Hi, Tommy! As to sources, specialists will advise you better, but concerning the Holocaust I do not think it was the prerequisite of the creation of Israel, given that the Zionist movement had been gathering strength since 1897 and that by the end of the WWII the British had found themselves in such a dead-end in Palestine. To that we must add the will of the superpowers that emerged from the WWII - both of them were conducive to the creation of the new state (each acting in its own interests, surely). I even read somewhere that the Holocaust had put the idea of Israel in jeopardy, since so many potential citizens were lost to it.

Not my field either, Tommy.  But from what I've read, the Holocaust certainly was a major factor in the foundation when it happened.

I am also aware that other possible locations had been canvassed, including Uganda.  So did a Google search on that, and found this link which may offer a better background and starting point for you.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/Uganda.html

Tommy:

Hope this is helpful.

As far as I know, the strongest migration waves occurred in the 30s, with the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and Central Europe, having another upturn at the end of World War II with Jewish refugees who did not wanted to return to their countries of origin in Europe, nor going elsewhere in the world. From the point of view of demographic balance, these data are critical in my opinion, but everything that has been said here is important too, it is a complex issue.

To add more clarity, consider the history of Zionism and the Balfour Declaration. Both preceded the Holocaust. 

look at Zionism, the Zionist Movement, and Herzl and his book, The Jewish State (1896). And examine the Balfour Declaration made by the British government in 1917

Kirill Fursov's answers were very much to the point. Undoubtedly, the events of WWII including the Holocaust turned the foundation of the state of Israel from a possibility into a probability, especially since Jewish emigration to the USA, very much the preferred alternative for most survivors, was still blocked. In the aftermath of WWII  the two dominant powers, the USA and the USSR, were for different reasons very much in favor of founding the state of Israel, and British imperial rule was greatly weakened. And the Holocaust gave Eastern European Jews the tremendous desire to leave.

But as a solution to the Holocaust emigration to Palestine was not the answer. In fact, had the Battle of El Alamein gone the other way, Rommel's tanks would have made slightly more progress East, and the "Yishuv" would instantly have become Hitler's largest death camp for Jews, all conveniently assembled in one place for the ovens by Zionism.

I wrote an extensive article on this issue: see "The Causal Relationship between the Holocaust and the Birth of Israel: Historiography between Myth and Reality", in Dan Michman, Holocaust Historiography: A Jewish Perspective.Conceptualizations, Terminology, Approaches and Fundamental Issues (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2003), pp. 303-328.

Hi Tommy,

The Balfour Declaration was mentioned already. At modest cost, Dr. Coleman's writing (in the link) gives background on your questions of cause-effect. If you will contact their group (Sales -at- coleman300.com) with email title (copy of Balfour paper for Tommy in Australia) they will send you a PDF of the paper that I purchased for your research this morning.

It may prove more than you really wanted to know, but a retired MI6 officer brings into the light some details of the cause-effect picture which others seek to obscure. Nabil Marshood twice mentions a distinction between Zionism and Judaism - the parties who wish us to see these as identical are discussed in Doctor Coleman's paper.

Wishing you well in your journey...

http://coleman300.net/thebalfourdeclaration.aspx

Hi everyone! Thank you all very much for the wonderful advice! It really helps a lot! I will definitely take them into consideration for the research!

I agree with the opinion that the impact of WW2 was an important push force for the international support for the Jewish state. However, without the infrastructure of the Yishuv and the political establishment of the Zionist movement since the late 19s century and particular during the British Mandate the state could not have been realized. It is not a cause and result relationship but it is an important factor both on the Jewish level and the international level.

My article is now accesable online via academia.edu.

That is how some interpret the historian Bacher, but only in a very pointed way. He says that Hitler definitely furthered the immigration to Palestine and speeded it up. Without the holocaust this might have remained an enterprise by just a few Jews who went there to buy land and work it. So, the holocaust certainly was a trigger for the foundation of Israel, but not the cause.

I think you have to go look at the 1919-1939 period of interwar history to (re)frame this question.  There were already certain historical trends, not the least of which is a new blending of theology and political activism in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe that pre-saged Zionism and many other parts of the movement.  Put differently, even without WWII and the Holocaust, you might still have ended up with an Israeli nation-state.  When the destruction of the human capital intellectual centers of Vilno, Lwow and Krakow, added to the impetus to German Jews to flee before the war began September 1939, I think there is a very strong pre-existing causal relationship between Jewish religion-culture in pre-war Europe.  

I would contact dr. prof Jonathan Webber at the Jagiellonian in Krakow for more on this.

I think this is questionable, as the main form of Jewish political activism in Eastern Europe was the extremely secular Jewish Bund, which was sharply opposed to Zionism. Resentment of Polish and other Eastern European anti-Semitism usually took the form of Bundism and alsot sympathy towards the ostensibly sharply anti-anti-Semitic Soviet Union, rather than Zionism. Religion was waning in influence in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, though not as quickly as in Western Europe or the United States.

Without WWII and the Holocaust, the birth of Israel would have been exceedingly unlikely.

And of course well integrated German Jews would have been extremely unlikely to flee Germany except for the rise of Nazism, which made the Holocaust inevitable.

Tommy, following the theme of the first part of John Holmes reply above, it might be interesting to explore how the reluctance of countries like the US and the USSR to take Jewish refugees contributed to the diplomatic agreements that paved the way for the foundation of Israel.  A process in which Australia, interestingly, played a significant part.

"In April 1947, after failing to reconcile the conflicting demands of both the Jewish and Arab communities, Britain indicated an intention to withdraw from Palestine and requested that a permanent solution be discussed by the United Nations General Assembly. Subsequently, a United Nations Special Committee was established to draft proposals for the future of Palestine.

"Under the chairmanship of the Dr HV Evatt, the Australian Minister for External Affairs, the UN Special Committee recommended the establishment of an independent Jewish State in Palestine, together with a neighbouring independent Arab State, and this was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1947.

"The State of Israel was subsequently proclaimed in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948."

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs158.aspx

The US president formally recognised the new state on the same day.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-Israel