How a second lieutenant from Oxfordshire and a Jewish agronomist from Palestine mapped the land and conflicts of the modern Middle East. Historian Florence provides new perspectives on the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the turmoil of World War I, while the Great Powers secretly plotted the future of the Middle East, Lawrence of Arabia and Aaron Aaronsohn audaciously imagined new nations--Arab and Jewish--rising from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. The iconic T. E. Lawrence used his assignment of coordinating Arab support for British war strategies to advance the dreams of an Arab state, while now unsung Aaronsohn gave up a distinguished career in science and, with his sister Sarah, established a secret spy network in wartime Palestine, providing 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.--From publisher description.