Why was the State of Israel ‘Really’ Established? by Erez Casif
The book at Amazon
Most historians of Zionism – from the ‘Jerusalem School’ and its followers, as well as those who call themselves ‘new historians’ – understand the story of Israel’s establishment as a part of a broader historic story that encompasses hundreds and even thousands of years. They consider the Zionist leadership to be a unified entity and thus relate the decision to establish the state of Israel during May 1948 to international, rather than internal, restraints and challenges. The author of this book suggests a different theoretical approach – as an alternative to the above – that considers the struggle to establish a Jewish state much more as a struggle for power within the future state, whose imminent establishment was more or less certain. This point of view provides new insights into important historic events such as the ‘rebellion’ of NMO head Menaahem Begin; the ‘Saison’; the cooperation between Zionist underground movements from the fall of 1945 through to the summer of 1946; the explosion at the King David Hotel in July 1946; the first stage of the War of Independence; and the foundation of ‘The People’s Committee’ in April 1948 and its declaration of the establishment of an independent Jewish state during May 1948.
