No, but the Levantine coast is strategic wrt ME oil reserves and also close to the Suez canal which oil can be shipped through (up to Suezmax), and part of the idea was to have a dependent proxy in the region to protect British interests.
The Balfour declaration article is a reference to how the occupation of Palestine came about; yes, there were specifically Jewish interests (only some Jews, by no means all), but there were also strong imperialist interests.
Britain was already occupying Palestine before the Balfour Declaration, and it was easier that way because they hadn't kicked out 3/4 of the population and pissed off all neighboring countries.
I had to look this up, and it turns out the British invasion of Palestine started in early 1917, coming from the Sinaï, they lost two battles of Gaza in March and April, and won the third on November 2, 1917, which is the exact date on the letter of the Balfour declaration, published a week later.
The British took Jerusalem in December, but it does not seem at all that they were occupying Palestine before in the sense that there was no more Ottoman resistance. Rather, large parts continued to be held by the Ottomans, who only surrendered in October 1918.
As for the population being kicked out, that was not in 1917/18 and not the feat of the British, but of the Jews (aided and abetted by the UN: expropriation plan), and in 1948. The British had, however, helped prepare the ethnic cleansing.
Anyway, what I meant by occupation in my previous comment was the current day occupation of Palestine by Jews mostly from Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi), who then “encouraged” Jews from other ME countries to resettle to Palestine, where they were creating a Jewish state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis
The Balfour declaration article is a reference to how the occupation of Palestine came about; yes, there were specifically Jewish interests (only some Jews, by no means all), but there were also strong imperialist interests.