Why did the British create Israel?

Answer 1

There is an incorrect supposition here, namely that the British created Israel. The British were behind the Balfour Declaration and supported the Mandate for Palestine which entailed the facilitation of the creation of a Jewish State in that area of the world, but the British did not do any of the necessary actions to actually create the State of Israel.

British support for the creation of a Jewish State was rooted in concerns over gaining wealthy Jewish patrons in London to support Britain's engagement in World War I. At that point the British could have cared less about who they promised what to and leave it for after the war to figure out the mess.

In terms of who actually created the State of Israel, it came together as the result of Jewish Immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine, Zionist leadership, Jewish militias and political and financial support from the West (primarily Jewish philanthropists). The first group are called the Halutzim or the Pioneers and they took it upon themselves to modernize Israel by cultivating the land and using European technology to improve its output and productivity. The Zionist leadership included some like Theodor Herzl, who envisioned the state, to Eliezer ben Yehuda, who developed Modern Hebrew as a functional language, to David Ben Gurion who declared Israel's independence and sovereignty, among many others. There were numerous Jewish militias defending the Halutzim and attacking the British (and eventually the Arabs when conflict started) such as the Palmach, the Haganah, and the Irgun. Finally, without the monetary contributions from families like the Rothschilds, there would have been no way for the nascent pre-governmental and governmental organizations to acquire enough capital to maintain an internal infrastructure.

Answer 2

The British did not "take" Palestine for the Jews. What they did was recognize the Jewish Right to Palestine. It was the Jews themselves that developed the apparatus necessary for a state, often times fighting against the British to do it.

As for the reason that Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, it did this for several reasons. Firstly, several wealthy barons in Britain were Zionists (usually Christian Zionists, but Jewish Zionists as well) and the British wanted more support for the First World War. Secondly, the British were trying to start up indigenous resistance movements in the Middle East. In order to court the Arabs, Lawrence of Arabia made a promise to the Sharif of Mecca about having a large tract of land. The British galvanized Palestinian Jews with the promise of their own state.