Aaronsohn's Maps

Scientist, diplomat, and spy, Aaron Aaronsohn was one of the most extraordinary figures in the early struggle to create a homeland for the Jews. Born to Jewish settlers in Palestine, he ran a network of spies during World War I with his sister Sarah that enabled the British to capture Jerusalem and made Aaron T.E. Lawrence's rival in an astonishing triangle: There is evidence that beautiful, rebellious Sarah, who died tragically in 1917, was the only woman Lawrence ever loved. A rugged adventurer, Aaronsohn became convinced during his explorations of the Middle East that water would govern the region's fate. He compiled both the area's first detailed water maps and a plan for Palestine's national borders that predicted and -- in its insistence on partnership between Arabs and Jews -- might have prevented the decades of conflict to come. If Aaron had lived to carry out his vision, the course of modern history might have been very different. But the taste for power that drew Aaron from science to politics led to his premature and mysterious death in 1919. His maps were lost, his library was destroyed, and his story obscured. A history that speakes directly to the present, Aaronsohn's Maps reveals for the first time Aaronsohn's key role in establishing Israel and the enduring importance of Aaronsohn's maps in Middle Eastern politics today. - Jacket flap.