a Jewish nation located in Europe wouldn't be nearly as controversial or violent as replacing Palestine with Israel.
"Palestine" was not "replaced" with Israel. "Palestine" was not a sovereign nation, nor was it the size and shape of modern-day Israel. Pre-WWII, it was a territory controlled by the British and was populated by Jews and Arabs. There were a lot of Jews already living there and, of course, the Jews have deep historical roots to the region. In 1936, in response to the growing conflict between the Jews and Arabs, the British decided to partition Palestine, telling the Jews to live in the western portion, and the Arabs to live in the eastern portion. Ultimately, the western portion (roughly) became Israel, and the eastern portion became Jordan.