Statehood, however, did not guarantee Israeli security. The new nation was declared on May 14, 1948, and on May 15 Israel was invaded by Arab forces; a cease-fire followed eight months later. The 1948-49 clash was the first in a series of wars with hostile Arab neighbors--most significantly the Six-Day War in June 1967 and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, both of which resulted in tremendous Israeli victories and territorial gains. Still, while the prospects for lasting peace in the region have improved, they are by no means assured. The vexing issue of an independent state for Palestinian Arabs, which would be established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, remains in suspense as the 21st century begins.

Would the state of Israel have existed if the Holocaust never happened? Some arguments hold that a Jewish homeland might have existed even sooner if World War II and the Holocaust had not intervened. Other arguments, whose framers are skeptical about "what-if?" speculation, stress that the existence of the state of Israel is bound up inextricably with Holocaust history. And as the sirens' scream warns, some would add, Israel can never relax its vigilance.

Israel's existence invites another "what if?" question--one grounded in Theodor Herzl's dream that an independent Jewish state was the only viable answer to the "Jewish question." The question asks: If the Jews had possessed a state of their own at the beginning of the 20th century, would the Holocaust have taken place? Perhaps not, but this question, too, invites deep speculation. Is it possible that the Nazis would have/could have deported all nine million European Jews to a Jewish Palestine, and that the territory could have handled such an enormous influx of humanity? Such a scenario strains credulity at every turn.