Language:
English
Year of publication:
1994
Titel der Quelle:
Middle Eastern Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
30,2 (1994) 351-368
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Foreign public opinion, Eretz Israel
;
Eretz Israel History 1917-1948, British Mandate period
Abstract:
Discusses the historical connection between the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Contends that the Holocaust's main influence on the latter event was the switching over of the Zionist program from selective immigration of Jews to Eretz-Israel to mass and accelerated immigration. When the Yishuv leadership realized at the end of 1942-beginning of 1943 that the total annihilation of Eastern European Jewry was being carried out, it also realized that the entire Zionist project might fail. The Yishuv concentrated on work among the surviving Jewish communities (Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) and Jewish refugees, not on rescue activities, not only out of considerations of expedience, but also realizing that a Jewish State would either be established immediately or never. In accordance with Ben-Gurion's program, the DPs concentrated in the American zone in Germany were used as a pressure tool in the Palestinian conflict. Thus, in some sense, due to the Holocaust, the Jewish State was established as early as 1948.
Note:
In Hebrew: "Cathedra" 55 (1990).
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink