their cause as his own. He drew maps granting them new countries and wanted to decide the future of the Middle East based on his Bedouin friends. But time was against him as Ibn Saud conquered Arabia and Faisal and Abdullah were ejected, eventually pushed from Damascus they found themselves in Iraq and Jordan. Only in Jordan would the legacy of Lawrence find root in a Bedouin state and a new Lawrence, Sir John Bagot Glubb, would help lead Jordan to a partial victory over Israel in 1948. Juxtaposed with Lawrence is Aaron Aaronsohn, a Palestinian born Jew, he was a leading agronomist who desired to build a new Jewish state in Palestine. He worked to develop land purchased for Jewish pioneers. Aaronsohn saw in the British key allies of the Jews and as victors they would be the ones to help guide the Jews to statehood and safety. The book is a series of vignettes of these two men as they lobby England to support their two causes and although originally the causes are mutually beneficial(King Faisal supported the Zionists in Palestine), eventually they become antagonistic by the 1920s. The biggest drawback of this book is that these men are in-comparable. Aaronsohn is a Jew from a backward province, T.E Lawrence an Englishmen from the greatest power of the day. Instead the book could have compared Lawrence with Richard Mienertzhagen or Orde Wingate, both of whome were pro-Zionists and were like a T.E Lawrence for the Jews of Palestine. Nevertheless this is a well written and interesting book. Seth J. Frantzman