The Blogs: Greater Israel—Getting Serious About Settlements and Colonization (Part 3 of 3)

Part 3 of 3

Israel is ideally positioned technically, intellectually and geographically to develop a space elevator and perhaps its own version of a heavy lift passenger spaceship. Jews have played an outsized role in developing the aerospace and aviation industry, particularly in the United States, but also in France and England and Israel itself. Many of the leading pioneers and entrepreneurs in the industry were and continue to be of Jewish ancestry. One could mention here the intellectual colossus and father of Aeronautics and jet propulsion Theodore von Karman, the Founding Director of the Guggenheim Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, which was to subsequently become the Jet Propulsion laboratory, the world’s foremost centre for aeronautical engineering.

The role of the Guggenheim family, particularly Harry Guggenheim and his father Daniel extends far beyond establishing the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech in Pasadena. The immensely wealthy family played an instrumental role in the creation of modern civil aviation, rocketry and jet propulsion. They played an even larger role in institutionalizing aeronautic education. Their support for the fledging field can only be described as stupendous and it is difficult to find another example of a private sponsor, playing any kind of comparable role in any other engineering field. The Guggenheim’s were involved in every aspect of the nascent industry.

The family sponsored much of Robert H. Goddard’s private rocket research and financed Charles Lindbergh’s famous cross country flight on the Spirit of St Louis. The Guggenheim’s provided, on an unprecedented scale, funding for almost every major University Centre and Institute for Aerospace Science in the United States, including the Schools of: New York University, Stanford, Harvard, CalTech, Syracuse, MIT, Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, NorthWestern, and University of Washington amongst many others. The Guggenheims’ also financed many of the early commercial airlines, at a time when capital market support and early venture seed money was unavailable. Additionally the Guggenheims’ provided scholarships and grants for thousands of students to study aerospace engineering many of whom went on to illustrious careers. The Guggenheim family provides an unmatched record of scientific and engineering directed philanthropy.

Intellectually Theodore von Karman towers over and dominates the science, physics and engineering of rocket and space flight. He was notably involved in the founding of the Aerojet Engineering Company along with Fritz Zwicky and Jack Parsons; a company that would become the leading manufacturer of most of the heavy rocket engines that powered the Apollo Space Missions and the US ballistic missile program.

One of the great giants of early space engineering was Jewish born Simon Ramo, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 103. Ramo was the “R” in the Fortune 100 aerospace giant TRW (the 57th largest firm in the world). TRW, was started from a blank sheet, by Simo Ramo and Dean Wooldridge. TRW was to become one of the largest aerospace firms in the world largely under Simon Ramo’s technical guidance. TRW was the builder of many of the most important space crafts, including Pioneer 1, Pioneer 10 and many others in this series. TRW built, at the same time, most of the major space observatories including: the Einstein Observatory, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and did early work on the James Webb Space Telescope amongst others. TRW also built the Martian biological experiments on the Viking Landers. Additionally TRW built critical components for the Apollo project, including the descent engines for the Apollo lunar lander.

Two of the world’s largest aerospace firms were founded and continue to be run by their Jewish founders or descendants, namely the Crown family of General Dynamics and the Dassault (changed from Bloch during World War Two) family of Dassault Aerospace, one of Europes largest and most sophisticated aerospace firms. Dozens of other examples could be sited. The possibilities of space flight and space exploration attract many of the most imaginative and talented individuals and entrepreneurs. If the historical record says anything and can point forward to what kinds of entrepreneurial talents can be marshalled in the Jewish population to support a world class and a globally competitive space industry in Israel, it would seem to suggest that the critical human ‘resources” can be confidently scouted. found and situated.

The launch pad for such a Space Elevator could be positioned on an Equatorial parallel, perhaps in Somalia, or Kenya alongside the Red Sea, accessible to container ships and other ocean going craft. The Negev and possibly the Sinai Desert or large areas of Sinai could be purchased or better leased on a long term basis to provide the space for the massive logistics and supply structure and the building of large research and manufacturing centres. The Negev and the Sinai are ideal staging points, situated as they are between three continents with access to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea and the vast untapped resources and raw materials of continental Africa. Many of the other space elevator pilot projects and consortiums devoted to pioneering the extremely complex engineering problems can be brought under the same research umbrella. Building a space elevator would be one of the most important engineering projects in human history. Building such a device will require entirely new approaches and engineering concepts, as well as new materials and a host of breakthroughs to succeed.

Heavens Lift will inspire people around the world. Israeli school children, and children from throughout the region and across the world can be brought together with their eyes looking towards the skies and stars. With the untold vistas that the space elevator will present and the immense unexplored worlds and discoveries that stand to be made, earthly conflicts which beset the region and the world will diminish and shrink to irrelevance and insignificance.

Let us then get serious about settlements and colonization. I would invite those that want to participate in this project or any other aspect of Zionism 2.0 to contact me. Our destiny is in the Stars and we have worlds to conquer!

*Dedicated to Aner Elkim Shapira, a 22 year off-duty soldier from the Nahal Brigade, who while attending the Supernova music festival on October 7th, 2023 defended a packed bomb shelter while throwing out live grenades that had been tossed inside. He tossed back 7 such grenades saving the lives of seven people before losing his life. May his memory be a blessing and may he not be forgotten.