How did the Holocaust form modern Israel?

Answer 1

In the post-World War II era, the formation of the independent nation of Israel was partly dictated by the Holocaust in several ways. For one thing, it displaced nearly countless numbers of Jews from their European homes; at the same time, it put up both physical and moral barriers to any return to those homes by the Jews once the conflict had ended. For another thing, it created a generally sympathetic mind-set toward Jews by large portions of Western populations and leadership. In these ways, the formation of a home-land for the Jews was seen by many as a kind of moral necessity, along with various historical justifications that were also cited for it.

Answer 2

The relationship between the events in the Shoah, or Holocaust, and the birth of Israel are very misunderstood. Too many people today feel that the Jews, for example had to go through the Shoah in order to 'earn' or 'give birth ' to Israel, but that is not the case at all.

In the late 1800s, under the influence of Herzl and others, their came a cry for a Jewish Homeland. Since the Jews were first dispersed in 70 a.d. from Israel into the nations of the world, they retained their identity as a people, culture and faith, unlike almost any other people on earth. Usually after a generation or two, when a people or nation was dispersed, they assimilated and intermarried into the culture to which they relocated. The Jews, however, remained a 'nation' within nations for the next two millenia. At the turn of the century, a sect of Jewish proponents called 'Zionists' called for a homeland for the Jews.

At first, there was a great deal of opposition. Even ultra-Orthodox rabbis and others objected on the basis of the return of Israel being something only God could do sovereignly, and that it was not an issue of human politics or lobbying. Some nations, and the Vatican feared that if the Jews were back in their own homeland, they might become a great nation again and upset status quo in the world.

In 1917, though, in honor of a Jewish engineer who had aided in winning the first World War for Britain, the Balfour Agreement was drawn, declaring support for a Jewish homeland, and in the years that followed, a series of declarations and 'White Papers' outlined the conditions of return for the Jews to the British mandate of Palestine.

At first, only a few thousand were allowed. Then there was criticism of the plan, and attempts to stop Immigration to Palestine. (See shoaheducation.com/balf.html) The US at one point discussed offering relocation for the Jews in the Western United States, and the Nazis in the pre-war period discussed relocation of the Jews to Madagascar, an island off the Southeastern coast of Africa.

The issue then, is that the Shoah or Holocaust occurred between the call for a Jewish Homeland along with the British Balfour Agreement to grant the Homeland, and the later point when the Jews returned to Palestine en mass between 1945 and 1948. Jewish immigration to Israel though, continued even during the Shoah, declining during the years of the worst persecutions and killings. (See http://shoaheducation.com/immigration.html)

Did the holocaust have to happen for the Jews to return to Israel? No, not at all. While the Shoah did gain massive world sympathy for the Jews, aiding in the return, the British governed the land in Palestine they gave, and had a right to give it to whomever they wanted, including the Jews. After WWII when the allied nations had won, under the auspices of the UN, the land in Palestine was divided into areas under the control of France, Britain, and other nations until borders could be drawn and established and until permanent decisions could be made.

Some people have the idea that the Jews just came in and took over nations and lands belonging to other people, but that area of the world had been 'changing hands' for hundreds of years, under the British, French, the Ottomon Empire/ Turkey, and others. By a fair majority, the nations of the world through the UN voted in favor of the Statehood of Israel in 1947 in November, and by May 14, 1948, the Jewish leaders established the State of Israel, although it was immediately met by war.

If anything, some feel that while the State of Israel would have come into being anyway, and the Shoah would have happened of its own as well, that at least part of it was in reaction to the Jews being granted a homeland. The "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" of the Third Reich, to destroy the Jews, was going on as well in the area of Palestine in an alliance between the Third Reich and Muslim concerns. The Mufti of Jerusalem and others (a relative of Arafat), met often in Berlin with officials including Hitler, and there were trained Muslim SS Waffen Troops. While there certainly was a relationship between the Shoah/Holocaust and the return to Israel, it was not something that happened 'because of' the Shoah.

___

The widespread notion that Israel was formed by the Allies as some kind of consolation because they felt guilty about not having done something to stop the Holocaust is false.

Answer 3

The Holocaust gave Zionism an increased support.