Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict | Page 11

A Brief Guide for the Perplexed 5
the first European country to extend full rights to the Jews , as well as in his native Austro-Hungarian Empire . He came to the conclusion that , despite the Reformation and Enlightenment , Jews could never enjoy full equality as a minority in European societies , since the sad legacy of centuries of antisemitism was too deeply embedded . Therefore , he called for the establishment of a Jewish state , which he set out to describe in his landmark book Der Judenstaat (“ The Jewish State ”), published in 1896 .
Herzl ’ s vision was endorsed by the British foreign secretary , Lord Balfour , who issued a remarkable statement on November 2 , 1917 :
His Majesty ’ s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people , and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object , it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine , or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country .
In 1920 , the San Remo Conference , attended by the nations victorious in World War I , confirmed the Balfour Declaration .
In 1922 , the League of Nations , entrusting Britain with a mandate for Palestine , recognized “ the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine .”
The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi “ Final Solution ,” spearheaded by Germany and its allies — and facilitated by widespread complicity as well as indifference to the fate of the Jews throughout much of the world — revealed in tragic dimensions the desperate need for a Jewish state . ( Apropos , Haj Amin el-Husseini , the mufti of Jerusalem , was among the most enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people .)
Only in such a state , the Zionist movement — and its non- Jewish supporters , including Christian Zionists — believed , would Jews not have to rely on the “ goodwill ” of others to determine their destiny . All Jews would be welcome to live in the Jewish state as a refuge from persecution or as a fulfillment of a “ yearning for Zion .” Indeed , this fired the imagination of many Jews who settled in what