The Jews do not treat their genuine heroes kindly. They are more likely to give their adulation to those who take them into the abyss, a Yitzhak Rabin, an Ariel Sharon. And so it is of some comfort that the saga of Aaron and Sarah Aaronsohn, a great man and his remarkable sister, has finally been given the writer it deserves.
Turkey controlled this area until 1917, when it was ousted by the British during World War I. Today, it has good relations with Israel, but during the war, it deported many Jews because a Jewish group known as Nili had been providing intelligence to the British.
NILI was crucial
Sir, - The successful taking of Beersheba in 1917, now being reconstructed by Australian horsemen and others ("Aussies to reenact the capture of Beersheba," October 31), owed much to the intelligence work done by the NILI spies, foremost Sarah Aaronsohn and her brother, Aharon, together with Avshalom Feinberg. Two of them lost their lives in assuring that British troops under Allenby would provided with maps and other information that allowed them to make the successful round-about Gaza sweep and take the city's Turkish troops by surprise.
Shmuel Katz's new book on the Aaronsohn family details this chapter in the history of the Land of Israel.
Incidentally, the 1988 film The Lighthorsemen, also shown here, authentically recreated the charge across the plain in a most dramatic fashion.
YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh
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