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Intriguing Israel

In honor of Yom HaAtzmaut, a few amazing facts about Israel.

Balfour's interest
in the creation of
a Jewish state was
avid Ben-Gurion was a man
immediate upon
of few needs. Israel's first
meeting
prime minister didn't like
Weizmann. In
alcohol, agreed to quit smoking if his
1925, Balfour
son would do the same and had only
made his first visit
one passion: books.
to pre-state Israel,
His small home was filled with non- where he opened
fiction (history, politics and philoso-
the Hebrew
phy) from floor to ceiling. Ben-
University of
Gurion could even read the classics in
Jerusalem. Not
their original language, though he
long before
learned in a rather unconventional
Balfour died, his
classroom. During the London Blitz,
niece recounted
Ben-Gurion spent countless hours in
him saying that
bomb shelters, where he taught him-
"on the whole, he
self classical Greek. That way, he rea-
felt that what he
David Ben-Gurion
soned, he could study philosophy in
had been able to
the original text.
do for the Jews
Israel is a little country whose histo-
had been the
ry is filled with little bits of amazing
thing he looked
adventure: a professor whose acetone
back upon as the
discoveries helped gain powerful sup-
most worth his
port for Zionism, U.S. presidents who
doing."
went out of their way to guarantee
• Another of
military aid to the young country and
Zionism's early
a breathtaking war victory in a matter
advocates was
of hours.
British Prime
Today, Thursday, May 12, we
Minister David
observe Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel
Lloyd George
Independence Day. In honor of this
(1863-1945) and
occasion, here are a few facts you
here, too, there is
probably didn't know about the histo-
a connection with
ry of the state:
Chaim
• Arthur Balfour (1848-1930) was
Weizmann.
England's foreign secretary when he
Though, without
became friendly with Chaim
a doubt, the
British leader
Weizmann (1874-1952), a young pro-
fessor and dedicated Zionist, in 1906.
would not have
Chaim Weizmann
Balfour was charming, worldly, bril-
lent his support to
liant and passionate about golf and
Zionism were it not seen as in Britain's
tennis and not much else. He liked to
best interest, England owed much to
stay in bed all morning. "If you want-
Weizmann.
ed nothing done," Winston Churchill
During World War I, when Lloyd
said, "A.J.B. was undoubtedly the best
George was serving as minister of
man for the task."
munitions, Britain was in terrible need
Yet Balfour, one of the wealthiest
of acetone, used to make explosives.
men in England (thanks to a fortune
As it happens, Weizmann, an assistant
he inherited from his father), became
professor of biochemistry at the
committed to one cause: Zionism.
University of Manchester, had just cre-

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

D

5/12
2005

46

aced a technique
for making acetone
on a large scale.
Weizmann
promptly gave the
entire product to
the British govern-
ment for use
throughout the war
— at no cost.
Lloyd George
wanted to present
Weizmann with an
honor from the
king as thanks, but
Weizmann
deferred: "There is
nothing I want for
myself." But Lloyd
George would not
let the matter go,
and finally
Weizmann asked
for Britain's support
of Zionism. In his
memoirs, Lloyd
George wrote that
this pronounce-
ment was "the
fount and origin of
the famous declara-
, tion about the
National Home for
the Jews in
Palestine."
• The Ashkenazic
Chief Rabbinate of
Israel was estab-
lished in 1920.
• "We have uni-
fied Jerusalem, the
divided capital of
Israel. We have returned to the holiest
of our holy places, never to depart
from it again." The Israeli military
leader who proclaimed this on June 7,
1967, was Moshe Dayan.
• West Germany's first military aid
to Israel came in March 1960, follow-
ing a private meeting between Israeli
Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and West
German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

This hardly received a great reception
in Israel, however, where the
Holocaust was fresh in the minds of
many. The Knesset argued for days
about it. Ben-Gurion refused to back
down. A boycott of Germany, he
insisted, amounted to racism.

People Of The Book

• In 1958, when Israel was only 10
years old, the country was second in
the world in the number of book titles
published per person. That year, Israel
published 1,210 titles.
• In 1955, 91.2 percent of the Arabs
living in Israel voted in elections, a
higher number than Jewish voters.
• Israel's second prime minister, Levi
Eshkol, saw to it that the remains of
one of Israel's most vocal and contro-
versial spokesmen, Vladimir "Ze'ev"
Jabotinsky (born 1880), were buried
in the state. In his will, Jabotinsky,
founder of the Revisionist Movement,
asked that his body one day be buried
in Israel.
Jabotinsky died of a heart attack in
1940 while living in New York, but it
took many years for his remains to
make their way to Israel. This was
because Israel's first prime minister,
Ben-Gurion, was his staunch personal
foe. Jabotinsky and his wife,
Johnanna, were eventually buried with
a state funeral on Mount Herzl in
Jerusalem.
• Radio broadcasts in the land of
Israel began in 1936, when the British
Mandatory authorities created the
Palestine Broadcasting Service, with
programs in English, Arabic and
Hebrew. General television service in
Israel did not begin until the amazing-
ly late date of 1968, with program-
ming in Hebrew and Arabic. Still, by
1971, television programs aired only
for 4 1/2 hours a day.
• The United States first publicly
sold arms to Israel in September 1962.
The decision was made by President
John E Kennedy who, fearing a
Soviet-backed attack from Egypt