Themes in the History of the State of Israel

Abstract

THE STATE OF ISRAEL declared its independence on May 14, 1948, effective with the termination of the British mandate of Palestine on May 15, but its creation was preceded by more than fifty years of efforts by the Zionist movement to establish an independent Jewish state in Palestine as a solution to the Jewish question.' Although Israel is a new state, it is located in the historic area where ancient Jewish kingdoms had existed, and it has a long and complex background.2 The history of the modern Jewish state antedates its independence and may be traced to the nineteenth century, when secular Jewish immigration to Palestine grew and when the practical, modern effort to establish a state began with the development of political Zionism and the creation of the World Zionist Organization by Theodor Herzl.3 The process gained impetus with the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, in which the British government expressed support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. Jewish immigration to Palestine continued throughout the following years, but, with the advent of the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s and the Holocaust that followed, the need and the numbers grew rapidly. With the end of World War II,