Lawrence and Aaronsohn: T.E. Lawrence , Aaron Aaronsohn, and the Seeds of the Arab-Israeli Conflict Ronald Florence In early February 1917, two men met in a hallway of the British headquarters in Cairo and took an instant dislike to one another. One was an accomplished Jewish agronomist from Palestine named Aaron Aaronsohn; the other, a young second lieutenant from Oxfordshire, an archeologist named T.E. Lawrence. Each was cocksure of his experience in Palestine and dreamed of creating a new nation from the ashes of the faltering Ottoman Empire. Neither they nor anyone else at British GHQ realized that the seeds of their conflicting obsessions would someday grow into the tangled thickets of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Accidental colleagues in British intelligence, Lawrence and Aaronsohn were ostensibly on the same side of the war effort and working with the same British intelligence and staff officers in Cairo and London. Lawrence used his assignment of coordinating Arab support for British war strategies to nurture the obscure idea of Arab nationalism and advance the ideal of an Arab state; his personal exploits, the publicity efforts of an American reporter, and Lawrence's own ambiguity toward fame generated the myths of the iconic Lawrence of Arabia. Aaron Aaronsohn gave up a distinguished career in science to champion the notion that the Jewish settlers of Palestine should fight for their own future. With his sister, Sarah, he established a secret spy network in wartime Palestine; their bravery and daring provided the intelligence that enabled the British victory over the Turks. Lawrence and Aaronsohn competed for British funds and support. Their lives were inevitability intertwined. Even as one shored up support for Zionist goals among the powerful in Britain and America and shaped the map of a future Jewish Palestine, the other battled for recognition of the Arab cause.[…]