The nation of Israel was an invention of the time. - Phizzy
Don't you think a people who had recently suffered attempted genocide because of their heritage had a strong case to identify as a nation?
Remember too that they did not just suffer at the hands of the Nazis. Russia had its own pogroms and many other European countries cooperated with the Holocaust. Historically Jews have been persecuted all over the world simply because of who they were.
It is the ultimate irony if millions of Jews were annihilated because racists identified them as belonging to a nation but then they are not allowed to do so.