The world observed two anniversaries last month – both very different, yet inextricably tied together through the major events of the 20th century. Above all, the two events demonstrate the absolute legitimacy and necessity of the Jewish State of Israel.
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Exactly 101 years ago this month, the victorious Allies gathered in San Remo, Italy, to discuss the future of the Middle East after the break־up of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. It was at San Remo that the Balfour Declaration was implemented. This was the letter written by Arthur James Balfour in which the British foreign secretary expressed His Majesty's government's support for a Jewish home in Palestine.
After World War I, a whole slew of new or reborn nations emerged across the map, none of which could trace their roots back to ancient times as did the Jews – the People of the Book – who gave the world monotheism, law and jurisprudence. Now suddenly, Jews, a people displaced for over 2,000 years, would be seen in the same terms as Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
This was precisely the dream of Theodor Herzl, who died 16 years earlier. After San Remo, the nascent Zionist movement began its first steps from a dream to a reality that would need a government, infrastructure and an army to defend it, just like every other country on earth. In Eastern Europe, Jews were embroiled in a struggle to ensure their rights as a national minority. San Remo was a final and ringing declaration that Jews were, indeed, indigenous to the Land of Israel.
At San Remo, the identity of the Jewish people received international recognition. The Jews, it was finally agreed, were not merely adherents of religion but were actually a nation deserving of a national home, a territory in which their national aspirations could be realized and their culture developed. And it wasn't just any territory in which this could be achieved, but the Land of Israel, which was the eternal venue for the reconstitution of the Jewish commonwealth. At the same time, one cannot miss the irony that the Allied governments were deciding the fate of a Jewish homeland, when it was all spelled out several thousand years earlier with none other than G־d as the real estate agent, who signed, sealed and delivered the decision in a document called the Bible, probably read by every member of the conference.
The other anniversary this month is less positive, but, I think no less important: Holocaust Remembrance Day. No one at San Remo could foresee the rise of Adolf Hitler just 13 years later, the growth of Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust. Because the Jewish State of Israel had not yet been established, millions of European Jews were left to the horrors of the gas chambers because practically every other country on earth would not take them in. Because there was no Israel, there was no refuge for the Jewish people and, thus, no escape.
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Exactly 60 years ago this month, a trial began in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people. One of the chief architects of the world's largest mass murder, Adolf Eichmann, stood in an Israeli court, in a Jewish nation, tried by Jewish judges and Jewish prosecutors. The entire world was fascinated by this trial. Over 400 foreign correspondents reported on it. I believe the fascination came from the world's obvious understanding of the sublime justice of this event, and isn't justice one of the main tenets of our religion? Here was a top member of what his fellow Nazis referred to as the "master race," a small man with an ill־fitting suit and a nervous tic, in a glass booth, guarded by Jewish soldiers.
Had the Sam Remo Conference moved forward to establish a Jewish State in 1920, there would have been no Eichmann trial in 1961 because there would have been no Eichmann and no Holocaust. But both anniversaries remind us – as if we need reminding – of the miracle of Israel, the need for Israel, and our absolute commitment to ensure its eternal survival.
Ronald Lauder is president of the World Jewish Congress.
