Modern nationalism first prompted the idea of a Jewish state

Evidence

The new nationalism confronted the Jews with new problems; to some it also suggested a new solution. If the nation—an entity defined by descent, culture and aspiration—was the only natural and rightful basis of statehood, why then the Jews were also a nation, and must have their own State. The first precursor of modern Zionism was a Bosnian Rabbi called Yehuda Alkalai, who in 1843 produced a scheme for a man-made Jewish restoration in Palestine—without waiting for the Messiah. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 947

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the key causal claim: nationalism’s logic made Jewish statehood thinkable—Jews qualified as a nation by the new criteria.
• XREF: connects to: The phrase ‘state of Israel’ began as a Christian millenarian term in the 1600s — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 336