1. According to “The Oxford History of the Biblical World,” edited by Dr. Michael D. Coogan, director of publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum and expert in Near Eastern languages and literatures (The book is excellent on Syria-Palestinian archeology) those Jewish folks inhabited the area of Israel before the 'Sea Peoples'....the Philistines (Palestinians).
"The settlement process in highland Israel began a generation or two before the Sea Peoples arrived on the coast…"
But it was the invention of cordite that put Israel on the modern map.
2. The territory to which we refer as "The Middle East" had been that of the Ottoman Empire, prior to World War I, the Ottoman territory of Palestine, part of the province of Greater Syria. Anticipating victory over the Ottomans, the French and the British had already staked their claims to those territories in which they had particular interests, whether strategic, commercial, or both, in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916. Britain was to administer Palestine.
May 9, 1916 The Sykes-Picot secret treaty signed, by which the French and British intended to carve up the Arab territories- after having made promises to Sharif Husain, head of the Hashemite clan of the Hejaz sector of the Arabian Peninsula so as to have him lead an Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Turks, and ignoring aspirations of both Arabs and Jews.
Now, the backstory.
3. Chaim Weizmann lectured in chemistry at the University of Geneva between 1901 and 1903, and later taught at the University of Manchester. He became a British subject in 1910, and while a lecturer at Manchester he became famous for discovering how to use bacterial fermentation to produce large quantities of desired substances. He is considered to be the father of industrial fermentation. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the Weizmann organism) to produce acetone.
a. After the [Artillery] Shell Crisis of 1915 during World War I, he was director of the British Admiralty laboratories from 1916 until 1919. During World War II, he was an honorary adviser to the British Ministry of Supply and did research on synthetic rubber and high-octane gasoline. (Formerly Allied-controlled sources of rubber were largely inaccessible owing to Japanese occupation during World War II, giving rise to heightened interest in such innovations).
Chaim Weizmann: Biography from Answers.com
4. As a chemist, Weizmann had invented a process to produce cordite without using calcium acetate, which Germany possessed and Britain did not. Without cordite, Britain may have lost World War I, so Weizmann's process was necessary for the war effort. url=http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Chaim_Weizmann]Chaim Weizmann - New World Encyclopedia[/url
When Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, asked what payment Weizmann required for the use of his process, Weizmann responded, "There is only one thing I want: A national home for my people." He eventually received both payments for his discovery and a role in the history of the origins of the state of Israel. Chaim Weizmann - New World Encyclopedia
5. Guess whose birthday today is.
Chaim Weizmann, in full Chaim Azriel Weizmann, (born Nov. 27, 1874, Motol, Pol., Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died Nov. 9, 1952, Reḥovot, Israel), first president of the new nation of Israel (1949–52), who was for decades the guiding spirit behind the World Zionist Organization.
Britannica.com
"The settlement process in highland Israel began a generation or two before the Sea Peoples arrived on the coast…"
But it was the invention of cordite that put Israel on the modern map.
2. The territory to which we refer as "The Middle East" had been that of the Ottoman Empire, prior to World War I, the Ottoman territory of Palestine, part of the province of Greater Syria. Anticipating victory over the Ottomans, the French and the British had already staked their claims to those territories in which they had particular interests, whether strategic, commercial, or both, in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916. Britain was to administer Palestine.
May 9, 1916 The Sykes-Picot secret treaty signed, by which the French and British intended to carve up the Arab territories- after having made promises to Sharif Husain, head of the Hashemite clan of the Hejaz sector of the Arabian Peninsula so as to have him lead an Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Turks, and ignoring aspirations of both Arabs and Jews.
Now, the backstory.
3. Chaim Weizmann lectured in chemistry at the University of Geneva between 1901 and 1903, and later taught at the University of Manchester. He became a British subject in 1910, and while a lecturer at Manchester he became famous for discovering how to use bacterial fermentation to produce large quantities of desired substances. He is considered to be the father of industrial fermentation. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the Weizmann organism) to produce acetone.
a. After the [Artillery] Shell Crisis of 1915 during World War I, he was director of the British Admiralty laboratories from 1916 until 1919. During World War II, he was an honorary adviser to the British Ministry of Supply and did research on synthetic rubber and high-octane gasoline. (Formerly Allied-controlled sources of rubber were largely inaccessible owing to Japanese occupation during World War II, giving rise to heightened interest in such innovations).
Chaim Weizmann: Biography from Answers.com
4. As a chemist, Weizmann had invented a process to produce cordite without using calcium acetate, which Germany possessed and Britain did not. Without cordite, Britain may have lost World War I, so Weizmann's process was necessary for the war effort. url=http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Chaim_Weizmann]Chaim Weizmann - New World Encyclopedia[/url
When Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, asked what payment Weizmann required for the use of his process, Weizmann responded, "There is only one thing I want: A national home for my people." He eventually received both payments for his discovery and a role in the history of the origins of the state of Israel. Chaim Weizmann - New World Encyclopedia
5. Guess whose birthday today is.
Chaim Weizmann, in full Chaim Azriel Weizmann, (born Nov. 27, 1874, Motol, Pol., Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died Nov. 9, 1952, Reḥovot, Israel), first president of the new nation of Israel (1949–52), who was for decades the guiding spirit behind the World Zionist Organization.
Britannica.com
