Apuntes en torno al nacimiento del estado de Israel: una guía para los perplejos

Abstract

This article examines the historical, political, and moral foundations associated with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, highlighting its legitimacy as an expression of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination after centuries of dispersion, persecution, and genocide. Through a historical-argumentative approach, it analyzes the structural causes of European antisemitism, the emergence of modern political Zionism as a nationalist response to the insecurity of the diaspora, and the decisive impact of the Shoah in consolidating the state-building project. It also reviews the international diplomatic process that legitimized Israel within the framework of the United Nations and outlines the Jewish state’s major contemporary contributions in fields such as technology, medicine, social sciences, international law, and historical memory. The article concludes that Israel was neither a colonial imposition nor a historical accident, but rather the legitimate outcome of a fundamental need to ensure the conditions for the survival, self-determination, and security of the Jewish people. Finally, it reflects on the October 7, 2023, attack as current evidence of the ongoing threat, reaffirming Israel’s centrality as both a moral and existential safeguard within the contemporary international order.