The Woman Who Fought an Empire; Sarah Aaronsohn and Her Nili Spy Ring

By Gregory J. Wallance

Had it not been for a homesick housewife returning to her native Palestine and witnessing the Armenian genocide in 1914, the British would have faced greater challenges defeating the Ottoman Empire in 1917.

Of course, the housewife was no ordinary woman. She was Sarah Aaronsohn. The daughter of Romanian immigrants, she had grown up in Zichron Ya'akov, a settlement community about 22 miles south of Haifa.

Sarah happened to be on the train from Constantinople (modern Istanbul) to Haifa to visit her family. In March 1914, she’d married Haim Abraham, a Bulgarian Jewish businessman who lived in Constantinople. But she was unhappy, and missed the freedom and autonomy she had managing her father's household in Zichron and working with her brother Aaron, an internationally renowned agronomist. Her visit was supposed to last only a few months, but she never returned.

The Angel; The Egyptian Who Saved Israel

by Uri Bar-Joseph

What would you say if someone pulled you aside and said they were writing a movie script about how a son-in-law of the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser became one of Mossad’s most valuable spies?

Impossible to believe? Guess again. This tale is fact not fiction. The spy in question, Ashraf Marwan, provided Mossad with valuable, accurate information pointing to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s growing commitment to attacking Israeli across the Suez Canal in late 1973.