Of the first meeting, in February 1917 in a hallway of the Savoy Hotel in Cairo that was serving as the British Army's Middle East headquarters, Florence writes "[that] by then their separate plans to reshape the Middle East were already in motion. And the two ambitious and strong-willed men would discover that the fortunes they had planned for Palestine were on a collision course."
With those few meetings to go on, Florence's narrative in "Lawrence and Aaronsohn" becomes one of alternating accounts. And with Lawrence such familiar territory -- if only from the Peter O'Toole portrayal -- the reader will be tempted to skim through those chapters. But with Aaronsohn there is the freshness of discovery.
In 1917, Aaronsohn was 41 -- two years older than Lawrence -- and already a person of some international distinction. Growing up in Palestine, he had become an expert on the region's ecology, with his discovery of a potentially valuable strain of wheat bringing him to the attention of American Jewish leaders.
And from years spent exploring the region, usually on horseback, he had information of great value to British intelligence services -- the likely sources of underground water, deduced from the ruins of ancient cities, and the disposition of Turkish forces.
While frequently rebuffed by the British, Aaronsohn, with knowledge of the treatment of Armenians by the Turks, believed that a British victory was vital for the future of Jews in Palestine.
As a spy, Aaronsohn had an equal in his younger sister, Sarah. She was, writes Florence, "a beautiful and sensuous woman" who was also "a fearless and adventurous horsewoman." Forced into a joyless and loveless marriage with a Constantinople merchant, at the first opportunity she returned to Palestine.
With her brother on military missions in Cairo and London, she soon took over the espionage operations of NILI -- the Hebrew initials for "The glory of Israel does not deceive" -- an underground group made up of recruits from her brother's agricultural research station.
