Spies in Palestine: Love, Betrayal and the Heroic Life of Sarah Aaronsohn

by James Srodes

Overview

Sarah Aaronsohn was a twenty–first century woman in a nineteenth–century world. She and her siblings were born as part of the first wave of Jewish immigrants who fled the pogroms of Russia and Eastern Europe in the 1880s, settling in the province of Syria–Palestine. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914 the settlers had come a dramatic distance in creating the Eretz Israel of their Biblical prophecies. Sarah's home village of Zichron Ya'akov brought prosperity to their lands between the Mediterranean coast and the Mount Carmel range. But when the Ottoman Turkish Empire sided with Kaiser Wilhelm II and the other Central Powers in World War I, the Jewish settlements faced cruel oppressions.

This book describes how the Aaronsohns, one of the most prominent families in the province, came to commit themselves and their comrades to the Allied side and how they formed the NILI espionage organization to spy against the Turkish Army. Late in the war, in 1917, Sarah assumed command of the spy network as the group's penetration of the Turkish army reached a critical juncture. Sarah was idolized by T.E. Lawrence, the fabled Lawrence of Arabia who dedicated his flowery biography, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, to her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640090057
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	09/12/2017
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

James Srodes is the author of Dream Maker: The Rise and Fall of John Z. DeLorean, Allen Dulles: Master of Spies, Franklin: The Essential Founding Father, and On Dupont Circle: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Progressives Who Shaped Our World. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Prologue xi

Chapter 1 Who was Sarah Aaronsohn? 1

Chapter 2 Friends in America 17

Chapter 3 The Three Pashas 31

Chapter 4 Love and War 47

Chapter 5 Plagues of War and Locusts 63

Chapter 6 Success and Setback 85

Chapter 7 Sarah Takes Command 105

Chapter 8 Sarah Gets Her Orders and NILI Gets Its Name 121

Chapter 9 Sarah and NILI Make a Difference 135

Chapter 10 The Net Closes 155

Epilogue 179

Postscript 187

Notes 191

Acknowledgements 195

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

"Ms. Aaronsohn’s story is grippingly told by James Srodes in an account that also explores, in brisk and incisive language, a phase of World War I that historians tend to skim past. [H]is book is an engaging five cloak/ five dagger read."—Washington Times


"In this engaging story of the woman called the Flame of Israel, a woman greatly admired by the fabled Lawrence of Arabia, Srodes also details the lost opportunity for a peaceful alliance between the new Israel and the indigenous people of the region.” —Booklist

“What the CIA would give for its own Sarah Aaaronsohn gathering secrets in today's Syria—or anywhere else! Spies in Palestine offers not just a relevant, fascinating window into the history of that troubled region, but a riveting spy story told by a master journalist.”—Jeff Stein, intelligence correspondent for Newsweek

“Spies in Palestine brilliantly spins a compelling World War I yarn of a talented and daring family of Jewish settlers who risked everything to help the British defeat the Turkish Empire, an essential step in creating a Jewish homeland. Working parallel to the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, Sarah Aaronsohn and her family have an equal claim to memory in the tragic history of the Middle East.”— David O. Stewart, author of Madison's Gift and The Wilson Deception

“Ms. Aaronsohn’s story is grippingly told by James Srodes in an account that also explores, in brisk and incisive language, a phase of World War I that historians tend to skim past. [H]is book is an engaging five cloak/ five dagger read.”—Washington Times

From the Publisher

2016-07-26
A brief history of Jewish spies aiding the British in Palestine.In the late 19th century, Ephraim and Malkah Aaronsohn and their children settled in Zichron Ya’akov, one of many Palestinian villages established in the 1880s by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, a convert to Zionism, who aspired to grow vineyards in the desert. Srodes (On Dupont Circle: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Progressives Who Shaped Our World, 2012, etc.) traces the family’s history as they confronted an inhospitable climate, turmoil in the Ottoman Empire, anti-Semitism, infighting among Zionists, and World War I. Despite the subtitle, the main character in this tense narrative is Aaron Aaronsohn, the feisty, often overbearing eldest brother. Drawing on sources such as Patricia Goldstone’s Aaronsohn’s Maps (2007) and Ronald Florence’s Lawrence and Aaronsohn (2007), Srodes offers little new. Aaron was a prodigy who taught himself botany, geology, and hydrology; noting his intelligence, the baron sent him to agricultural college in France, hoping to reap the rewards of his learning. Later, he was invited to study in America, where he connected with some prominent Jews, among them Felix Frankfurter, Henry Morgenthau, Louis Brandeis, and Oscar Straus. Besides developing his knowledge of agriculture, Aaron proved a stellar fundraiser for Jewish settlements. Srodes devotes much of the book to revealing the spy network in which Aaron and his sister Sarah played a major role. Facing the Turkish army, the British lacked accurate maps of the region. Aaron provided them and also intelligence gathered from dozens of Jewish spies. In 1917, with Aaron away, Sarah took over and expanded this network. She and a colleague traveled throughout the area posing as Germans, gathering what Srodes deems “priceless details.” Later in 1917, Sarah was tortured and died, making her a martyr for Israel. The author claims that T.E. Lawrence dedicated his Seven Pillars of Wisdom to her, although he has found evidence that Lawrence never met her. Srodes establishes Sarah’s bravery, but she remains a mysterious presence, overshadowed by her brother.

Kirkus Review