Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel

Impact

The first and most obvious impact of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was that it established the basis for the state, which immediately took control over vast parts of western Palestine. Within less than two decades, Israel would become a regional military power.

A second impact was that on the Hebrew community in Palestine. Israel became an independent nation, recognized as such by the international community and an equal member in the family of nations. This is not a minor matter, for the world after World War II and during the cold war was shaped and formed by nation-states. Israel became a power economically, technologically (with five of its universities ranked among the world's best five hundred), and culturally (every year, more new books are printed in Israel than in all of its neighboring countries combined).<.p>

A third impact was on all the inhabitants of Palestine who came under the rule of a Jewish state. While some Jewish states have existed in various places around the world during the last two millennia, the last time a Jewish state existed in Palestine was nineteen hundred years ago, during the zenith of the Roman Empire. Generally, Judaism evolved for centuries without any relation to a specific state. Lacking a constitution and with only vague notions of what “a Jewish state” means in practice, the people of Israel now live in a state with a very fluid shape, governmental apparatus, and boundaries.

In a similar vein, the declaration had an indirect impact on Jewish communities around the world. The Zionist proclamation of Israel as a Jewish state posed a challenge to the mere notion of Judaism and what it actually means, because for millennia Judaism has thrived and evolved by adhering to the principle of remaining detached from states. A Jewish state is confusing in a tradition based on this principle. Second, the Zionist aspiration and claim to represent all Jews worldwide while practicing politically contested policies made Jews around the world, in the eyes of some observers, a scapegoat and a target for hatred, hostility, and violence.