THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IN 1948
CHAPTER ONE
THE RISE OF JEWISH NATIONALISM
Jewish nationalism is also known as the Zionist movement. Jewish nationalism is the political and cultural agitation for a homeland in the Middle East and
the right of Jews to self existence. Zionism is a world that was coined by Nathan Birnbaum.1
Zionism was the child of the liberal and national movements of the nineteenth century Europe.2 Inspired by the French Revolution and the unification
of Germany and Italy, the Jews decided to fight also, for their own political rights for the establishment of a Jewish state which would be in Palestine.
Palestine, which the Jews knew in biblical times as Canaan was renamed Palestine aer
the Philistines by the Roman Emperor, Hadrian. The Jews had lived
on that land for more than one thousand, six hundred years until the Roman conquest and this marked the beginning of the Jews in Diaspora.
The earliest form of Jewish nationalism was a religious one as they believed in the messianic restoration in which the Zionists believed that peace will
be achieved in the Middle East, in their homeland of Israel only with the coming of the Messiah. Amongst these were the orthodox rabbi, Judah Alkalai and
Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Kalicher. These believed that the salvation of the Jews as foretold by the prophets could take place through natural means, that is, by self help and did not require the advent of the messiah and that the colonization of Palestine be launched without delay. By this, God would harken to their prayers and speed up the day of redemption.3
In 1881, at the ascension of Alexander III in Russia, he saw the ethnic minorities (including the Jews) in his domain as a standing challenge to his autocracy. He then issued the anti-Jewish decree on May 3, 1882. These May laws further excluded the Jews from the economic arias of the country. This led them to depend on charity for sustenance from kinsmen living abroad. This was also the case with Jews in Rumania, Austrian Galicia and even Germany where they were subjected to the threatening anti-Semitic regime when Nazi policies denied Jews citizenship rights and expelled all Jewish immigrants by
getting rid of as many Jews as possible through emigration.
