"The events of 1948" and the declaration of the Jewish State need some context as to the times starting after the First World War.

The international Lausanne Conference of 1923:

Aside from the redrawing of geographic borders, Robert Gerwarth states that the conference sanctioned relocation of ethnic and religious populations had inauspicious consequences and: "had a significance that went well beyond the Greek and Turkish context to which it ostensibly applied. The Convention effectively established the legal right of state governments to expel large parts of their citizens on the grounds of 'otherness'. It fatally undermined cultural, ethnic and religious plurality as an ideal to which to aspire and a reality with which - for all their contestations - most people in the European land empires had dealt with fairly well for centuries." [38]

The ethnic cleansing and evacuation of Christian Greeks from  Turkey of those years include massacres, rapes and looting across the former Ottoman regions of Turkey, and particularly at Smyrna:

The evacuation was difficult despite the efforts of British and American sailors to maintain order, as tens of thousands of refugees pushed and shoved towards the shore.[54] Attempts to organize relief were made by the American officials from the YMCA and YWCA, who were reportedly robbed and later shot at by Turkish soldiers.

In 1938 delegates from 32 countries, including the US and Britain, refuse to admit Jews trying to leave German controlled territory, the Evian Conference. Books I have read said even some prominent politcally sensitive Jews in Britain wanted to limit Jewish immigration as they thought eastern Jews might excite anti-Semitism and threaten them.

Responding to Evian, the German government was able to state with great pleasure how "astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when "the opportunity offer[ed]."

World War Two, violent and deadly ethnic cleansing across the Bloodlands of Europe, as Nazi forces sweep east, then Soviet forces sweep west. Jews, Polish leadership, others victims, totaling millions of dead.

Jews trying to escape fascists across Europe are denied entry by the British, to the growing since WW1 Zionist community in Palestine. Refugees delayed or denied often die in route, see Struma disaster.

Palestine Jews form brigade of thousands to fight the Nazi's in 1944-45 under British command, in an effort to save still living Jews in Europe.

Jews parachute into the Balkans to aid the resistance fighters.

Post World War 2, late 40's, chaos and killings across much of Europe, see Savage Continent, Europe in the Aftermath of World War II:

“A graphic and chilling account of the murderous vengeance, terroristic reprisals, and ferocious ethnic cleansing that gripped Europe following--and often as a direct continuation of--the Second World War. Keith Lowe's excellent book paints a little-known and frightening picture of a continent in the embrace of lawlessness, chaos, and unconstrained violence.” ―Ian Kershaw

And Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946

The Jewish Insurgency in Palestine which began in 1939:

..The tensions between Jewish militant underground organizations and the British mandatory authorities rose from 1938 and intensified with the publication of the White Paper of 1939, which outlined new government policies which placed further restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases and declared the intention of giving independence to Palestine, with an Arab majority...

Familiarity with the history of the first half of the 20th century makes the violent founding of the State of Israel less shocking and less 'criminal', and more 'business as usual' in the light of regional events of the period, and creating a state where Jews would not be under the authority of other nations or ethnic groups.

Personally I think the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by an extremist Jewish assassin marked to descent of the region into a realm where the extremes on both sides became more powerful, and peace unlikely. An unfortunate situation for those on both sides who seek their rights, and peace.

Aaron, I appreciate your efforts to present the nuances of this debate. Too many see black-and-white: one side belittling the colonial oppression and expulsion of the Palestinians; the other dismissing the predicament of terrorized Holocaust survivors fleeing Europe.

But I don't think it's possible to pronounce a moral judgment on the partition of Palestine by measuring one group's pain against the other's like weights on a scale. The complexity and nebulousness of mass-suffering defy comparison. What we can clearly say is that decisions by western powers to carve up nations as they see fit violates the principle of self-determination. That should not be the role of the Security Council.

That said, it's an academic question; this history has been written. Most nation states in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Americas were delineated by European powers. Those decisions, however cruel and arbitrary, created our global reality, and we cannot unmake them. If the creation of Israel violated the principle of self-determination in 1947, a UN-determined dissolution of Israel would violate it to an even greater extent today.

What we must do today is to help modern-day Palestinians enjoy the same blessing of self-determination that Israelis do. The principle barrier to achieving this goal is the Israeli occupation, so we must put pressure on the Israelis to end it.