Chaim Weizmann

Chaim Weizmann was Russia born Jew, and later he spent several years in Switzerland. In 1904 he settled in England, at the age of thirty, where he lectured in the University of Manchester chemistry department. During WW I, he was credited with developing a method of producing acetone from maize; which was needed for the production of artillery shells, and in 1917 he was credited with securing a promise from the British to build a "Jewish National Home" in Palestine, (better known as the Balfour Declaration). Famous Quotes: In 1914, Chaim Weizmann attempted to lay down the foundations of realizing Zionism, and began by asserting that Palestine was empty and that its current inhabitants have no say in its fate. He stated: "In its initial stage, Zionism was conceived by its pioneers as a movement wholly depending on mechanical factors: there is a country which happens to be called Palestine, a country without people, and, on the other hand, there exists the Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is necessary, then, than to fit the gem into the ring, to unite this people with this country? The owners of the country [the Ottoman Turks] must, there for, be persuaded and conceived that this marriage is advantageous, not only for the [Jewish] people and for the country, but also for themselves." Note how Weizmann didn't claim that the country was empty (see the quote below), but he denied that there was a people which deserved the right of self-determination. The selective definition of "who are a people, and who are not" was crafted to serve Zionists' agenda for the following reasons: To lure European Jewry to immigrate to Palestine. To secure international legitimacy for the emerging "Jewish state", and to deceive the Yishuv, the Jews who were residing in Palestine before 1948, into believing that they were robbing no other people's rights.