<<Could there not have been a slower and more peacefull settlement that would produce the same thing but with less sudden displacement of others?>>
Definitely. It could have been done with more justice and sensitivity, much more gradually. There was Arab opposition to the project, sometimes violent opposition, but it wasn't universal and it's not unrealistic to think it might have been managed.
The politics of the region even then were complex. Britain and France were the colonial occupiers, with vast holdings in the region. Their enemy was Germany. The Zionists, who were almost all secular Jews, based their claim to the land primarily upon a concession from the British Government, the Balfour Declaration. It was inevitable that they would be seen by the locals as agents of the colonial powers, particularly since their enemy was also Germany, even though the Zionists were (before and after the actual hostilities of WWII) killing British soldiers who were trying to strike a neutral course between the Jews and the Palestinians. Inevitably, there were local nationalists throughout the region who believed that Germany was winning the war (during its early years) and would be their best bet for the future. The local rulers, almost all of whom were installed by either the British or the French, would be naturally inclined to favour the cause of their colonial patrons. Some of the native ruling class, including liberal professionals and academics, believed that the Jews were a modernizing force in the region and would be instrumental in bringing the Arab world into the 20th Century. For the Palestinian occupants of the land, many of whom were being turfed out after the land was sold out from under their feet by absentee landowners in Beirut, Cairo, Damascus and Istanbul, the Jews were obviously the enemy, and the enemy of their enemy (Germany) was naturally their friend.
The upshot was that there were various currents and factions in the Arab and Palestinian populations, which could have been exploited for alliances and assistance. This never happened.
Israel was never an attractive destination for Western European or North American Jews before the War. But the victims of the Holocaust had no options. They simply no longer wanted to live in Europe. More, they felt in their bones, they COULDN'T live in Europe. This was strictly because of the Holocaust. They were desperate to leave Europe. It was literally the graveyard of their families.
The other effect of the Holocaust was less obvious. It destroyed many Jews' faith in human nature. They felt that no one gave a shit whether they lived or died, and those were the benevolent ones. Others still actively wished them dead. As that attitude took hold, the corollary quickly developed - - "Fuck the world, they stood by and watched what happened to us." This led to a lack of empathy for the Arabs, an inability to see them as human beings with understandable problems and concerns, people who had to be reasoned with, compromised with, placated. The Jews had come out alive where most of their relatives had perished in a kill-or-be-killed world and their attitudes were irrevocably altered by the experience. The new attitude was not one that was focused upon building a lasting peace with their neighbours.
