ISBN9781211315299 English Version

ZIONISM:
NATIONALISM OF JEWS
AND
THEODOR HERZL
LEE BIH NI
First Edition, 2014

Lee Bih Ni
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Chapter
Contents
Page
__________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 1
Theodor Herlz
Introduction
Early life
Zionist Leader
Death and burial
Der Judenstaat and Altneuland
(There Jude State And The Old New Land)
Family
He never did return to Palestine
Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl (1860 - 1904)
The Dreyfus Affair
A Movement Is Started
Uganda Isnt Zion
Herzls Family
Conclusion
Chapter 2
Zionism and Israel

Introduction
Capsule History of Zionism
Pre-Zionism
Spinoza and Zionism
Emancipation and Zionism
Proto-Zionism
British Zionism
Christian Zionism
Zionism of Sephardic Jews
Early Zionism
Religion and Zionism
Proto-Zionism and the "First Aliya"
The Bible and Zionism
Foundational Zionism
o Theodor Herzl and the
Foundation of the Zionist
Movement
Conclusion
29
Chapter 3
Streams in Zionism
51
Introduction
Political Zionism
Territorial Zionism
Cultural Zionism
Practical Zionism
Religious Zionism
The Second Aliyah and Socialist Zionism
Zionism and the conquest of labor
Zionism in WW I
Mandatory Zionism
Chapter 4
Zionism Is Seen As A Racist Ideology Like All Nationalism
Chapter 5
Zionism in America
The split in Zionism
Jewish Immigration under the Mandate
The Jewish Agency
Zionism and the Arabs
Zionism, the Arab Revolt and the Conflict
With Britain
Zionism during the Holocaust
Post-State Zionism
Zionism, the Establishment of Israel
and the Palestinian Refugee Question
The UN Partition Resolution and Israeli Legitimacy
The Holocaust and anti-Zionism
Jabotinsky's warnings went largely unheeded.
Zionism After the Establishment of
the State of Israel
Zionism after the Six Day War
Zionism after the Yom Kippur War
Post-Zionism
Anti-Zionism
Jewish Anti-Zionism
Communist Anti-Zionism
"Zionism is Racism"
Apartheid Israel
Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism
Revival of Zionism
Conclusion
Introduction
o The Jewish State - 1896
o Theodor Herzl's Program for Zionism
OUR RABBIS
Nationalism and racism
Origins and definition of Zionism
Zionism in the State of Israel
Why Zionism Is Racism?
Focus on Jerusalem~Zionism and Racism
Conclusion
Zionism and the creation of Israel
83
Introduction
False beliefs about Zionism
Background his
Proto-Zionism
Early Zionists
105
Chapter 6
Zionism and the Conflict With Britain

Anti-Zionism
The Promised Land
Zionism and the Formation of the State of Israel
Israel Today
Conclusion
Coclusion: Zionism And Nationalism of Jews
A so-called Jewish State

Betrayal, plus divide and rule
Growth of the Arab National Movement
Israeli expansionism and land grabs
Zionism an anti-working class, pro-imperialist
movement
Lack of working class leadership the main
Arab fault
Arafat and the PLO
131
Chapter 1
Theodor Herlz
Introduction
Theodor Herzl (May 2, 1860 July 3, 1904), born Benjamin Zeev Herzl (also known in
Hebrew as "Visionary of the State") was an Austro-Hungarian journalist and writer. He is the
father of modern political Zionism and in effect the foundation of the State of Israel.
Early life
He was born in Pest, Hungary, to a Jewish family originally from Zimony (today Zemun,
Serbia), which was then part of Austria-Hungary. He was the second child of Jeanette and
Jakob Herzl, who were German-speaking, assimilated Jews. He aspired to follow in the
footsteps of Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal. However, he did not succeed
in the sciences, and thus, developed a growing enthusiasm for poetry and the humanities.
This passion would later develop into a successful career in journalism and a less-celebrated
pursuit of play-writing.1
Herzl had minimal interest in religious Judaism as a child, consistent with his parents
lax adherence to the Jewish tradition. His mother relied more on German humanist Kultur
than Jewish ethics. Instead of a Bar Mitzvah, Herzl's thirteenth birthday was advertised as a
"confirmation". He grew up as a "thoroughly emancipated, antitraditional, secular, would-be
German boy," who dismissed all religion, and spoke of Judaism with mocking cynicism. He
exhibited a secularist disdain toward religion, which he viewed as uncivilized. Even after
becoming interested in the "Jewish question," Herzl's writing retained traces of Jewish selfcontempt. According to Amos Elon,2 Herzl considered himself to be atheist.
In 1878, after the death of his sister, Pauline, Herzl's family moved to Vienna,
Austria-Hungary. In Vienna, Herzl studied law.
As a young law student, Herzl became a member of the German nationalist
Burschenschaft (fraternity) Albia, which had the motto Ehre, Freiheit, Vaterland ("Honor,
Freedom, Fatherland"). He later resigned in protest of the organisation's anti-Semitism.
1
2
Elon, Amos (1975). Herzl, p.21-22, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-013126-4.
Ibid, p.23
After a brief legal career in Vienna and Salzburg,3 he devoted himself to journalism
and literature, working as a correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse in Paris, occasionally
making special trips to London and Constantinople. Later on, he became literary editor of
Neue Freie Presse, and wrote several comedies and dramas for the Viennese stage. His early
work did not focus on Jewish life. It was of the feuilleton order, descriptive rather than
political.4
Zionist Leader
As the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse, Herzl followed the Dreyfus Affair, a
notorious anti-Semitic incident in France in which a French Jewish army captain was falsely
convicted of spying for Germany. Herzl witnessed mass rallies in Paris following the Dreyfus
trial, where many chanted "Death to the Jews!" Herzl came to reject his early ideas
regarding Jewish emancipation and assimilation, and to believe that the Jews must remove
themselves from Europe and create their own state.5 There is, however, some debate on the
extent to which Herzl was really influenced by the Dreyfus Affair. Indeed, some claim, such
as Kornberg, that this is a myth that Herzl did not feel necessary to deflate, and that he also
believed that Dreyfus was guilty.6
June, 1895, he wrote in his diary: "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer
attitude toward anti-Semitism... Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying
to 'combat' anti-Semitism." However, in recent decades historians have downplayed the
influence of the Dreyfus Affair on Herzl, even terming it a myth. They have shown that,
while upset by anti-Semitism evident in French society, he, like most contemporary
observers, initially believed in Dreyfus's guilt and only claimed to have been inspired by the
affair years later when it had become an international cause celebre. Rather, it was the rise
to power of the anti-Semitic demagogue Karl Lueger in Vienna in 1895 that seems to have
had a greater effect on Herzl, before the pro-Dreyfus campaign had fully emerged. It was at
this time that he wrote his play "The New Ghetto", which shows the ambivalence and lack of
real security and equality of emancipated, well-to-do Jews in Vienna. Around this time Herzl
"Theodor Herzl (1860-1904". Jewish Agency for Israel. Retrieved 2009-08-08. "He received a doctorate in law
in 1884 and worked for a short while in courts in Vienna and Salzburg."
4
M. Reich-Ranicki, Mein Leben, (Mnchen 2001, DTV GmbH & C0. - ISBN 3-423-12830-5), 64.
5
Rubenstein, Richard L., and Roth, John K. (2003). Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy, p.
94. Louisville. Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22353-2.
6
Theodor Herzl: A Reevaluation, Jacques Kornberg in The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jun., 1980),
pp. 226-252 Published by the University of Chicago Press jstor.org
grew to believe that anti-Semitism could not be defeated or cured, only avoided, and that
the only way to avoid it was the establishment of a Jewish state.7
Beginning in late 1895, Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat, (The Jewish State). It was
published February, 1896 to immediate acclaim and controversy. In the book he outlines the
reasons for the Jewish people, who so desire, to leave Europe, either for Argentina or for
their historic homeland, Israel, which he seems to prefer. The book and Herzl's ideas spread
very rapidly throughout the Jewish world and attracted international attention. Supporters of
existing Zionist movements such as the Hovevei Zion were immediately drawn to, and allied
with, Herzl. Conversely, Herzl and his ideas were vilified by establishment Jewry who
perceive his ideas both as threatening to their efforts at acceptance and integration in their
resident countries and as rebellion against the will of God.
In Der Judenstaat he writes:
The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does
not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into
those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to
persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised
countriessee, for instance, Franceso long as the Jewish question is not solved on the
political level. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into
England; they have already introduced it into America.
Herzl began to energetically promote his ideas, continually attracting supporters,

Jewish and non-Jewish. Norman Rose writes that Herzl "mapped out for himself the role of
martyr... as the Parnell of the Jews".9
On March 10, 1896, Herzl was visited by Reverend William Hechler, the Anglican
minister for the British Embassy. Hechler had read Herzl's Der Judenstaat. The meeting
would be central to the eventual legitimization of Herzl and Zionism.,10 Herzl later wrote in
his diary "Next we came to the heart of the business. I said to him: (Theodor Herzl to Rev.
7
Kornberg, Jacques (December 1, 1993). Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism. Jewish Literature and
Culture. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 193194. ISBN 978-0-253-33203-5. Retrieved
2009-08-08. ""Thus, for the time being, antisemitism is alien to the French people, and they are unable to
comprehend it...
By contrast, several months later...Herzl was to offer a far different assessment of antisemitism in Austria, as a
power and mainline movement on an upward course. Moreover, his fury over Austrian antisemitism had no
parallel in his reaction to French antisemitism."
8
Herzl, Der Judenstaat, cited by C.D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2001, 4th ed., p. 53
9
Norman Rose, "A Senseless, Squalid War: Voices from Palestine 1945-1948", The Bodley Head, London, 2009.
(p. 2)
10
"Jewishmag.com". Jewishmag.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
William Hechler) I must put myself into direct and publicly known relations with a
responsible or non responsible ruler that is, with a minister of state or a prince. Then the
Jews will believe in me and follow me. The most suitable personage would be the German
Kaiser."11 Hechler arranged an extended audience with Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden, in
April, 1896. The Grand Duke was the uncle of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Through the
efforts of Hechler and the Grand Duke, Herzl publicly met the Kaiser in 1898. The meeting
significantly advanced Herzl's and Zionism's legitimacy in Jewish and world opinion.12
In May, 1896, the English translation of his Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State)
appeared in London. Herzl earlier had confessed to his friend Max Bodenheimer, that he
"wrote what I had to say without knowing my predecessors, and it can be assumed that I
would not have written it, (Der Judenstaat) had I been familiar with the literature".13
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, June 15, 1896; Herzl sees an opportunity. With the
assistance of Count Philip Michael Newleski, a sympathetic Polish migr with political
contacts in the Ottoman Court, Herzl attempted to meet the Sultan Abdulhamid II. Herzl
wanted to present his solution to the Jewish State to the Sultan directly. He failed to obtain
an audience with the Sultan. He did succeed in visiting a number of highly placed individuals,
including the Grand Vizier who received him as a journalist representing the Neue Freie
Presse. Herzl presented his proposal to the Grand Vizier that the Jews would pay the Turkish
foreign debt, and attempt to help regulate Turkish finances, if they were given Palestine as
a Jewish homeland under Turkish rule. Prior to leaving Constantinople, June 29, 1896,
Nevlenski obtained for Herzl a symbolic medal of honor.14 The medal was a public relations
affirmation for Herzl, and the Jewish world, of the seriousness of the negotiations, the
"Commander's Cross of the Order of the Medjidie".
11
The Diaries of Theodor Herzl, edited by Marvin Lowenthal, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Peter Smith Pub.,
1978 pg. 105
12
London Daily Mail Friday November 18, 1898 "An Eastern Surprise: Important Result of the Kaiser's Tour:
Sultan and Emperor Agreed in Palestine: Benevolent Sanction Given to the Zionist Movement One of the most
important results, if not the most important, of the Kaiser's visit to Palestine is the immense impetus it has
given to Zionism, the movement for the return of the Jews to Palestine. The gain to this cause is the greater
since it is immediate, but perhaps more important still is the wide political influence which this Imperial action
is like to have. It has not been generally reported that when the Kaiser visited Constantinople Dr. Herzl, the
head of the Zionist movement, was there; again when the Kaiser entered Jerusalem he found Dr. Herzl there.
These were no mere coincidences, but the visible signs of accomplished facts." Herzl had achieved political
legitimacy.
13
Reuben R Hecht, When the Shofar sounds, 2006, p. 43
14
Herzl.org. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
Five years later, May 17, 1901, Herzl did meet with Sultan Abdulhamid II. The Sultan
refused Theodor Herzl's offers to consolidate the Ottoman debt in exchange for a charter
allowing the Zionists access to Palestine.15
Returning from Constantinople, Herzl traveled to London, to report back to the
Maccabeans, a proto-Zionist group of established English Jewry led by Colonel Albert
Goldsmid. November,1895, they had received him with curiosity, indifference and coldness.
Israel Zangwill bitterly opposed Herzl. After Constantinople, Goldsmid agreed to support
Herzl. In London's East End, a community of primarily Yiddish speaking recent Eastern
European Jewish immigrants, Herzl addressed a mass rally of thousands, July 12, 1896. He
was received with acclaim. They granted Herzl the mandate of leadership for Zionism.
Within six months this mandate had been expanded throughout Zionist Jewry. The Zionist
movement continued growing very rapidly.
In 1897, at considerable personal expense, he founded Die Welt of Vienna, AustriaHungary and planned the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. He was elected
president (a position he held until his death in 1904), and in 1898 he began a series of
diplomatic initiatives intended to build support for a Jewish country. He was received by the
German emperor, Wilhelm II, on several occasions, one of them in Jerusalem, and attended
The Hague Peace Conference, enjoying a warm reception by many other statesmen.
Herzl visited Jerusalem for the first time in October 1898. 16 Herzl deliberately
coordinated his visit with that of Kaiser Wilhelm II to secure, what he thought had been
prearranged with the aid of Rev. William Hechler, a public world power recognition of
himself and Zionism.17 Herzl and Kaiser Wilhelm first met publicly, October 29, at Mikveh
Israel, near present day Holon, Israel. It was a brief but historic meeting. He had a second
formal, public audience with the emperor at the latter's tent camp on Street of the Prophets
in Jerusalem, November 2, 1898.18
19
In 190203 Herzl was invited to give evidence before the British Royal Commission
on Alien Immigration. The appearance brought him into close contact with members of the
15
"Time Line". Herzl.org. 1949-08-16. Retrieved 2011-10-26.

"Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem, Just Prior to Meeting With German Emperor Wilhelm II...". Shapell Manuscript
Foundation. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
17
Herzl had written in his diary of the necessity for world power recognition. March 11, 1896"
18
Ginsberg, Michael Peled; Ron, Moshe (June 2004). Shattered Vessels: Memory, Identity, and Creation in the
Work of David Shahar. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5919-5.
19
Kaiser Wilhelm II had assured Herzl of his support for the Jewish protectorate under Germany when they
had met privately in Constantinople a week earlier. By the time of their public meetings at Mikveh Israel and
Jerusalem, the Kaiser had changed his mind. Herzl had thought he had failed. In the eyes of public opinion he
had not.
16
British government, particularly with Joseph Chamberlain, then secretary of state for the
colonies, through whom he negotiated with the Egyptian government for a charter for the
settlement of the Jews in Al 'Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, adjoining southern Palestine.
In 1903, Herzl attempted to obtain support for the Jewish homeland from Pope Pius
X. Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val explained to him the Church's policy of non possumus on
such matters, saying that as long as the Jews deny the divinity of Christ, the Church
certainly could not make a declaration in their favor.20
On the failure of that scheme, which took him to Cairo, he received, through L. J.
Greenberg, an offer (August 1903) on the part of the British government to facilitate a large
Jewish settlement, with autonomous government and under British suzerainty, in British
East Africa. At the same time, the Zionist movement being threatened by the Russian
government, he visited St. Petersburg and was received by Sergei Witte, then finance
minister, and Viacheslav Plehve, minister of the interior, the latter of whom placed on record
the attitude of his government toward the Zionist movement. On that occasion Herzl
submitted proposals for the amelioration of the Jewish position in Russia. He published the
Russian statement, and brought the British offer, commonly known as the "Uganda Project",
before the Sixth Zionist Congress (Basel, August 1903), carrying the majority (295:178, 98
abstentions) with him on the question of investigating this offer, after the Russian
delegation stormed out.
In 1905, after investigation, the Congress decided to decline the British offer and
firmly committed itself to a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Death and burial

Herzl did not live to see the rejection of the Uganda plan. At 5 p.m. July 3, 1904 in Edlach,
Lower Austria, Theodor Herzl died of cardiac sclerosis. A day before his death, he told the
Reverend William H. Hechler: "Greet Palestine for me. I gave my heart's blood for my
people."21
His will stipulated that he should have the poorest-class funeral without speeches or
flowers and he added, "I wish to be buried in the vault beside my father, and to lie there till
the Jewish people shall take my remains to Palestine".22 Nevertheless, some six thousand
20
Catholicism, France and Zionism: 1895-1904.

22
'Obituary', The Times, Thursday, July 7, 1904; pg. 10; Issue 37440; col B.
21
followed Herzl's hearse, and the funeral was long and chaotic. Despite Herzl's request that
no speeches be made, a brief eulogy was delivered by David Wolffsohn. Hans Herzl, then
thirteen, read the kaddish.23
In 1949 his remains were moved from Vienna to be reburied on Mount Herzl in
Jerusalem.
Der Judenstaat and Altneuland (There Jude State And The Old New Land)
Beginning in late 1895, Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat, the Jewish State. The small book was
initially published, February 14, 1896, in Leipzig, Germany and Vienna, Austria by M.
Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung. It is subtitled "Versuch einer modernen Lsung der
Judenfrage", "Proposal of a modern solution for the Jewish question"
Herzl's solution is the creation of a Jewish State. In the book he outlines his
reasoning for the need to reestablish the historic Jewish State.
"The idea I have developed in this pamphlet is an ancient one: It is the restoration of the
Jewish State. . ."
"The decisive factor is our propelling force. And what is that force? The plight of the Jews. . .
I am profoundly convinced that I am right, though I doubt whether I shall live to see myself
proved so. Those who today inaugurate this movement are unlikely to live to see its glorious
culmination. But the very inauguration is enough to inspire in them a high pride and the joy
of an inner liberation of their existence. . ."
"The plan would seem mad enough if a single individual were to undertake it; but if
many Jews simultaneously agree on it, it is entirely reasonable, and its achievement
presents no difficulties worth mentioning. The idea depends only on the number of its
adherents. Perhaps our ambitious young men, to whom every road of advancement is now
closed, and for whom the Jewish state throws open a bright prospect of freedom, happiness,
and honor, perhaps they will see to it that this idea is spread. . ."
"It depends on the Jews themselves whether this political document remains for the
present a political romance. If this generation is too dull to understand it rightly, a future,
finer, more advanced generation will arise to comprehend it. The Jews who will try it shall
achieve their State; and they will deserve it. . ."
23
Elon, Amos (1975). Herzl, p.402, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-013126-4.
"I consider the Jewish question neither a social nor a religious one, even though it
sometimes takes these and other forms. It is a national question, and to solve it we must
first of all establish it as an international political problem to be discussed and settled by the
civilized nations of the world in council.
We are a people one people.
We have sincerely tried everywhere to merge with the national communities in which we live,
seeking only to preserve the faith of our fathers. It is not permitted us. In vain are we loyal
patriots, sometimes superloyal; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property
as our fellow citizens; in vain do we strive to enhance the fame of our native lands in the
arts and sciences, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In our native lands where we have
lived for centuries we are still decried as aliens, often by men whose ancestors had not yet
come at a time when Jewish sighs had long been heard in the country..."
"Oppression and persecution cannot exterminate us. No nation on earth has endured
such struggles and sufferings as we have. Jew-baiting has merely winnowed out our
weaklings; the strong among us defiantly return to their own whenever persecution breaks
out..."
"Wherever we remain politically secure for any length of time, we assimilate. I think
this is not praiseworthy..."
"Palestine is our unforgettable historic homeland..."
"Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who will it shall achieve
their State. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own homes
peacefully die. The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth,
magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will
redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind."24
His last literary work, Altneuland (in English: The Old New Land, 1902), is a novel
devoted to Zionism. Herzl occupied his free time for three years in writing what he believed
might be accomplished by 1923. It is less a novel, though the form is that of romance, than
a serious forecasting of what could be done within one generation. The keynotes of the
story are the love for Zion, the insistence upon the fact that the changes in life suggested
are not utopian, but are to be brought about simply by grouping all the best efforts and
ideals of every race and nation; and each such effort is quoted and referred to in such a
24
"Jewishvirtuallibrary.org". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
manner as to show that Altneuland, though blossoming through the skill of the Jew, will in
reality be the product of the benevolent efforts of all the members of the human family.
Herzl envisioned a Jewish state which combined both a modern Jewish culture with
the best of the European heritage. Thus a Palace of Peace would be built in Jerusalem,
arbitrating international disputes, and at the same time the Temple would be rebuilt on
modern principles. Herzl did not envision the Jewish inhabitants of the state being religious,
but there would be much respect for religion in the public sphere. He also assumed that
many languages would be spoken, but Hebrew would not be the main tongue. Proponents
of a Jewish cultural rebirth, such as Ahad Ha'am were critical of Altneuland.
In Altneuland, Herzl did not foresee any conflict between Jews and Arabs. One of the
main characters in Altneuland is a Haifa engineer, Reshid Bey, who is one of the leaders of
the "New Society", is very grateful to his Jewish neighbors for improving the economic
condition of Palestine and sees no cause for conflict. All non-Jews have equal rights, and an
attempt by a fanatical rabbi to disenfranchise the non-Jewish citizens of their rights fails in
the election which is the center of the main political plot of the novel.25 Herzl also envisioned
the future Jewish state to be a "third way" between capitalism and socialism, with a
developed welfare program and public ownership of the main natural resources and industry,
agriculture and even trade organized on a cooperative basis. He called this mixed economic
model "Mutualism", a term derived from French utopian socialist thinking. Women would
have equal voting rightsas they did have in the Zionist movement from the Second Zionist
Congress onwards.
In Altneuland, Herzl outlined his vision for a new Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
Herzl summed up his vision for an open society:
"It is founded on the ideas which are a common product of all civilized nations... It
would be immoral if we would exclude anyone, whatever his origin, his descent, or his
religion, from participating in our achievements. For we stand on the shoulders of other
civilized peoples. ... What we own we owe to the preparatory work of other peoples.
Therefore, we have to repay our debt. There is only one way to do it, the highest tolerance.
Our motto must therefore be, now and ever: Man, you are my brother." (Quoted in "Zion &
the Jewish National Idea", in Zionism Reconsidered, Macmillan, 1970 PB, p.185)
In his novel, Herzl wrote about an electoral campaign in the new state. He directed
his wrath against the nationalist party which wished to make the Jews a privileged class in
25
Avineri, Shlomo (September 2, 2009). "Herzl's vision of racism". Haaretz. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
Palestine. Herzl regarded that as a betrayal of Zion, for Zion was identical to him with
humanitarianism and tolerancethat this was true in politics as well as in religion. Herzl
wrote:
"Matters of faith were once and for all excluded from public influence. ... Whether
anyone sought religious devotion in the synagogue, in the church, in the mosque, in the art
museum, or in a philharmonic concert, did not concern society. That was his [own] private
affair." (Quoted in "Zion & the Jewish National Idea", in Zionism Reconsidered, Macmillan,
1970 PB, p.185)
Altneuland was written both for Jews and non-Jews: Herzl wanted to win over nonJewish opinion for Zionism.26 When he was still thinking of Argentina as a possible venue for
massive Jewish immigration, he mentioned in his diary he
"When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that
receives us. We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us.
We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment
for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country. The property
owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the
poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly ... It goes without saying that we shall
respectfully tolerate persons of other faiths and protect their property, their honor, and their
freedom with the harshest means of coercion. This is another area in which we shall set the
entire world a wonderful example ... Should there be many such immovable owners in
individual areas [who would not sell their property to us], we shall simply leave them there
and develop our commerce in the direction of other areas which belong to us", "The
Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl", vol. 1 (New York: Herzl Press and Thomas Yoseloff,
1960), pp. 88, 90 hereafter Herzl diaries.
Herzl's draft of a charter for a Jewish-Ottoman Land Company (JOLC) gave the JOLC
the right to obtain land in Palestine by giving its owners comparable land elsewhere in the
Ottoman empire.
The name of Tel Aviv is the title given to the Hebrew translation of Altneuland by the
translator, Nahum Sokolow. This name, which comes from Ezekiel 3:15, means tell an
ancient mound formed when a town is built on its own debris for thousands of years of
spring. The name was later applied to the new town built outside of Jaffa, which went on to
26
L.C.M. van der Hoeven Leonhard, "Shlomo and David, Palestine, 1907", in From Haven to Conquest, 1971, W.
Khalidi (ed.), pp. 118-19.
become Tel Aviv-Yafo the second-largest city in Israel. The nearby city to the north, Herzliya,
was named in honor of Herzl.
Family
Herzl's grandfathers, both of whom he knew, were more closely related to traditional
Judaism than his parents. In Zemun (Zemlin), his grandfather Simon Loeb Herzl "had his
hands on" one of the first copies of Judah Alkalai's 1857 work prescribing the "return of the
Jews to the Holy Land and renewed glory of Jerusalem." Contemporary scholars conclude
that Herzl's own implementation of modern Zionism was undoubtedly influenced by that
relationship. Herzl's grandparents' graves in Semlin can still be visited.27 Alkalai himself, was
witness to the rebirth of Serbia from Ottoman rule in the early and mid 19th century, and
was inspired by the Serbian uprising and subsequent re-creation of Serbia.
Jakob Herzl (18361902), Herzl's father, was a highly successful businessman. Herzl
had one sister, Pauline, a year older than he was, who died suddenly on February 7, 1878 of
typhus.28 Theodor lived with his family in a house next to the Dohny Street Synagogue
(formerly known as Tabakgasse Synagogue) located in Belvros, the inner city of the
historical old town of Pest, in the eastern section of Budapest. 29 The remains of Herzl's
parents and sister were re-buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.30
In June 25, 1889 he married Julie Naschauer, daughter of a wealthy Jewish
businessman in Vienna. The marriage was unhappy, although three children were born to it,
Paulina, Hans and Margaritha (Trude). Herzl and Julie declined to have their son Hans
circumcised.31 Herzl had a strong attachment to his mother, who was unable to get along
with his wife.32 These difficulties were increased by the political activities of his later years,
in which his wife took little interest. 33 Herzl and his children on a trip in 1900. All three
children died tragically.
27
"European Jewish Congress Serbia". Eurojewcong.org. 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2011-10-26.

"Theodor Herzl Background". Aboutisrael.co.il. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
29
Herzl, Theodor (January 1898). "An Autobiography". London Jewish Chronicle: 20. Retrieved 2008-03-18. "I
was born in 1860 in Budapest in a house next to the synagogue where lately the rabbi denounced me from the
pulpit in very sharp terms (...)"
30
Herzl, Theodor (1960). "Herzl Speaks: His Mind on Issues, Events and Men". Herzl Institute Pamphlet (New
York: The Herzl Press) 16. "I went...to the synagogue [in Paris] and found the services once again solemn and
moving. Much reminded me of my youth and the Tabakgasse synagogue in Pest."
31
Stewart, D., Theodor Herzl (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1974), p. 202
32
Hans Herzl voluntarily had himself circumcised May 29, 1905; Princes Without a Home, Modern Zionism and
the Strange Fate of Theodor Herzl's children, Ilse Sternberger, pg.125
33
Theodor Herzl on WowEssays.com
28
Herzl Statue in Dimona.

His daughter Paulina suffered from mental illness and drug addiction. She died in 1930 at
the age of 40, of a heroin overdose.34
His only son Hans was given a secular upbringing, and Herzl notably refused to allow
him to be circumcised.35 After Herzl's early death, Hans successively converted and became
a Baptist, then a Catholic and flirted with other Protestant denominations. 36 He sought a
personal salvation for his own religious needs and a universal solution, as had his father, to
Jewish suffering caused by anti-Semitism. Hans committed suicide (gunshot) the day of
sister Paulina's funeral.37
Hans left a death note explaining his reasons.

"A Jew remains a Jew, no matter how eagerly he may submit himself to the
disciplines of his new religion, how humbly he may place the redeeming cross upon his
shoulders for the sake of his former coreligionists, to save them from eternal damnation: a
Jew remains a Jew... I can't go on living. I have lost all trust in God, All my life I've tried to
strive for the truth, and must admit today at the end of the road that there is nothing but
disappointment. Tonight I have said Kaddish for my parents--and for myself, the last
descendant of the family. There is nobody who will say Kaddish for me, who went out to
find peace--and who may find peace soon... My instinct has latterly gone all wrong, and I
have made one of those irreparable mistakes, which stamp a whole life with failure. Then it
is best to scrap it."38
39
Hans was 39.

In 2006 the remains of Paulina and Hans were moved from Bordeaux, France, and
reburied not far from their father on Mt. Herzl.40
Paulina and Hans had little contact with the youngest daughter, "Trude",(Margarethe,
18931943). She married Richard Neumann, a man 17 years her elder. Neumann lost his
34
Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives, By Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, (University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2007), page 51
36
The Gender Of Desire: Essays On Male Sexuality, By Michael S. Kimmel, SUNY Press, 2005, page 181
37
"Crash Course in Jewish History Part 63 - Modern Zionism". Aish.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
38
Princes Without a Home, by Isle Sternberger
39
"Goliath.exnext.com". Goliath.ecnext.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
40
Herzl's children to be disinterred on Tuesday in Bordeaux, France haaretz.com
35
fortune in the Great Depression. Burdened by the steep costs of hospitalizing Trude, who
suffered from severe bouts of depressive illness that required repeated hospitalizations, the
Neumanns' financial life was precarious. The Nazis sent Trude and Richard to the
Theresienstadt concentration camp where they died. Her body was burned. 41 (Likewise her
mother who died in 1907 was cremated. Her ashes were lost by accident).
Trude's son (Herzl's only grandchild), Stephan Theodor Neumann (19181946) was
sent to England, 1935, for his safety, at the request of his father Richard Neumann to the
Viennese Zionists and the Zionist Executive in Palestine.42 The Neumanns deeply feared for
the safety of their only child as rabid Austrian anti-Semitism expanded. In England, he read
extensively about his grandfather. Zionism had not been a significant part of his background
in Austria. Stephan became an ardent Zionist. He was the only descendant of Theodor Herzl
to be a Zionist. Anglicizing his name to Stephen Norman, during World War II, Norman
enlisted in the British Army rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Artillery. In late 1945
and early 1946, he took the opportunity to visit the British Mandate of Palestine "to see
what my grandfather had started." He wrote in his diary extensively about his trip. What
impressed him the most was that there was a "look of freedom" in the faces of the children,
not like the sallow look of those from the concentration camps of Europe. He wrote upon
leaving Palestine, "My visit to Palestine is over... It is said that to go away is to die a little.
And I know that when I went away from Erez Israel, I died a little. But sure, then, to return
is somehow to be reborn. And I will return."43
Norman planned to return to Palestine following his military discharge. The Zionist
Executive, through Dr. L. Lauterbach had worked for years to get Norman to come to
Palestine.44 He would be the symbol of Herzl returning.
Operation Agatha of June 29, 1946, precluded that possibility: British military and
police fanned out throughout Palestine and arrested Jewish activists. About 2,700 individuals
were arrested. On July 2, 1946, Norman wrote to Mrs. Stybovitz-Kahn in Haifa. Her father,
Jacob Kahn, had been a good friend of Herzl and a well known Dutch banker before the war.
Norman wrote "I intend to go to Palestine on a long visit in the future, in fact as soon as
passport & permit regulations permit. But the dreadful news of the last two days have done
nothing to make this easier."
41
45
Fulfilling Historical Justice: Herzl's Children Come Home, jewishagency.org

Zionist Archives letters of Richard Neumann
43
Airstop in Palestine, by Stephen Norman, azure.org.il
44
Central Zionist Archives -extensive documentary exchange between Lauterbach and Norman 19361946
45
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Papers of Stephen Norman, July 2, 1946, letter to Mrs. Stybovitz-Kahn
42
He never did return to Palestine.

Demobilized from the British army in late spring 1946, without any money, or job and
despondent about his future, Norman followed the advice of Dr. Selig Brodetsky. Dr. H.
Rosenblum, the editor of "Haboker", a Tel Aviv daily that later became Yediot Aharonot,
noted in late 1945 that Dr. Weizmann deeply resented the sudden intrusion and reception of
Norman when he arrived in Britain. Norman spoke to the Zionist conference in London.
Haboker reported, "Something similar happened at the Zionist conference in London. The
Chairman suddenly announced to the meeting that in the hall there was Herzl's grandson
who wanted to say a few words. The introduction was made in an absolutely dry and official
way. It was felt that the chairman looked for and found some stylistic formula which
would satisfy the visitor without appearing too cordial to anybody among the audience. In
spite of that there was a great thrill in the hall when Norman mounted on the platform of
the praesidium. At that moment, Dr. Weizmann turned his back on the speaker and
remained in this bodily and mental attitude until the guest had finished his speech." (From
Haboker 10-26-1945. Document amongst the papers of Stephen Norman at the Central
Zionist Archives in Jerusalem.) The 1945 article went on to note that Norman was snubbed
by Weizmann and by some in Palestine during his visit because of ego, jealousy, vanity and
their own personal ambitions. Brodetsky was Chaim Weizman's principle ally and supporter
in Britain. Norman secured, through influence, a very desirable, but minor position with the
British Economic and Scientific mission in Washington, D.C. In late August 1946, shortly
after arriving in Washington, he learned that his family had been exterminated. Norman had
re-established contact with his old nanny in Vienna, Wuth who informed him of what
happened.46 Norman became deeply depressed over the fate of his family and his inability to
help the Jewish people "languishing" in the European camps. Unable to endure the suffering
any further, he jumped to his death from the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge in Washington,
D.C., November 26, 1946. Norman was buried by the Jewish Agency in Washington, D.C.
His tombstone read simply, 'Stephen Theodore Norman, Captain Royal Artillery British Army,
Grandson of Theodor Herzl, April 21, 1918 November 26, 1946'.47 Norman was the only
member of Herzl's family to have been a Zionist, been to Palestine, and openly stated his
desire to return.
46
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, August, 1946,

"These Children Bore the Mark of Freedom, by Jerry Klinger, Theodor Herzl Foundation, in Midtstream, A BiMonthly Jewish Review, May/June 2007, pages 21-24, ISSN 0026-332X
47
After 61 years, he was reburied with his family on Mt. Herzl, in the Plot for Zionist
Leaders, December 5, 2007.48
49 50 51
In Jerusalem, on Mt. Herzl, the Stephen Norman garden was completed in Norman's
honor and memory. It is the only memorial in the world to a Herzl, other than to Theodor
Herzl. The garden was dedicated May 2, 2012 by the Jerusalem Foundation, the World
Zionist Organization and the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.52 On one of
the walls of the garden, located between the Herzl Museum and the Herzl Educational
Center, is a quote from Norman from when he visited Palestine in 1946, it summarized the
meaning of Zionism and Israel.
"You will be amazed at the Jewish Youth in Palestine...they have the look of
freedom." 53
Writings
A. Books The Jews' State (Der Judenstaat) (ISBN 1-59986-998-5)
B. The Old New Land (Altneuland) (ISBN 1-55876-160-8)
"If you will it, it is no dream." a phrase from Herzl's book Old New Land, became a popular
slogan of the Zionist movementthe striving for a Jewish National Home in Israel.54
Plays55
56
1. Kompagniearbeit, comedy in one act, Vienna 1880

2. Die Causa Hirschkorn, comedy in one act, Vienna 1882
3. Tabarin, comedy in one act, Vienna 1884
48
Theodor Herzl's only grandson reinterred in J'lem cemetery, Haaretz Dec.6, 2007
Washington Jewish Week, June 27, 2007, "Zionist set to come 'home' Herzl's grandson slated to be reburied
in Israel", by Richard Greenberg
50
"A Zionist who deserves to come home", by Jerry Klinger, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 12, 2003. Crash Course in
Jewish History Part 63 - Modern Zionism at www.aish.com
51
Guttman, Nathan (August 29, 2007). "Jerusalem Plans a Hero's Burial to Long Deceased Grandson of Herzl".
Jewish Daily Forward.
52
"Jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org". Jewish-american-society-for-historicpreservation.org. 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
53
Jerry Klinger, President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, was the principle organizer
behind the five year reburial effort.
54
"Brandeis.edu". Brandeis.edu. 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
55
"Theodor Herzl 2004". The Department for Jewish Zionist Education. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
56
Balsam, Mashav. "Theodor Herzl: From the Theatre Stage to The Stage of Life". All About Jewish Theatre.
Retrieved 2009-08-08.
49
4. Muttershnchen, in four acts, Vienna 1885 (Later: "Austoben" by H. Jungmann)

5. Seine Hoheit, comedy in three acts, Vienna 1885
6. Der Flchtling, comedy in one act, Vienna 1887
7. Wilddiebe, comedy in four acts, in co-authorship with H. Wittmann, Vienna 1888
8. Was wird man sagen?, comedy in four acts, Vienna 1890
9. Die Dame in Schwarz, comedy in four acts, in co-authorship with H. Wittmann,
Vienna 1890
10. Prinzen aus Genieland, comedy in four acts, Vienna 1891
11. Die Glosse, comedy in one act, Vienna 1895
12. Das Neue Ghetto, drama in four acts, Vienna 1898. Herzl's only play with Jewish
characters.[56]
13. The New Ghetto, translated by Heinz Norden, New York 1955
14. Unser Ktchen, comedy in four acts, Vienna 1899
15. Gretel, comedy in four acts, Vienna 1899
16. I love you, comedy in one act, Vienna 1900
17. Solon in Lydien, drama in three acts, Vienna 1904
Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl
(1860 - 1904)
In Basle I founded the Jewish state . . . Maybe in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will
realize it.
Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl, the visionary of Zionism, was born in Budapest in 1860. He
was educated in the spirit of the German-Jewish Enlightenment of the period, learning to
appreciate secular culture. In 1878 the family moved to Vienna, and in 1884 Herzl was
awarded a doctorate of law from the University of Vienna. He became a writer, a playwright
and a journalist. The Paris correspondent of the influential liberal Vienna newspaper Neue
Freie Presse was none other than Theodor Herzl.
Herzl first encountered the anti-Semitism that would shape his life and the fate of
the Jews in the twentieth century while studying at the University of Vienna (1882). Later,
during his stay in Paris as a journalist, he was brought face-to-face with the problem. At the
time, he regarded the Jewish problem as a social issue and wrote a drama, The Ghetto
(1894), in which assimilation and conversion are rejected as solutions. He hoped that The
Ghetto would lead to debate and ultimately to a solution, based on mutual tolerance and
respect between Christians and Jews.57
The Dreyfus Affair

In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly accused
of treason, mainly because of the prevailing anti-Semitic atmosphere. Herzl witnessed mobs
shouting Death to the Jews in France, the home of the French Revolution, and resolved
that there was only one solution: the mass immigration of Jews to a land that they could call
their own. Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the determinants in the genesis of
Political Zionism.
Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor in human
society, which assimilation did not solve. He mulled over the idea of Jewish sovereignty, and,
despite ridicule from Jewish leaders, published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State, 1896).
Herzl argued that the essence of the Jewish problem was not individual but national. He
declared that the Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they ceased being a
national anomaly. The Jews are one people, he said, and their plight could be transformed
into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state with the consent of the great
powers. He saw the Jewish question as an international political question to be dealt with in
the arena of international politics.
Herzl proposed a practical program for collecting funds from Jews around the world
by a company to be owned by stockholders, which would work toward the practical
realization of this goal. (This organization, when it was eventually formed, was called the
Zionist Organization.) He saw the future state as a model social state, basing his ideas on
57
Jews Virtual Library. 2013. Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl. Retrived May 25, 2013 from
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Herzl.html
the European model of the time, of a modern enlightened society. It would be neutral and
peace-seeking, and of a secular nature.
In his Zionist novel, Altneuland (Old New Land, 1902), Herzl pictured the future Jewish state
as a socialist utopia. He envisioned a new society that was to rise in the Land of Israel on a
cooperative basis utilizing science and technology in the development of the Land.
He included detailed ideas about how he saw the future states political structure,
immigration, fund-raising, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion
and the state. In Altneuland, the Jewish state was foreseen as a pluralist, advanced society,
a light unto the nations. This book had a great impact on the Jews of the time and
became a symbol of the Zionist vision in the Land of Israel.58
A Movement Is Started
Herzl's ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, although
Jewish leaders were less ardent. Herzl appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and
Baron Rothschild, to join the national Zionist movement, but in vain. He then appealed to
the people, and the result was the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basle,
Switzerland, on August 29-31, 1897.
The Congress was the first interterritorial gathering of Jews on a national and secular
basis. Here the delegates adopted the Basle Program, the program of the Zionist movement,
and declared, Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured
under public law. At the Congress the World Zionist Organization was established as the
political arm of the Jewish people, and Herzl was elected its first president.
Herzl convened six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1902. It was here that the
tools for Zionist activism were forged: Otzar Hityashvut Hayehudim, the Jewish National
Fund and the movements newspaper Die Welt.
After the First Zionist Congress, the movement met yearly at an international Zionist
Congress. In 1936, the center of the Zionist movement was transferred to Jerusalem.
58
Ibid.
Uganda Isnt Zion

Herzl saw the need for encouragement by the great powers of the aims of the Jewish people
in the Land. Thus, he traveled to the Land of Israel and Istanbul in 1898 to meet with Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The meeting with Wilhelm
was a failure - the monarch dismissed Herzls political entreaties with snide anti-Semitic
remarks. When these efforts proved fruitless, he turned to Great Britain, and met with
Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary and others. The only concrete offer he
received from the British was the proposal of a Jewish autonomous region in east Africa, in
Uganda.
In 1899, in an essay entitled The Family Affliction written for The American Hebrew,
Herzl wrote, Anyone who wants to work in behalf of the Jews needs - to use a popular
phrase - a strong stomach.
The 1903 Kishinev pogrom and the difficult state of Russian Jewry, witnessed
firsthand by Herzl during a visit to Russia, had a profound effect on him. He requested that
the Russian government assist the Zionist Movement to transfer Jews from Russia to Eretz
Yisrael.
At the Sixth Zionist Congress (1903), Herzl proposed the British Uganda Program as
a temporary refuge for Jews in Russia in immediate danger. While Herzl made it clear that
this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, a Jewish entity in the Land of
Israel, the proposal aroused a storm at the Congress and nearly led to a split in the Zionist
movement. The Uganda Program was finally rejected by the Zionist movement at the
Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905.
Herzl died in Vienna in 1904, of pneumonia and a weak heart overworked by his
incessant efforts on behalf of Zionism. By then the movement had found its place on the
world political map. In 1949, Herzls remains were brought to Israel and reinterred on Mount
Herzl in Jerusalem.
Herzls books Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) and Altneuland (Old New Land),
his plays and articles have been published frequently and translated into many languages.
His name has been commemorated in the Herzl Forests at Ben Shemen and Hulda, the
world's first Hebrew gymnasium Herzliya which was established in Tel Aviv, the town
of Herzliya in the Sharon and neighborhoods and streets in many Israeli towns and cities.
Herzl coined the phrase If you will, it is no fairytale, which became the motto of
the Zionist movement. Although at the time no one could have imagined it, Zionism led, only
fifty years later, to the establishment of the independent State of Israel.59
Herzls Family
Herzl and his wife Julia, who was prone to mental instability, had three children, each of
whom met a terrible end. His eldest daughter Pauline was a drug addict who died in a
French hospital. His son Hans, who shot himself upon learning of his sisters death, had left
Judaism for a series of Christian churches. Herzl had failed to have his son circumcised, and
the Zionist leadership, following Herzls death, saw to it that the oversight be remedied
when the boy was 15 years old. His youngest daughter Trude perished in the Nazi
concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Her son, Stephen Theodore Norman (born Stephen
Neumann), had been sent to safety in England. On November 20, 1946, after learning of the
death of his parents, he jumped to his death from the Massachusetts Avenue bridge in
Washington, D.C. at the age of 27.
Herzl himself was 44-years-old when he died in the summer of 1904, on the 20th of
Tammuz in the Jewish calendar.60
Conclusion
Herzl's ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, although
Jewish leaders were less ardent. Herzl appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and
Baron Rothschild, to join the national Zionist movement, but in vain. He then appealed to
the people, and the result was the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basle,
Switzerland, on August 29-31, 1897. Herzl convened six Zionist Congresses between 1897
and 1902. It was here that the tools for Zionist activism were forged: Otzar Hityashvut
Hayehudim, the Jewish National Fund and the movements newspaper Die Welt. After the
First Zionist Congress, the movement met yearly at an international Zionist Congress. In
1936, the center of the Zionist movement was transferred to Jerusalem.
59
60
Ibid
Ibid
References
"A Zionist who deserves to come home", by Jerry Klinger, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 12, 2003. Crash Course in
Jewish History Part 63 - Modern Zionism at www.aish.com
"Brandeis.edu". Brandeis.edu. 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"European Jewish Congress Serbia". Eurojewcong.org. 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"Goliath.exnext.com". Goliath.ecnext.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"Herzl.org". Herzl.org. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"Jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org". Jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org.
2007-12-05. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"Jewishvirtuallibrary.org". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"Theodor Herzl (1860-1904". Jewish Agency for Israel. Retrieved 2009-08-08. "He received a doctorate in law
in 1884 and worked for a short while in courts in Vienna and Salzburg."
"Theodor Herzl 2004". The Department for Jewish Zionist Education. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
"Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem, Just Prior to Meeting With German Emperor Wilhelm II...". Shapell Manuscript
Foundation. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
"Theodor Herzl Background". Aboutisrael.co.il. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"These Children Bore the Mark of Freedom, by Jerry Klinger, Theodor Herzl Foundation, in Midtstream, A BiMonthly Jewish Review, May/June 2007, pages 21-24, ISSN 0026-332X
"Time Line". Herzl.org. 1949-08-16. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
"Jewishmag.com". Jewishmag.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
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Retrieved 2009-08-08.
"Crash Course in Jewish History Part 63 - Modern Zionism". Aish.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
London Daily Mail Friday November 18, 1898 "An Eastern Surprise: Important Result of the Kaiser's Tour:
Sultan and Emperor Agreed in Palestine: Benevolent Sanction Given to the Zionist Movement One of the most
important results, if not the most important, of the Kaiser's visit to Palestine is the immense impetus it has given
to Zionism, the movement for the return of the Jews to Palestine. The gain to this cause is the greater since it is
immediate, but perhaps more important still is the wide political influence which this Imperial action is like to
have. It has not been generally reported that when the Kaiser visited Constantinople Dr. Herzl, the head of the
Zionist movement, was there; again when the Kaiser entered Jerusalem he found Dr. Herzl there. These were no
mere coincidences, but the visible signs of accomplished facts." Herzl had achieved political legitimacy.
Airstop in Palestine, by Stephen Norman, azure.org.il
Avineri, Shlomo (September 2, 2009). "Herzl's vision of racism". Haaretz. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
Catholicism, France and Zionism: 1895-1904
Central Zionist Archives -extensive documentary exchange between Lauterbach and Norman 19361946
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, August, 1946,
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Papers of Stephen Norman, July 2, 1946, letter to Mrs. Stybovitz-Kahn
Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives, By Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, (University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2007), page 51
Fulfilling Historical Justice: Herzl's Children Come Home, jewishagency.org
Ginsberg, Michael Peled; Ron, Moshe (June 2004). Shattered Vessels: Memory, Identity, and Creation in the
Work of David Shahar. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5919-5.
Guttman, Nathan (August 29, 2007). "Jerusalem Plans a Hero's Burial to Long Deceased Grandson of Herzl".
Jewish Daily Forward.
Hans Herzl voluntarily had himself circumcised May 29, 1905; Princes Without a Home, Modern Zionism and
the Strange Fate of Theodor Herzl's children, Ilse Sternberger, pg.125
Herzl had written in his diary of the necessity for world power recognition. March 11, 1896"
Herzl, Der Judenstaat, cited by C.D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2001, 4th ed., p. 53
Herzl, Theodor (1960). "Herzl Speaks: His Mind on Issues, Events and Men". Herzl Institute Pamphlet (New
York: The Herzl Press) 16. "I went...to the synagogue [in Paris] and found the services once again
solemn and moving. Much reminded me of my youth and the Tabakgasse synagogue in Pest."
Herzl, Theodor (January 1898). "An Autobiography". London Jewish Chronicle: 20. Retrieved 2008-03-18. "I
was born in 1860 in Budapest in a house next to the synagogue where lately the rabbi denounced me
from the pulpit in very sharp terms (...)"
Herzl's children to be disinterred on Tuesday in Bordeaux, France haaretz.com
Jerry Klinger, President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, was the principle organizer
behind the five year reburial effort.
Kaiser Wilhelm II had assured Herzl of his support for the Jewish protectorate under Germany when they had
met privately in Constantinople a week earlier. By the time of their public meetings at Mikveh Israel
and Jerusalem, the Kaiser had changed his mind. Herzl had thought he had failed. In the eyes of public
opinion he had not.
Kornberg, Jacques (December 1, 1993). Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism. Jewish Literature and
Culture. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 193194. ISBN 978-0-253-33203-5.
Retrieved 2009-08-08. ""Thus, for the time being, antisemitism is alien to the French people, and they
are unable to comprehend it...
By contrast, several months later...Herzl was to offer a far different assessment of antisemitism in
Austria, as a power and mainline movement on an upward course. Moreover, his fury over Austrian
antisemitism had no parallel in his reaction to French antisemitism."
L.C.M. van der Hoeven Leonhard, "Shlomo and David, Palestine, 1907", in From Haven to Conquest, 1971, W.
Khalidi (ed.), pp. 118-19.
M. Reich-Ranicki, Mein Leben, (Mnchen 2001, DTV GmbH & C0. - ISBN 3-423-12830-5), 64.
Norman Rose, "A Senseless, Squalid War: Voices from Palestine 1945-1948", The Bodley Head, London, 2009.
(p. 2)
'Obituary', The Times, Thursday, July 7, 1904; pg. 10; Issue 37440; col B.
Princes Without a Home, by Isle Sternberger
Reuben R Hecht, When the Shofar sounds, 2006, p. 43
Rubenstein, Richard L., and Roth, John K. (2003). Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy, p.
94. Louisville. Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22353-2.
Stewart, D., Theodor Herzl (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1974), p. 202
The Diaries of Theodor Herzl, edited by Marvin Lowenthal, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Peter Smith Pub., 1978
pg. 105
The Gender Of Desire: Essays On Male Sexuality, By Michael S. Kimmel, SUNY Press, 2005, page 181
Theodor Herzl on WowEssays.com
Theodor Herzl: A Reevaluation, Jacques Kornberg in The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jun.,
1980), pp. 226-252 Published by the University of Chicago Press jstor.org
Theodor Herzl's only grandson reinterred in J'lem cemetery, Haaretz Dec.6, 2007
Washington Jewish Week, June 27, 2007, "Zionist set to come 'home' Herzl's grandson slated to be reburied in
Israel", by Richard Greenberg
Zionist Archives letters of Richard Neumann
Jews Virtual Library. 2013. Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl. Retrived May 25, 2013 from
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Herzl.html
Chapter 2
Zionism and Israel
Introduction
Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl (May 2,1860 - July 3, 1904), founded the Zionist political
movement. He was born in Budapest in 1860, and educated in the spirit of the German Jewish Enlightenment, as a secular Jew, though his grandfather had been a friend of Rabbi
Yehudah Alkalai, a proto-Zionist of an earlier era. In 1878 the Herzls moved to Vienna,
where Theodor Herzl studied law in the university of Vienna, graduating in 1884. However,
rather than studying law, Herzl became a writer, a playwright and a journalist, acting as
Paris correspondent for influential liberal Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse.
Theodore Herzl - Founder of the Zionist movement

Herzl probably first experienced anti-Semitism while studying at the University of Vienna
(1882). He thought of the Jewish problem as a social issue and wrote a play, The Ghetto
(1894), about the dilemma of Vienna Jewry, in which assimilation and conversion were
rejected as solutions. He hoped that The Ghetto would lead to debate and ultimately to a
solution, based on mutual tolerance and respect between Christians and Jews.
In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was falsely accused
and convicted of treason (See Dreyfus Affair ) .
Mobs shouted Death to the Jews in
France, the home of the French Revolution and the emancipation of the Jews. Herzl became
convinced that the Jews needed a country of their own.
Herzl witnessed the Dreyfus affair as a newspaper correspondent. According to conventional
accounts, his Zionism resulted from contemplating the persecution of Dreyfus. According to
some others, he may have been more influenced by the election of the anti-Semitic Karl
Luger as mayor of Vienna.
Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor, which assimilation
would not solve, and which it was futile to combat. Despite ridicule from Jewish leaders, he
published The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat) in 1896. Herzl claimed that the Jews could
gain acceptance in the world only if they stopped being an anomaly among nations. He
asserted that the scattered Jews are one people. Their plight could be transformed into a
positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state guaranteed in international (public)
law - "volkerrechtig" -- with the consent of the great powers. Echoing
Rabbi Yehudah
Alkalai and a few other Zionist forerunners, Herzl saw the Jewish problem as an
international political issue. His ideas were quite similar to those of Leon Pinsker, but he
evidently was unacquainted with Pinsker's Auto-Emancipation.
Herzl proposed to collect funds from Jews around the world by a company which would
work toward settling Jews in Palestine. and securing a state. Eventually this idea was
transformed into the Zionist Organization, the Jewish National Fund and other organizations.
The Jewish State and Herzl's novel,
Altneuland (Old New Land) published in 1902,
pictured a Jewish social utopia in Palestine. It would be a pluralist, technologically advanced,

secular society with equality for Arabs. Altneuland became a symbol of the Zionist vision in
the Land of Israel. It was translated into Hebrew almost simultaneously with the name "TelAviv," which soon became the title of the first Zionist city in Palestine.
Herzl's ideas were rejected in Western Europe. Herzl was turned down by Jewish magnates
such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild. Herzl then appealed to the people, organizing
the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, on August 29-31, 1897. (see Theodor Herzl:
Address to the first Zionist Congress ) The congress was historic not just for founding the
Zionist movement, but because it was the first time an organized body , representing at
least the Jews of the Western world, had been convened since the exile nearly 2000 years
ago.
Herzl's ideas found mass support from the poor Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia. At Basle,
the Zionist movement resolved to " establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine
secured under public law. The Basle congress also resolved to set up a political organization
and financial institutions to carry forward the Zionist idea. The World Zionist Organization
was established, and Herzl was elected president. Herzl wrote in his diary, "At Basle, I
founded the Jewish state.. If not in five years, then certainly in fifty, everyone will realize
it.
Herzl presided over six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1903, setting up the Jewish
Colonial Trust, the Jewish National Fund and the movement's newspaper Die Welt. After
Herzl's death, the movement continued to meet every year except during war. In 1936 the
center of the Zionist movement moved to Jerusalem.
In his quest for great power backing, Herzl traveled to Palestine and Istanbul in 1898 to
meet with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
Herzl met Kaiser Wilhelm in Palestine, where he showed him a Jewish settlement. However,
the meeting turned out to be a ceremonial one only, and the Kaiser refused to commit
himself to backing a Jewish national home.
Herzl's plan was to obtain money from Jewish financiers to pay off the onerous debt of the
Ottoman Empire, and in return, get a charter from the Sultan to develop Palestine as a
national home for the Jewish people. But the Jewish financiers were unenthusiastic.
Rothschild ridiculed the idea that Palestine could be a home for the Jews. Herzl negotiated
with the Sultan nonetheless. He assumed that the financial backing would be forthcoming if
he could obtain a charter from the Sultan. But the Sultan, after lengthy negotiations was
unwilling to give up Palestine and unwilling to have a concentration of Jews there. He
offered immigration to other parts of the Ottoman empire instead. In 1902, the negotiations
came to a final end. Herzl recorded in his diary:
February 15. All right, let us establish on both sides what is involved here, said the
Sultans representative, Izzet. His Imperial Majesty is prepared to open his Empire to Jewish
refugees from all countries, on condition that they agree to become Ottoman subjects with
all the duties that this imposes, under our laws and our military service. Exactly!, I replied.
He continued: Before entering our country they must formally resign their previous
nationality and become Ottoman subjects. On this condition they may establish themselves
in any of our provinces except - at first - Palestine. I did not bat an eyelash, also
understood at once that this was only the first offer and that they would be open for
bargaining. In return, Izzet went on, His Imperial Majesty asks you to form a syndicate for
the consolidation of the public debt...
February 17. Thereupon Izzet took my letter to the Sultan. While we were waiting, Ibrahim
and Ghalib raved about the happy conditions to come: how it would be when the Jews came.
They dreamed aloud of the improvement of agriculture and industry, of banks which would
not serve foreign interests, etc. But then Izzet returned with the Sultan's decision, and it
was unfavorable. The Sultan is willing to open his Empire to all Jews who become Turkish
subjects, but the regions to be settled are to be decided each time by the government, and
Palestine is to be excluded...A charter without Palestine! I refused at once. And so the
meeting ended.
Herzl wrote to the Greater Action Committee of the failure of the Turkish negotiations, but
wished to keep the setback a secret to prevent discouragement.
Herzl then met with Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary and others, who
offered, not Palestine, which Britain did not have, but possibilities of settlement in Cyprus or
in east Africa, in what was called Uganda (actually part of Kenya today). Likewise, the
possibility of settlement in the Sinai, near El Arish which would be "close" to Palestine, was
explored. The British government in Egypt vetoed the El Arish project on the grounds that it
would require an impractical scheme of bringing large quantities of water from Egypt.
The Kishinev Pogrom in 1903 caused Herzl to realize the urgency of finding some shelter
for the Jews of Russia. He travelled to Russia in 1903 in order to meet with the notorious
anti-Semite von Plehve, who was thought to be responsible for the wave of Pogroms
instigated against the Jews. Russian Zionists were upset by this visit, which they felt was
playing into the hands of the enemy. Herzl to proposed that the Russian government assist
the Zionist Movement to transfer Jews from Russia. Von Plehve gave a partially favorable
reply, which he later withdrew. But Herzl did get Von Plehve to rescind some of the very
restrictive laws against Zionist political activity. Nonetheless, the Russian Zionists were not
happy with his visit.
With the British offer in hand, Herzl proposed the British "Uganda" offer as a temporary
refuge - a "night shelter" for the Jews of Russia, at the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903. Herzl
made it clear that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, which was
settlement in "Eretz Yisrael" - Palestine. However, the proposal aroused great anger,
particularly, and surprisingly, among the Russian delegates, the very people whom Herzl had
sought to help. Menahem Ussishkin in particular, organized a protest congress of the
Russian Zionists, the Kharkov Conference, that presented Herzl with an ultimatum requiring
him to withdraw the Uganda proposal. Herzl wrote in his diary that the Russian Zionists
were in open rebellion. A bitter exchange ensued. Herzl upbraided Ussishkin the pages of
Die Welt. He asked rhetorically, if Ussishkin knew of a better and shorter way to bring about
the open public settlement of Palestine by the Jewish people. If he knows such a way, then
it is wrong for a such a good Zionist not to reveal it, Herzl noted sarcastically. But if he
knows no such way, then it is better that he should keep silent and not destroy with empty
rhetoric the unity of the Zionist movement, which is worth more than a couple of bits of land
in Palestine.
The proposal was finally rejected in part because the British themselves had withdrawn it.
Though alternative homes such as Uganda were never considered by Zionists as more than
a temporary measure, anti-Zionists have falsely seized on these initiatives for national
homes outside Palestine as "proof" that Jews have no special tie to Palestine. The contrary
is true. Prior to the Zionist movement, various Jewish thinkers and philanthropists had
proposed "national homes" in the United States or South America. However, though Baron
Hirsch set up colonies in Argentina, the idea never captured the imagination of the people.
The hearts and minds of the Jews were always set on "the Holy Land."
On April 11, 1904, at a reconciliation meeting of the Greater Action Committee of the Zionist
movement, Herzl redeclared his support for Palestine as the ultimate goal of the Zionists. His
speech was characteristic of personality - tinged with hurt dignity and bitterness, it also
defined with fair precision what Herzl had accomplished for the formerly disunited and
ineffectual Zionists:
I have undertaken to bring you a word of peace. I know what distress and anxiety reigns
among the masses of our fine, good, faithful Zionists throughout the whole world, and
particularly in Russia; I know with what concern they follow these negotiations, how
profoundly they fear that these beginnings of a national organization, brought about with so
much labor for the benefit of the national cause, may suffer injury. As far I am concerned, I
am without obstinacy; I pass the sponge across whatever has been said against me
personally, and will say not another word about it. But I am aroused when it is a question of
safeguarding our organization, completing our work, guarding our unity and fulfilling the
obligations to which we pledged ourselves in accepting our mandates to the Congress.
...
My personal point of view was and is that we have not the right simply to reject such a
proposal, fling it back without even asking the people whether they want it or not. I do not
want to use the much debated word "Night Refuge" in describing the English offer, but say
rather: "Here is a piece of bread." I, who perhaps have cake to eat, and in any case can
always have a piece of bread, have not the right to reject the piece of bread which is being
offered to the poor because I don't need or want it. Perhaps I personally can be moved to
great enthusiasm by the fact that there are some people who, in the midst of their need and
hunger, are strong enough in their idealism to say: "No, we don't want the bread." But I am
obligated at least to transmit the offer to the people. That is my conviction.
...
For, gentlemen, here in Vienna I tore myself loose one day from that which had been my
life till then, from my friends and acquaintances, and devoted myself to that which I
considered right. I do not feel the need of a majority. What I do need is that I shall be at
one with my convictions. Then I am content, though not even a dog will take a piece of
bread from my hand.
...
We want the continuous growth of Zionism, we want Zionism as the representative of the
people. Why do we want this? Because we believe that we cannot achieve our goal without
great forces, and these great forces are not to be found in a federation of little societies.
Such a federation you had twenty years ago, and you are always telling me that you were
already Zionists twenty and twenty-five years ago. You are always throwing that up to me.
But what do you prove thereby? What could you achieve as long as you did not have
political Zionism? You lived in little groups and collected money. Undoubtedly your intentions
were magnificent, your idealism unchallengeable. Nevertheless you could not achieve
anything because you did not know the path to the objective. This path is the organization
of the people, and its organ is the Congress. That is why you must submit to the Congress,
even though you may be utterly dissatisfied with its decisions.
...
It was as a Jewish statesman that I presented myself to you. I gave you my card, and there
the words were printed: "Herzl, Jewish statesman". And in the course of time I learned a
great deal. First and foremost, I learned to know Jews, and that was sometimes even a
pleasure. But above all, I learned to understand that we shall find the solution of our
problem only in Palestine. ... If today I say to you: "I became a Zionist and have remained
one, and all my efforts are directed toward Palestine", you have every reason in the world to
believe me.
...
Gentlemen, I have certain things to forgive you, for in certain matters pertaining to me you
are to blame. But let me pass over that. I ask nothing more than that you do your duty as
organized Zionists, without doing violence to your convictions. Fight as much you like, think
of every device which may obtain for you a majority at the Congress, but do not do it with
the help of the instruments of the movement; do it in your personal capacities. If you should
create a majority of votes, a party, against me, I would certainly be grateful, but only on
condition that you really do get a majority. I counsel you: submit to the Congress decisions,
as the rest of us have to do. Until now I have not conducted a fight against you. If you
should leave this session of the Actions Committee and agitate against the Congress, than I
shall carry out an agitation against you, and I promise you that you will be defeated. Please
believe me that this effort at reconciliation, the trouble I have taken, the words I have
uttered not altogether consonant with my dignity, do not indicate that I am in any way
afraid of the struggle. We have a tremendous majority on our side. But what I want is that
you shall be able to come home and say to your people: We have received reassuring
declarations, we know that the Executive in Vienna is working, and we know what the leader
wants. Do not fix your eyes on an uncompleted house, just begun; wait till it is ready, and
put your confidence in those men whom you have trusted till now and who have done
nothing to lose your confidence!
Herzl took ill in May. He died in Vienna a few months later, in July of 1904, of pneumonia
contracted as a complication of heart disease, but the essential part of his work was done.
In 1949, Herzl's remains were brought to Israel and buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
All of Herzl's political activity for Zionism was condensed into the brief period of eight years.
He did not achieve a charter for a Jewish national home in his life time. However, he had
done something almost as impossible: he created, by the force of his unique personality, a
movement that unified not only the splintered Zionist groups, but much of the Jewish people,
overcoming the opposition of assimilationists and reactionary religious leaders, as well as
the indifference and aloofness of magnates. He got the secular, socialist, capitalist and
religious Zionists to sit together in one hall and to bind themselves together into a single
organization for a common purpose. This unity, which he recognized and hailed in his
Address to the first Zionist Congress is what made the Zionist project into a practical reality.
Herzl's constant struggles to unite the quarreling factions behind a single Zionist program
came at a price. Significantly, he had written In 1899, in an essay entitled The Family
Affliction written for The American Hebrew, Anyone who wants to work in behalf of the
Jews needs - to use a popular phrase - a strong stomach.
Herzl became the symbol of Zionism. His
picture dominates offices of the Israeli
government and Zionist organizations. His name is commemorated in the names of towns,
schools and streets. Every fair sized town in Israel has a Herzl street. On the other hand,
foes of Zionism caricature the picture of Herzl, as well as his image. For Arabs and other
anti-Zionists, Herzl is the symbol of "Zionist Colonialism." For ultra-orthodox Jews, he is the
symbol of secularist evil. An ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist MK once declared in the Knesset,
"May Herzl turn over in his grave.
The Israel government has declared that his birthday is to be marked each year on the
twelfth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, exactly one week following Israel independence
day.
Herzl met Kaiser Wilhelm in Palestine

Herzl's work made possible what others had only dreamed about. He said "If you will, it is
no legend." He was the midwife of a movement that was to fulfill the age-old impossible
dream of the Jews, to be a free people once again in their own country.61
What is Zionism?
61
Zionism and Israel Biographies Theodor Herzl. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from http://zionismisrael.com/bio/biography_herzl.htm
Zionism is the Jewish national liberation movement. "Zionism" derives its name from "Zion,"
(pronounced "Tzyion" in Hebrew) a hill in Jerusalem. The word means "marker" or
commemoration. "Shivath Tzion" is one of the traditional terms for the return of Jewish
exiles. "Zionism" is not a monolithic ideological movement. It includes, for example, socialist
Zionists such as Ber Borochov,
religious Zionists such as rabbis Kook and Reines,
nationalists such as Zeev Jabotinsky and cultural Zionists exemplified by Asher Ginsberg
(Ahad Ha'am). Zionist ideas evolved over time and were influenced by circumstances as well
as by social and cultural movements popular in Europe at different times, including socialism,
nationalism and colonialism, and assumed different "flavors" depending on the country of
origin of the thinkers and prevalent contemporary intellectual currents. Accordingly, no
single person, publication, quote or pronouncement should be taken as embodying "official"
Zionist ideology.
Zionism is the ideological success story of the twentieth century. It has overcome seemingly
insuperable obstacles to realize an impossible dream. Zionism is not a pernicious conspiracy,
but it has aroused opposition owing to its success. This brief survey will discuss the history
of the Zionist movement, and show how it created modern Israel and was in turn re-shaped
by the revolutionary new reality that it had created.62
Capsule History of Zionism
In retrospect, it is useful to divide the development of Zionism into several more or less
distinct stages, influenced by the course of external events as well as changes that Zionism
itself brought about.
Pre-Zionism - The cultural basis of Zionism, the tie of the Jewish people to the land of Israel,
existed since the time of the exile, throughout the history of the Galut (Golah, Diaspora). In
this period, Zionism was often expressed in Messianic movements. We may, with some truth
as well as humor, call this the period of "impractical Zionism."
Proto-Zionism - Early 19th century writings and movements that advocated the restoration
of the Jews to the land of Israel, without waiting for the Messiah. This included the
Introduction - What is Zionism?. . Retrieved May 26, 2013 from http://www.zionismisrael.com/zionism_history.htm

62
rabbinical Zionism of rabbi Yehudah Alkalai and Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Kalischer as well as the
somewhat later practical and secular Zionism of Moses Hess, Leon Pinsker and others.
Foundational Zionism - In this period, Zionism became an organized political movement
inspired and initially led by Theodor Herzl and then by Chaim Weizmann. It includes the
development of Zionism from the first Zionist congress to the British Mandate, including
Political Zionism, Cultural Zionism, Practical Zionism,Religious Zionism
and Territorial
Zionism. The latter movements were stimulated as a reaction to Political Zionism. This
period also saw the emergence of Labor Zionism or Socialist Zionism. The principle concern
of Zionism in this period was obtaining a charter for a Jewish national home. The Zionist
movement was led by middle and upper class Jews.
Mandatory Zionism - Under the British mandate, the leadership of the Zionist movement
came to be centered in the land of Israel ("Palestine") rather than in Europe, and became
identified with the Labor Zionist leadership of the Jewish Yishuv (community in Palestine). In
this period Zionism focused on settling the land, on defense against Arabs, and later on
rescuing Jews from the Holocaust and the struggle against the British government. David
Ben-Gurion led the Zionist movement during most of this period.
Zionism after the birth of Israel - The Israel War of Independence and the birth of the state
of Israel marked a watershed in the ideological and practical development of Zionism. David
Ben-Gurion again is identified with the initial period of Israeli independence. Inside Israel,
"Zionism" became associated with "official" ideology and political cant, derisively known as
"tsiyonut."
Zionism after the Six Day War - The Six day war wrought significant changes in Zionism. It
made Zionism more respectable in the United States among American Jews and it kindled a
Zionist reawakening in Jews around the world, especially in the Soviet Union. At the same
time it encouraged militarism, the birth of the Greater Israel movement and ultimately
helped to bring to power revisionist Zionism under Menachem Begin and the Likud party. It
also encouraged the dangerously complacent belief that the existence of Israel is an
irreversible fact.
Zionism under the Revisionists - The Yom Kippur War set in motion a train of events that led
to disillusionment with Labor Zionist leadership. In 1977, the Likud party came to power.
Israel and a portion of the Zionist movement became focused on developing settlements in
the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip. Socialist ideals were discarded in favor of a free
economy. The historical culture of Israel changed. The education system downgraded the
contribution of the Labor Zionist movement and its leaders. The change expressed itself in
all aspects of Israeli culture. Formal dress, once anathema to Israeli politicians and Israeli
society, became acceptable and desirable. Revisionist and religious Zionist movements, once
the fringe of the Zionist movement, insisted that they are the "real" Zionists, and Zionism
abroad came to be identified with the settlement movement.
The "Post-Zionist" Reaction and dovish Zionism - Those Israelis who opposed the settlement
movement initiated a reaction against the Zionist swing to the right. This reaction expressed
itself in the form of Zionist opposition to government policies, and of anti-Zionist opposition,
which called itself "post-Zionist." The Zionist opposition seeks to end the occupation and
settlement of territories conquered in 1967. The latter group strives to discredit Zionism as a
colonialist imperialist movement and wants to end the Jewish State of Israel. As a byproduct
of the Oslo peace process and the subsequent violence, the post-Zionist movement achieved
considerable prominence for a time. Professor Zeev Sternhell is considered a member of the
Zionist opposition, while Ilan Pappe is a "post-Zionist," actually anti-Zionist, advocate of the
abolition of the Jewish national home.
Zionist Revival - The Arab Palestinian violence that began in September 2000 was
accompanied by increasingly strident anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, including calls for
academic boycotts of Israel and calls for dismantling the "apartheid state." This induced a
revival of Zionism and Zionist sentiment, especially abroad.
Pre-Zionism
Zionism was a natural product of the culture of the Jewish people in exile. It did not spring
full blown from a void with the creation of the Zionist movement in 1897. The central idea of
Zionism, disputed by anti-Zionists, is that the Jews are a people, a nation tied to a specific
land, and not just just a religion. It is a misconception to think that this idea was born in the
19th century. Since the Romans exiled the Jews from the land that the Jews called Judea
and the Romans called Palestine, the Jews had referred to the lands outside the land of
Judea or Israel as Gola meaning "exile" rather than "Diaspora (meaning dispersion) and to
their condition as "Galut." Both were always terms with negative and bitter connotations.
Implicitly then, there was a land from which Jews were exiled and to which they understood
that they belonged.
Jews had lived in "Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel, called "Palestine" by the Romans and
Greeks) since about 1200 B.C.E. The land of Israel was at a crossroads of the Middle East
and the Mediterranean and was therefore conquered many times: by Egyptians, Hittites,
Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Seleucid Greeks and Romans, as well as invading
Philistines. Of these, only the Jews made the land into their national home. Jewish national
culture, fused with religion, centered around the geography, seasons and history of the land
and of the Jews in the land. The Jews created the Old Testament Bible- The Tanach, which
described their history and the history of the land, and their connection to it. The Bible
formed the backbone of Jewish culture and later was to form the backbone of Western
Christian culture, so that the entire world recognized the connection between the Jews and
their land. When the Romans conquered Palestine, and Jews were exiled to the Diaspora,
the connection to the land was preserved in the Bible, and in prayers that daily called for the
rebuilding of Jerusalem, and it was expressed in the writings of medieval poets.
In the Diaspora, religion became the medium for preserving Jewish culture and Jewish ties
to the ancient land land of the Jews. Jews prayed several times a day for the rebuilding of
the temple, celebrated agricultural feasts and called for rain according to the seasons of
ancient, sunny Eastern Mediterranean land of Israel
Israel, even in the farthest frozen
reaches of Russia. The ritual plants of Sukkoth were imported from the Holy Land at great
expense. A Holy-Land centered tradition persisted in Diaspora thought and writing. This
tradition may be called "proto-nationalist" because there was no nationalism in the modern
sense in those times. It was not only religious or confined to hoping for messianic
redemption, but consisted of longing for the land of Israel. It is preserved in the poetry of
Yehuda Halevi, a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher, who himself immigrated
to "the Holy Land" and died there in 1141.
Jews had maintained a connection with Palestine, both actual and spiritual. This continued
even after the Bar Kochba revolt in 135, when large numbers of Jews were exiled from
Roman Palestine. The Jewish community in Palestine revived in subsequent years. Under
Muslim rule, it is estimated to have numbered as many as 300,000 prior to the Crusades,
about 1000 AD. The Crusaders killed most of the Jewish population of Palestine or forced
them into exile, so that only about 1,000 families remained after the reconquest of Palestine
by Saladin. The Jewish community in Palestine waxed and waned with the vicissitudes of
conquest and economic hardship. A trickle of Jews came because of love of Israel, and were
sometimes encouraged by invitations by different Turkish rulers to displaced European Jews
to settle in Tiberias and Hebron. At different times there were sizeable Jewish communities
in Tiberias, Safed, Hebron and Jerusalem, and numbers of Jews living in Nablus and Gaza. A
few original Jews remained in the town of Peki'in, families that had lived there continuously
since ancient times.
From time to time, small numbers of Jews came to settle in the land of Israel in answer to
rabbinical or Messianic calls, or fleeing persecution in Europe. Beginning about 1700, groups
of followers led by rabbis reached Palestine from Europe and the Ottoman empire with
various programs. For example, Rabbi Yehuda Hehasid and his followers settled in
Jerusalem about 1700, but the rabbi died suddenly, and eventually, an Arab mob, angered
over unpaid debts, destroyed the synagogue the group had built and banned all European
(Ashkenazy) Jews from Jerusalem. Rabbis Luzatto and Ben-Attar led a relatively large
immigration about 1740. Other groups and individuals came from Lithuania and Turkey and
different countries in Eastern Europe.
At no time between the Roman exile and the rise of modern Zionism was there a movement
to settle the holy land that engaged the main body of European or Eastern Jews, though
many were attracted to various false Messiahs such as Shabetai Tzvi, who promised to
restore Jews to their land. For most Jews, the connection with the ancient homeland and
with Jerusalem remained largely cultural and spiritual. Return to the homeland was a
hypothetical event that would occur with the coming of the Messiah at an unknown date in
the far future. European Jews lived, for the most part in ghettos. They did not get a general
education, and did not, for the most part, engage in practical trades that might prepare
them for living in Palestine. Most of the communities founded by these early settlers met
with economic disaster, or were disbanded following earthquakes, riots or outbreaks of
disease. The Jewish communities of Safed, Tiberias, Jerusalem and Hebron were typically
destroyed by natural and man-made disasters and repopulated several times, never
supporting more than a few thousand persons each at their height. The Jews of Palestine,
numbering about 17,000 by the mid-19th century, lived primarily on charity - Halukka
donations, with only a very few engaging in crafts trade or productive work.
Spinoza and Zionism
The religion of the nation of Israel, Judaism, had been so completely identified with its
people, that almost nothing remained of an ethnic or national consciousness. Indeed, in
Europe of the Middle Ages, "nations" did not really exist, and there were few if any people
who would admit to being non-religious. One of the first Jews who may be studied as a "test
case" regarding the nature of Judaism was Baruch Spinoza (Baruch d'Espinoza 1632-1677).
Spinoza was a refugee from the Spanish Inquisition who lived in Holland. He began to
deliver himself of beliefs that the elders of the congregation felt were incompatible with the
Jewish religion. Spinoza did not believe in conventional religion and prayer, and he asserted
that god was in everything and everywhere. He was excommunicated from the Jewish
congregation. Therefore, he was no longer a member of the Jewish religion. Yet it was clear
that everyone considered him to be a Jew in some sense. Therefore, it is clear that even
before the 19th century, the Jews, and the world, understood that "Jewish" is something
more than a religion. Spinoza cannot be considered a Zionist, but his ethics and his
approach to Jewish history and the Jewish religion served as an inspiration for many later
secular Zionists. (see Yovel, Yirmiyahu, Spinoza and other Heretics, The Marrano of Reason,
Princeton University Press, 1989).
Emancipation and Zionism

The French revolution and the rise of Napoleon hastened the emancipation of European
Jewry, who were no longer confined to the ghettos of European cities, and became citizens
like everyone else. Eventually, the liberalization reached Eastern Europe and Russia as well.
The enlightenment of the 18th century and the emancipation of the 19th were a great shock
for Jewish culture and identity. Jews split into several groups during the nineteenth century.
Ultraorthodox Jews remained faithful to the culture of the ghetto, which excluded the
possibility of intermingling in modern society or gaining a modern education. A second group
attempted to assimilate completely into European society, converting to Christianity and
losing their Jewish identity. A third group believed that they could integrate as modern
citizens, with equal rights and still maintain their Jewish faith, while renouncing any cultural
or group allegiance to Judaism. In effect, their Judaism became somewhat like a section of
the Protestant religion. They found various euphemisms for their identity, such as Hebrews
or Germans of the Mosaic faith. This group founded the Reform Judaism movement. The
assimilationist viewpoints took it on faith that once the Jews "became like everyone else"
they would be accepted in society as equals, and would become Germans, Italians,
Englishmen or Frenchmen. However, it became increasingly evident to many during the
nineteenth century that assimilation was not necessarily desirable. Perhaps it was impossible
as well, since anti-Jewish feeling did not abate. The newly coined Christians and "Germans
of the Mosaic Faith" found themselves the objects of increasing anti-Jewish sentiment,
which took on the title of "anti-Semitism" in 19th century Germany.
The ferment and cultural chaos unleashed by the emancipation produced a confusing variety
of religious, intellectual and cultural reform movements among the Jews, which also evolved
in many directions. The "Haskalah" or Jewish enlightenment was a movement for
modernization of Judaism. In part it was assimilationist, but some of the leaders of the
Haskalah believed in Hebrew culture and some turned ultimately to nationalism and Zionism,
causing a split within the movement.
The first challenge of emancipation to Judaism was that while it seemed that Jews could live
as equal citizens in modern society, it became obvious that if they truly integrated into
modern secular democracies, Jews would stop being Jews, and therefore the idea of "equal
rights for Jews" would be meaningless.
Proto-Zionism
Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh

Kalischer (Kalisher)
(1795-1874)
During this period, after the French Revolution

and the emancipation of European Jewry, the
vague spiritual bonds of the Jewish people to
Israel began to express themselves in more
concrete, though not always practical ways.
About 1808, groups of Lithuanian Jews,
followers of the Vilna Gaon (a famous rabbi and
opponent of Hassidism) arrived in Palestine and
purchased land to begin an agricultural
settlement. In 1836, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Kalischer.
petitioned Anschel Rothschild to buy Palestine or
at least the Temple Mount for the Jews. In 18391840, Sir Moses Montefiore visited Palestine and
negotiated with the Khedive of Egypt to allow
Jewish settlement and land purchase in
Palestine. However, the negotiations led to
nothing, possibly frustrated by the outbreak of
Rabbi Judah ben

Shlomo Alkalai
(Alkali) (1798-
an anti-Semitic blood-libel in Damascus.

Thereafter, Montefiore continued with less
ambitious philanthropic schemes in Palestine and
in Argentina. In the 1840s, Rabbi Kalischer in
Poland, and rabbi Yehudah Alkalai a Sephardic
Jew, wrote articles urging practical steps for
hastening redemption by settling in the Holy
Land, to be sponsored by the efforts of
philanthropists.
1878)
British Zionism
The idea of a Jewish restoration also took the fancy of British intellectuals for religious and
practical reasons. British religious support for restoration of the Jews can be traced back to
the Puritans and beyond. It was renewed in the theology of the Plymouth Brethren founded
by J.N. Darby in the early 19th century. The restoration was championed in the 1840s by
Lords Shaftesbury and Palmerston, who in addition to religious motivations thought that a
Jewish colony in Palestine would help to stabilize and revive the country, Jewish national
stirrings were also voiced by novelists and writers such as Lord Byron, Benjamin Disraeli,
George Eliot and Walter Scott.
Christian Zionism
US Christian Support for Restoration of the Jews
Puritan support for restoration of the Jews was transferred to the United States with the
arrival of the Puritans. Increase Mather and many others were early champions of
restoration of the Jews in 17th century United States. This idea became assimilated into the
mainstream of U.S. ideas and culture and was supported by Presidents beginning with John
Adams. In more recent times, it has also become the project of fundamentalist sects,
including those derived from dispensationalist doctrines.
Zionism of Sephardic Jews
Through an accident of history, European (Ashkenazy) Jews took the lead in organized
Zionism for many years. However, Sephardic (Spanish) Jews and Jews in Arab lands
maintained a closer practical tie with the holy land and with the Hebrew language than did
Ashkenazy Jews and also influenced and participated in the the Zionist movement from its
inception. Sarajevo-born Judah ben Solomon Hai Alkalai (1798-1878,) is considered one of
the major precursors of modern Zionism. Alkalai believed that return to the land of lsrael
was a precondition for the redemption of the Jewish people. Alkalai's ideas greatly
influenced his Ashkenazy contemporary, Rabbi Tsvi Hirsch Kalischer. Alkalai was also a
friend of the grandfather of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. Another
Sephardi Jew, David Alkalai, a grand-nephew of Judah Alkalai, founded and led the Zionist
movement in Serbia and Yugoslavia., and attended the first Zionist Congress in Basel (1897).
Early Zionism
The modern formulation of Zionism was partly divorced from religious aspirations. The 19th
century enlightenment allowed the Jews to leave the ghettos of Europe for the first time.
Some converted to Christianity and assimilated to surrounding society. Others, exposed to a
general education, dropped their religious beliefs, but understood that both they and others
still considered them to be Jews. This suggested a conundrum. If one could be a nonbeliever and still be a Jew, then "Jew" must be more than just the name of a religion, a
problem already raised by the case of Spinoza. German racists solved this conundrum by
inventing a racial theory, which lacked any real scientific basis. Socialists cited the aberrant
class structure of Jewish society and labeled Jews a "caste.". Zionists solved the conundrum
by declaring that Jews are a people, a fact implicit in the Jewish biblical and cultural concept
of "am Yisrael." The Jews were a people without a country however, and would remain
politically powerless as long as they did not have a national home. They would be guests
everywhere and at home nowhere, according to Zionist ideology. This homelessness was the
cause of the "Jewish Problem," and it could not fail to be exacerbated by the rise of
nationalism and nations in the 19th century. This explained why, paradoxically, anti-Jewish
sentiment might become more pronounced in "enlightened" Europe than it had been in
previous centuries.
Moses Hess, a more or less secular Jew and a socialist, was probably
the first to enunciate these ideas in so many words in his book Rome
and Jerusalem, published in 1862, calling for a Jewish national
movement similar to the Italian risorgimento nationalist movement.
These and similar sentiments were adopted by numerous small
groups that formed primarily in Eastern Europe, but also in Britain
and in the United States.
Religion and Zionism

Jewish religious authorities took a variety of attitudes to the evolving Zionist movement. One
group was unalterably opposed to Zionism, both because they understood that Zionism
provided a secular alternative to their monopoly on leadership of the Jewish community, and
for theological reasons. Rabbi Moses Schreiber, the Hatam Sofer (1762-1839) was the rabbi
of Pressburg. He opposed any type of reform. His opposition to Zionism was based on the
assertion that nobody had ever thought of it before, so it must be wrong:
Why should we look for new ideas never dreamed of by our ancestors? If the idea of
settlement was good and pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, why did our ancestors never
devote themselves to it? As men say -- whatever is new is forbidden by the Torah. (Slucki,
A,J. ed Shivat Tziyon, Warsaw, 1892, V 1, p 70.)
Rabbi Israel Meir Ha-Cohen of Radun, the Hafez Chaim ("desirer of life") who founded the
anti-Zionist Agudath Yisrael, expressed similar opinion:
It is not in our power to repair the condition of our people, because we are under the sway
of our enemies; we must attend to the spiritual situation of our people, which degenerates
from day to day, and return them to the Lord. When we have corrected our actions, our
material state will also improve, as promised in the Torah. (Poupko, H.L Hakohen, Kitsur
Toldot heHafetz Haim, Mikhtevei HeHafetz Haim, Warsaw, 1937, page 68.)
A much smaller group of orthodox leaders took up the cause of settlement in the land of
Israel in the late 19th century. They included Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines, the founder of the
Mizrachi movement, Rabbi Naphthali Zeev Berlin, and Rabbi Samuel Mohilever (or Mohilewer)
who led the religious faction of Hovevei Tzion. They variously saw their task as one of
preserving the unity of the Jewish people, of blending the Haskalah with orthodox Judaism,
or of ensuring that religious Jews did not lose control of the settlement enterprise and allow
unbelievers to run the Jewish community in the land of Israel, which was, after all, holy to
them.
Proto-Zionism and the "First Aliya"
The first groups of immigrants who came to the land with the idea of turning the land into a
national home for the Jews are known as the "first Aliya." "Aliya" literally means "going up"
and it is term Jews have used for a long time for coming to the holy land. Beginning in the
1870s, religious and nonreligious Jews established several study groups and societies for
purchasing land in Palestine and settling there. In 1870 the Alliance Israelite, an ostensibly
non-Zionist organization, founded the Miqve Yisrael agricultural school near Beit Dagan.
In 1882, the BILU (an acronym for "Beyt Ya'akov Lechu Venelcha" - House of Jacob let us
go) and Hibbat Tziyon (love of Zion) and Hovevi Tziyon groups were established. They were
inspired by the impetus of the wave of anti-Jewish violence that had swept Russia in 1881.
Hibbat Tziyion began as a network of independent
underground study groups, eventually forming larger groups
called Hovevei Tziyon. They attracted followers of the
Haskalah who could no longer believe in assimilation or the
possibility of normal life as Jews in the Diaspora. These and
similar groups established a number of early Jewish
settlements including Yesod Hamaalah, Rosh Pinna, Gedera,
Rishon Le Tziyon, Nes Tziyona and Rehovot on land
purchased from Arab owners with the aid of Jewish
philanthropists, chiefly Lord Rothschild. Joel Solomon led a
group of orthodox Jews out of Jerusalem to found Petah
Tiqva in 1878.
Petah Tiqva
The settlements were characteristically vineyards and orange orchards. The settlers were
mostly religious Jews, though the religious Jewish establishment frowned on Zionism. In
1882, 150 Yemenite Jews also found their way to Palestine. The first Aliya numbered about
25,000 persons, primarily from Eastern Europe. Many of them returned home defeated by
disease, poverty and unemployment.
Revival of Hebrew - Among the first arrivals of the first Aliya was Eliezer ben Yehuda
(Perelman). Inspired by European, particularly Bulgarian nationalism, Ben Yehuda was
moved to settle in Palestine. He arrived in 1881 and undertook to revive the Hebrew
language. With the help of Nissim Bechar, principal of a school operated by the Alliance
Israelite Universelle, Ben Yehuda began teaching Hebrew. Later he founded and published
the Hatzvi newspaper and set up a linguistic council. Ben Yehuda's work was the major force
in the revival of Hebrew as a modern language.
Leon Pinsker and Hovevei Tziyon - Inspired by the anti-Semitic violence in Russia, Leon
Pinsker formulated the modern idea of Zionism in a small pamphlet called
Auto-
Emancipation, published in 1882. Pinsker believed that anti-Semitism was inevitable as long
as Jews were guests in every country and at home nowhere, and wrote that the Jews' only
salvation lay in liberating themselves and settling in their own country. Pinsker favored
Argentina or other countries as sites for the Jewish homeland. However, Western Jews who
might have favored this idea rebuffed him. In his native Russia, however, his ideas were
well received, but they were channeled to settlement in Palestine. In 1884, Pinsker was
made head of the Hovevei Tziyon organization, which united many small and scattered
groups, primarily in Russia, into a single organization. Pinsker favored "political Zionism,"
that is, organization of Jews in Europe and petitioning the great powers for land on which to
establish a national home. However, his efforts in this direction were rebuffed by the
Russian government. Instead, he directed his energies to the gradual purchase of land and
settlement of small groups in Palestine.63
Early settlers faced innumerable cultural and economic
difficulties. In 1800, the ravages of misadministration and
war had reduced the population to about 200,000. By the
1880s, the land had recovered somewhat, but it was still
poor and disease ridden. The total population was about
450,000. Jerusalem was a small town of 25,000
inhabitants, slightly more than half Jewish. The first
settlement of Petah Tiqva in 1878 failed and was later
refounded.
Early Jewish Settlers
The Ottoman government barely tolerated the settlers, especially those who retained their
foreign nationality, and the government officially restricted Jewish immigration, while
making somewhat frantic attempts to import Muslim settlers from other parts of the
Ottoman empire, including Bosnia, Kossovo and Circassia. Settlers who adopted Ottoman
nationality were liable for the Turkish draft. Disease, poverty and unemployment caused
many to leave.
The Bible and Zionism
The Old Testament Bible inspired not only Christian Zionists, but Jewish Zionism as well.
Secular Zionists, especially David Ben Gurion, viewed the Bible as the "deed" of the Jewish
people to the land of Israel and a part of both
63
Ibid.
Cultural Zionism and to a lesser extent
Religious Zionism
was study of the bible and de-emphasis of Jewish Diaspora writings,
philosophy and religious thought. Students in the Jewish Yishuv educational system
memorized long passages of the Bible, and went on field trips to explore and familiarize
themselves with places mentioned in the bible. For both Christians and Jews, biblical
archeology became an ideological activity as well as an academic pursuit.
Foundational Zionism
Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Zionist Movement
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Zionism was transformed from a cultural feature
of Judaism to a charitable concern to a social movement. The writings of the proto-Zionists
gave it an ideology. The contribution of Theodor Herzl was to transform Zionism into a
political organization. The Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish officer in the French Army was
falsely convicted of treason, developed in France beginning in 1894. It excited a wave of
anti-Semitism that made Western European Jews conscious of their national identity, and
made many lose their faith in assimilation through the progress and equality offered by
modern liberal democracy. In particular, it affected a young Vienna journalist, Theodor Herzl
and his friend Max Nordau. Herzl's pamphlet
Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, was
published in 1896. Herzl's plan for creating a Jewish State, arrived at after contemplating
other solutions as well, provided the practical program of Zionism, and led to the first Zionist
Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in August, 1897
After the first Basle Congress, Herzl wrote in his diary, Were I to sum up the Basle
Congress in a word- which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly- it would be this: At
Basle, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by
universal laughter. If not in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.
In 1902, Herzl published a utopian novel to popularize the Jewish state, Altneuland, (oldnew land). Set in Eretz Yisrael (Palestine), Altneuland is a pluralistic multicultural vision
complete with monorails, modern industry and equality for Arabs. The novel concludes, "If
you will, it is no legend."64
Conclusion
As the Zionist movement developed, several different factions or streams emerged in the
early years. The protocols of early Zionist congresses were filled with the squabbles of these
64
Ibid
groups, and in some cases the squabbles led to splits. However, it should be understood
that these groups often worked together, and that the Zionist movement tended to support
all efforts that bore fruit. In retrospect, it could be seen that each group had made an
essential and valuable contribution.
References
Hertzberg, Arthur. 1959. The Zionist Idea, A conceptual Analysis and Reader. NYC,
Atheneum. This classic book of readings is essential for understanding Zionism.
Laqueur, Walter. 1997. A History of Zionism, Fine Communications. This authoritative and
readable history explains the beginnings of Zionism, from the French Revolution to the
creation of Israel. Unlike Sachar's even larger book, it does not go into details of modern
Israeli history.
Proto-Zionism and the "First Aliya". Retrieved May 26, 2014 from http://www.zionismisrael.com/zionism_history.htm
Sachar, Howard M. 1998. A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time. Alfred A.
Knopf,. A comprehensive overview of the subject, told from the Zionist point of view. A good
reference, but too detailed and compendious for casual reading by most.
Zionism and Israel Biographies Theodor Herzl. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_herzl.htm
Chapter 3
Streams in Zionism
Introduction
Political Zionism
Those who believed, like Herzl, that the key to success lay in a political solution, were
classed as advocates of Political Zionism.
Herzl thought that diplomatic activity would be the main method for getting the Jewish
homeland. He called for the organized transfer of Jewish communities to the new state. Of
the location of the state, Herzl said, "We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by
public opinion."
Herzl attempted to gain a charter from the Sultan of Turkey for the establishment of a
Jewish state in Palestine, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire. To this end he met in 1898
with the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, in Istanbul and Palestine, as well as the Sultan, but
these meetings did not bear fruit.
Herzl negotiated with the British regarding the possibility of settling the Jews on the island
of Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, the El Arish region and Uganda. After the Kishinev pogroms,
Herzl visited Russia in July 1903. He tried to persuade the Russian government to help the
Zionists transfer Jews from Russia to Palestine. At the Sixth Zionist Congress Herzl proposed
settlement in Uganda, on offer from the British, as a temporary "night refuge" (nachtasyl).
The idea met with sharp opposition, especially from the same Russian Jews that Herzl had
thought to help. Though the congress passed the plan as a gesture of esteem for Herzl, it
was not pursued seriously, and the initiative died after the plan was withdrawn. In his quest
for a political solution, Herzl met with the king of Italy, who was encouraging, and with the
Pope, who expressed opposition.
Territorial Zionism
A small group, the Jewish Territorial Organization ("Territorial Zionism") led by Israel
Zangwill, split with the Zionist movement in 1905, and attempted to establish a Jewish
homeland wherever possible. The organization was dissolved in 1925.
The insistence of Eastern European Jews on Palestine as the Jewish homeland, coupled with
the failure of alternatives, maintained the focus of the Zionist movement on Palestine.
Attempts to find a "night asylum" in places such as Cyprus and Uganda have been distorted
and exploited by anti-Zionists as "proof" that Zionism was not particularly focused on
Palestine as the territory of the Jewish state. However, they were never intended as a
permanent state and never gained much support. They were an expression of the misery of
Eastern European Jewry and of the frantic urgency with which some Zionists viewed the
situation of the Jews.
Cultural Zionism
Herzl's political approach was attacked by Achad Haam, father of Cultural Zionism. He
pointed out that the Jews were not a political force, had no chance at all of getting a
declaration guaranteeing a Jewish national home from any country, and had no massive
presence in Palestine that could provide a basis for their claims. Therefore, he felt that both
political Zionism and Zionism based on settlement were premature and impractical. Ahad
Haam wrote a penetrating criticism of Herzl and the "Volkerrechtig" national home: Jewish
State, Jewish Problem, which seemed to prove that the idea was impossible to implement.
As we shall discuss below, he also foresaw objections of the Arab inhabitants of the land to
Zionist settlement, and believed that the tiny Jewish community would never be able to hold
its own against the Arabs.
Achad Ha'am believed that the new Jewish homeland should at first be primarily a cultural
center for Jews of the Diaspora. He explained that revitalization of Jewish culture was
needed before large numbers of Jews would come to Palestine. It was never precisely clear
whether he intended that the Jewish state should house only a minority of the Jews at all
times, or whether he thought that eventually it would become a physical and actual center,
as well as a cultural center.
Achad Haam had earlier attacked the settlement movement, claiming that it was premature
and would not be able to stand up against Arab resentment, in This is not the way ("The
wrong way") written in 1889. But in his eulogy for Pinsker, An Open Letter to my Brethren:
Pinsker and his Pamphlet, Auto-Emancipation, Ahad Ha'am made it clear that there was no
real contradiction between his approach and that of the settlers, and that he was not
opposed to settlement in the land of Israel.
Cultural Zionism fought a battle on two fronts. One front, as discussed, was opposition to
political Zionism. The real battle of cultural Zionism however, was against the traditional
Diaspora Jewish education system and religious rabbinical Judaism. Cultural Zionists
attacked the traditional and backward "Cheder" education system which taught religious
subjects by rote, and did not prepare its students for life in the modern world. Cultural
Zionists understood that a revitalized Jewish nation and cultural life could not be viable
without a modern education, and that Cheder education was driving many Jews into
assimilation. They advocated and instituted reforms in the education system, as well as the
revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. The Orthodox Jewish establishment was horrified
by these ideas, and by the proposal that would essentially remove Jewish education from
their exclusive oversight. This opposition was expressed at Zionist congresses through the
religious Zionists, who gradually coalesced into a separate stream. It was their opposition,
and not the opposition of a "political Zionist" faction, that prevented adoption of the cultural
Zionist program they proposed. Herzl was afraid to back their demands because he believed
that adoption of the program would split the Zionist movement, and we has, above all,
concerned for unity of the movement. The revival of the Hebrew language, and the spread
of Hebrew education in the Diaspora were the two major and lasting contributions of
Cultural Zionism.
In modern times, some have taken Achad Ha'am's ideas out of context, to imply that Israel
should remain only a cultural center for a Jews around the world, and also to claim that
Ahad Ha'am believed that settlement in Israel was impossible and undesirable due to Arab
oppostion. However, that is a gross distortion of Achad Ha'am's ideas and of cultural Zionism.
Alongside his advocacy of cultural Zionism, Achad Haam was an enthusiastic supporter of
Zionism in the conventional sense of ingathering of the exiles. Ahad Ha'am came on Aliya
and died in Tel Aviv.
Practical Zionism
The new Zionist movement, despite its preference for high politics, could not and did not
want to ignore the fact of settlement of the land, however tiny it was. The early settlers of
the BILU and others of the first Aliya had established "facts on the ground." Those who
represented them insisted that settlement of the land, rather than Quixotic political efforts,
would turn the Zionist dream into reality. Their approach came to be known as Practical
Zionism.
In 1907, a young economist named Arthur Ruppin was sent to Palestine to study the
conditions of the Yishuv. Arthur Ruppin's report and ideas formed the basis for the Zionist
action program in the coming years, and shaped the second Aliya as well as the future of
Zionist settlement and the character of the state. Ruppin understood that it was impossible
to continue with the plantation model introduced by the first Aliya settlement program. He
backed a small group of socialist settlers who wanted to found a commune at Sejera. This
became Kibbutz Degania in 1909, later followed by Kinnereth, Merchavia and other
kibbutzim. The arrangement, originally thought to be temporary, proved to be practical, as
well as suited to the socialist ideals of the new settlers. It soon inspired several other
kibbutzim (collective farms). The Kibbutz movement was to become the backbone of Labor
Zionism in Palestine, and eventually provided political and military leadership. Kibbutzim
provided ideal places for hiding arms from the British and recruiting and training troops, as
well as for organizing local defense and guarding borders.
Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism is the most natural-seeming stream in Zionism for outsiders, but it is also
the stream that actually came to Zionism with the greatest difficulty, it is most
misunderstood stream and it changed and evolved since its inception.
Contrary to the beliefs of heavy handed anti-Zionist propagandists, the religious Zionism of
Rabbis Mohilever, Reines and Kook was not "Messianic." On the contrary, adoption of
Zionism was a break with tradition for religious Jews. It meant that they were taking matters
into their own hands and were not waiting for divine redemption. The goal was not to bring
the Messiah, but to be satisfied with a less ambitious material improvement in the condition
of the Jews. In 1876, Mohilever wrote:
... we see that we have not succeeded through our deeds to bring about speedy redemption.
The earlier generations with their righteousness were not granted the boon of bringing the
miraculous redemption immediately, so a fortiori we shall not merit it.... We have to expect
the redemption "in its season" and it will be by natural means and of a lower degree.
(Fishman, Rabbi J.L., ed. Sefer Shmuel, Jerusalem, 1923, p 153)
Redemption would come about through self-help. This made it possible for religious thinkers
to break free of the paralyzing formulations of rabbinical Zionism that had prevented
religious participation in Zionism. Mohilever led the religious faction of the Hibbat Tziyon for
many years. The key to his approach was unity of the Jewish people. It was difficult for
some orthodox Jews to accept that this "material redemption" would come about through
the agency of unbelieving Jews.
Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines carried on the battle of religious Zionism in the Zionist congresses.
When the fifth Zionist Congress, in 1902, decided to implement the cultural Zionism program
of Ahad Ha'am, it was perceived as a clear threat to religious education. There was no
religious alternative to modernization of Jewish cultural life and education. Reines founded
the Mizrachi (an acronym for "Mercaz Ruhani" - spiritual center) movement as a faction of
the Zionist movement in that year. Mizrachi had in fact existed in Russia before this time, as
a faction of the Hovevei Tziyon let by Rabbi Mohilever. The ideas of Mizrachi soon received
the support of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Cook was to become the first Ashkenazy Chief
Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine. Like Mohilever and Reines, Kook believed in the legitimacy of
secular Zionism, which was, according to him, performing a sacred mission, and he strove
for reconciliation of all parts of the Zionist movement. The National Religious Party (NRP)
which is the political part of Mizrachi followed a similar line until 1967 was a dovish liberal,
progressive party in the traditions of German Jewish liberalism.

Herzl's political Zionism had been a movement designed for, and led by, the middle and
upper classes. The Zionist congresses with their frock coated delegates could hardly be
taken for workers' assemblies. This was not entirely an accident. Herzl was convinced he
needed the support of rich Jewish financiers to pay the Sultan's debts and to finance
immigration and land purchase in Palestine, and the support of rabbis who would bring the
Jewish communities they represented with them. Many of the delegates to the congress
were chosen because they were relatively relatively affluent. Russian communities often
"sent" delegates who were actually already in Western Europe - students and business
people. In Russia, Zionism was represented primarily by the orthodox Zionists of the
Mizrachi movement. This made it easy for the anti-Zionist Bund and the communists to
portray Zionism as a reactionary religious movement. Chaim Weizmann wrote to Herzl in
1903:
In Western Europe it is generally believed that the large majority of Jewish youth in Russia
in in the Zionist camp. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. The larger part of the
contemporary younger generation is anti-Zionist, not from a desire to assimilate as in
Western Europe, but through revolutionary conviction... (Luz, Ehud, Parallels Meet, N.Y,
1988 p 177)
Weizmann may have exaggerated. The potential for progressive Zionism existed. There
were Russian Socialist Zionists. Nahman Syrkin had formulated his ideas for non-Marxist
Zionist socialism in 1888. In 1898, Syrkin published the article The Jewish Problem and the
Socialist Jewish State, but by this time he was in exile in Austria. There were also Marxist
Zionists, but they were part of the the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (SDLP) as it
was called then, the party that later split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik parties. There
was no effective socialist Zionist political organization. The only possible political
organization in Czarist Russia that was in any way revolutionary had to be an underground
organization, and the leaders of those organizations, like Syrkin, were frequently exiled.
However, it soon became apparent that the "Political Zionism" approach was, at least in the
immediate future, a failure. The Sultan would not give up Palestine, the British had nothing
to offer but empty promises and the Kaiser was not really interested. Moreover, the rich
financiers would not back Zionism as a mass movement. Herzl died, and at the same time a
change took place in Russian society and in Russian Zionism. It became increasingly evident
that the Russian communists (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party -SDLP as it was called
then ) had no place or patience for the Bund or and of the other nationalist organizations.
Plekhanov derided the Bund as "Zionists who get sea-sick." A Jewish member of the SDLP,
Ber Borochov, split with the party and founded the Poalei Tziyon party which soon had a
substantial membership. Borochov explained the Jewish problem in economic terms and
produced a synthesis of Marxist socialism and Zionism that was appealing to secular Jewish
socialists who had already felt the sting of anti-Semitism within the nascent communist
movement.
According to Borochov. the Diaspora produced aberrant social conditions that made Jews
economically inferior and politically helpless. The normal organization of society was a
pyramid, according to Borochov, with a large body of workers and smaller groups of
intelligentsia, land owners and capitalists. The Diaspora had created an 'inverted pyramid' in
Jewish society, with almost no Jewish peasant or worker class as Borochov showed in his
analysis of Jewish occupations - The Economic Development of the Jewish People. Jews
performed peripheral occupations which were not desirable to non-Jews for various reasons,
and in which Jews had a competitive advantage. In the successive economic crises of
capitalism however, the lower middle class, which included many Jews were
"proletarianized" - forced into the working class, and competition for places of employment
intensified. Jews would be forced out of their niche.
The Jews were therefore the most vulnerable part of any society during social change, and
would be pushed out of the countries of world one after the other as they industrialized (a
"stychic process"). Self-liberation of the Jews would come about by proletarianization of the
Jews in their homeland, and the nascent Jewish proletariat would join the socialist
international. (See The National Question and the Class Struggle, Our Platform and Eretz
Yisrael in our program and tactics ) The idea that the Jewish proletariat, rather than the
rabbis or the rich Jews of Western Europe would lead the Zionist revolution seemed totally
quixotic, since the Jews of Russia were poor and weak, and the Jewish people lacked a true
working class as Borochov's analysis had shown. Nonetheless, it was precisely the Jewish
proletariat and Labor Zionism in Palestine which was to form the nucleus of the Zionist
movement, providing for Zionist self defense and a Zionist government and virtual state
organization under the British Mandate.
The Russian revolution of 1905 failed, and many young radicals fled the Tsarist police. Some
came directly to Palestine, others fled to Poland and then to western Europe.
Many of these young men and women made their way to
Palestine and formed theSecond Aliya. The socialists formed
several movements in Palestine. Hapoel Hatzair, ("The
young worker") was founded by A.D. Gordon. Marxist
followers of Borochov founded Poalei Tziyon ("workers of
Zion"), and later Hashomer Hatzair("the young guard) was
also inspired by Ber Borochov.
Labor Zionism - Detail of
photo showing delegates to
the fourth meeting of the
Hapoel Hatzair, about
1909. more about labor
Zionism and socialist
Zionism.
A.D. Gordon, inspired by 19th century romanticism, called for a Jewish return to the soil and
virtually made a religion of work. These ideas fused into the ideals of "productivization"
(returning the Jews, who engaged mostly in professional and mercantile trades, to
productive labor) and "conquest of labor" (Kibbush Haavoda ). "Conquest of labor" later
took on additional meanings. (See also Labor Zionism and Socialist Zionism
The Second Aliya arrived and established itself under the most prohibitively difficult
conditions. Disease, poverty and Turkish persecution reduced its numbers and tried its will.
Zionists of foreign nationality, mostly Russian, were viewed by the Turks as enemy aliens
and were forced to flee the land during the first world war. A wave of epidemics swept the
country, killing and impoverishing many. Those who survived were extremely tough, able,
pragmatic individuals, who would go on to become the backbone of the leadership of the
Jewish State, including David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir Ze'ev (Valdimir) Jabotinsky and many
others. The viable nucleus of a Zionist Yishuv (community) was planted in the land of Israel
in this period and had taken root by 1914. A tradition of Zionsit self-defense was
inaugurated with the creation of the Hashomer group. The ultraorthodox beggars of the "old
yishuv" had now become a minority. Practical Zionism had become a reality, if as yet only a
tenuous one. The vanguard of Zionist efforts had shifted from the philanthropic efforts of
rich Jews toward the socialist revolutionaries of the Poalei Tziyon and Hapoel Hatzair.
Practical settlement efforts gradually increased the Jewish population of Palestine from
about 25,000 in 1882 to approximately 85,000 to 100,000 just prior to World War I,
including a new Jewish city, Tel Aviv, and the first kibbutzim.
Zionism and the conquest of labor
The new immigrants arrived with the ideals of socialist Zionism, but reality was not favorable
to implementing those ideas. The Zionist movement attempted to find them work. but the
new immigrants, who had no training in agriculture and poor physical stamina, were unable
to compete with Arab peasants. Arabs certainly would not hire Jewish workers, who could
not work well and could not speak Arabic. Arab labor was also preferred by the plantation
and vineyard owners of the First Aliya. Arabs were experienced and hard workers, and were
able to work for much lower wages because they were often members of an extended
family that made its main income from sharecropping. The plantation owners had also
developed a superior colonialist mentality which suited the hiring of "natives," and clashed
with the egalitarian ideas and social demands of the newly arrived socialists.
The socialist Zionist movements tried to force plantation owners to grant higher wages, and
also began to insist that plantation owners hire only Jewish workers. This aspect of
"conquest of labor" was controversial within the socialist-Zionist movements because it
engendered lack of solidarity with the Arab working class and was discriminatory. One labor
Zionist leader wrote:
"How can Jews, who demand emancipation in Russia, rob rights and act selfishly toward
other workers upon coming to Eretz Israel? If it is possible for many a people to hide
fairness and justice behind cannon smoke, how and behind what shall we hide fairness and
justice? We should absolutely not deceive ourselves with terrible visions. We shall never
possess cannons, even if the goyim shall bear arms against one another for ever. Therefore,
we cannot but settle in our land fairly and justly, to live and let live. " (Meir Dizengoff
(writing as "Dromi") "The Workers Question," Hatzvi, September 21, 1909)
At the same time, Conquest of Labor was a central part of Labor Zionist ideology, as a
means of rebuilding the Jewish people, not a discriminatory ideology. A.D. Gordon wrote:
But labour is the only force which binds man to the soil it is the basic energy for the
creation of national culture. This is what we do not have, but we are not aware of missing it.
We are a people without a country, without a national living language, without a national
culture. We seem to think that if we have no labour it does not matter - let Ivan, John or
Mustafa do the work, while we busy ourselves with producing a culture, with creating
national values and with enthroning absolute justice in the world. (A.D. Gordon, "Our Tasks
Ahead" 1920)
The boycott of Arab labor, only partly successful, was carried out reluctantly as a matter of
necessity, and because the establishment of Jews as a class of colonial plantation owners
seemed worse than the alternative. In 1934, David Ben-Gurion told Palestinian leader Musa
Alami,
We do not want to create a situation like that which exists in South Africa, where the
whites are the owners and rulers, and the blacks are the workers. If we do not do all kinds
of work, easy and hard, skilled and unskilled, if we become merely landlords, then this will
not be our homeland (Shabtai Teveth, Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: From Peace
to War, London: Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 140).
While it was the only way to foster Jewish labor, the "conquest of labor" program was
discriminatory. It provoked bitterness among some Arabs, particularly watchmen who lost
their jobs to Jews. Realistically, as the Jews were about 15% of the population of Ottoman
Palestine, the program could not have had a real effect on the Arab labor market. In the
main the "conquest of labor" movement was not successful before World War I. Only a few
thousand Jewish workers were involved. Gershon Shafir (Land, Labor and the Origins of the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 18821914, University of California Press, 1996) estimates that
about 10,000 such workers passed through Palestine in the second Aliya, many leaving in
discouragement. Other sources claim there were about 3,000 workers out of approximately
33,000 who came to Palestine in the second Aliya. Because of the wage differential and
because of the expertise of Arab workers, Arab labor continued to find employment in
Jewish settlements. Conquest of Labor was to become important in the late 1930s, when the
Arab revolt and strikes, as well as swelling Jewish immigration cause a much more
significant displacement of Arabs from Jewish industry and agriculture, especially when
Arabs simply didn't show up for work. At the same time, it must be remembered that Arabs
almost never hired any Jews, especially not for agricultural or industrial labor, and this
discrimination was taken for granted.
Zionism in WW I
The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 isolated Zionists in their respective
communities in the Diaspora. The Zionist organization decided to remain officially neutral,
though Zionists in each country aided their side in the war. Conditions in Ottoman Palestine,
never good, deteriorated. The authorities expelled those Jews who were enemy Russian
nationals. Many of the leaders fled to Egypt and to the United States. In the United States,
they played an important role in strengthening the beginnings of the Zionist organization.
Joseph Trumpeldor, Ze'ev Jabotinsky and others helped to form first the Zion Mule Corps
and then the Jewish Legion, which fought on the side of the British at Gallipoli. The official
leadership in Palestine however, cooperated with the Turks, and Jews having Turkish
citizenship served in the army or aided the war effort. The Zionist Yishuv was anxious not to
provoke further Turkish oppression of the Jews, but a clandestine group, the NILI, organized
by Aaron Aaronsohn, communicated with British ships and aided the British assault. Most of
the NILI group were arrested and executed, but Aaronsohn escaped to Egypt and gave
General Allenby's forces vital information about water sources in the Negev desert that aided
in the capture of Beersheba. During the war, the Jewish population was greatly depleted by
emigration and by successive epidemics of typhus and influenza.
Mandatory Zionism
The British Mandate - The first achievement of Political Zionism

The Zionist movement did not give up efforts to find a political solution. The political Zionism
and practical settlement approaches were merged into "Synthetic Zionism" advocated by
Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann and others understood that a British victory would spell the
end of the Ottoman empire, and present a unique opportunity to implement a Jewish
national home in Palestine.
The efforts ultimately bore fruit in the Balfour Declaration, a promise by Britain to support a
Jewish national home in Palestine, and in the League of Nations Mandate, which gave
international sanction to the Jewish national home. Weizmann became head of the Zionist
organization and later was the first President of Israel.
Zionism in America
Zionist sentiment in the United States was primarily kindled among early Christian groups,
and motivated initial missionary work in the land of Israel. The same time, the project of
Mordecai Manuel Noah to form a Jewish "state" as a temporary on Grand Island in New York,
remained for many years the lone symbol of American proto-Zionism. The cause however,
was taken up by American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus and others toward the end of the
19th century. Another very important American Zionist was Henrietta Szold, who in 1912
initiated the foundation of the Hadassah organization. Initially a medical relief effort,
Hadassah went on to become the largest women's Jewish organization in the United States,
underpinning much of the educational and charitable work of the Zionist organization in the
US and around the world, and marrying Zionism to progressive causes and women's rights
in the United States.
During World War I, both chief Justice Brandeis and Justice Frankfurter became supporters
of the Zionist cause, using political influence to help garner support for the Balfour
declaration and the British mandate for Palestine. Jewish refugees from Palestine who found
temporary refuge in the United States also built support for Zionism and recruited for the
Jewish Legion. However, American Zionism in the United states remained a low key
organization for many years. American Jews were satisfied with their new home. If they
supported Zionism, it was only mostly as a movement to build a refuge for unfortunate
European Jews. American Jewish interest in Zionism was cooled by the anti-Zionist stance of
the large Reform Judaism movement. This opposition began to change as the tragic events
in Germany disproved assimilationist ideologies and demonstrated the unity of the Jewish
people. It was not until 1937, however, that Reform Judaism officially reversed its historic
antipathy to Zionism in the Columbus Platform. Thereafter, American Jews increasingly
came to play a critical role in support for Zionism and the Jewish state, replacing European
Jewry that was destroyed in the Holocaust, and becoming the largest Diaspora community
of Jews. American Zionists are responsible for most of the charitable donations to the
Palestinian Jewish community and to Israel, for financing the creation of Jewish military
capabilities, for organizing the campaign to bring about creation of a Jewish State, and for
ongoing political efforts to secure support for Israel in the United States.
The split in Zionism
During the 1920s, a split occurred in the Zionist movement, owing to disagreements over
cooperation with the British and Jewish self defense. British policy in London at first favored
Zionism in Palestine, but Palestine was still under military rule in 1920. The British military
had little use for either Jews or Zionism. In 1920, and again in 1921 Arab riots broke out in
Palestine, apparently with the encouragement of the British, and led by Hajj Amin Al
Husseini and Aref el Aref. In 1920, the Arabs had rioted in Jerusalem during the Nebi Musa
holiday at Easter time. They screamed "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs
("Filasteen Arduna wa'al yahud kilabuna"). Ze'ev Jabotinsky and other veterans of the
Jewish Legion had formed a tiny clandestine defense force armed with pistols, the
beginnings of the Haganah. They were arrested following the riots. The riots and the British
reaction demonstrated the urgent need for a Jewish self-defense force, since the British
would not protect the Jews from the Arabs. The Haganah was established as a clandestine
force, and Jewish and Arab gunrunning was a matter of concern for the British
administration, who exaggerated its extent. Some veterans of the Jewish Legion insisted
that there must be a legal and open defense force and some British officials were
sympathetic ( see John Evelyn Shuckburgh, Colonial Office Memo on Jewish Gun-Running in
Palestine) but the British administration was opposed. If they granted a Jewish force, they
reasoned that they would need to grant an Arab force as well. The Zionists did not press the
point. In 1923, Jabotinsky published the Iron Wall, Though clothed in apocalyptic bombast,
the Iron Wall was not a call for a modern national army, but only for legalization of a small
force of Jewish police who would carry rifles.
Meanwhile, the British were having second thoughts about

the Jewish national home, which provoked opposition from
the Arabs. The British split the large area of Transjordan
from the Palestine Mandate (see map at right). This was part
of the basis for an eventual split in the Zionist movement.
The revisionists refused to accept the loss of Transjordan and
eventually left the Zionist movement over that and other
issues. In 1923 the British also split off the Golan heights, a
small portion of northern Palestine, northeast of the sea of
Galilee, and gave it to French mandated Syria. The Zionist
movement, led by Weizmann, accepted the loss of these
lands and counseled cooperation with the British. Jabotinsky
and a few followers resigned from the Zionist movement in
protest.
A nucleus of radicalized crystallized around Jabotinsky. They were bitter over the loss of
the greater part of Palestine, and Jewish defenselessness in the face of Arab attacks. Most
of them were out of step with the leaders of the Jewish yishuv, who were predominantly
socialist. In 1925, Jabotinsky founded the revisionist Zionist movement as an alternative to
official Zionism. The main tenet of Revisionism was the claim to both sides of the Jordan
river.
Jewish Immigration under the Mandate
The creation of the Mandate seemingly opened up a huge new opportunity for the Zionist
organization, but the promise was only partially fulfilled. Only tiny sums of money could be
raised in Europe and the United States to purchase lands and settle immigrants in Palestine.
Russian Jews, once the hope of the Zionist movement, were now confined to the USSR
following the Russian revolution, and Zionist activity there was soon forbidden. In Britain,
attitudes to Zionism hardened owing to opposition of Arabs and of foreign office personnel
to the Zionist program. Some Zionists foresaw an urgent need for resettling the Jews of
Europe and predicted a looming catastrophe, though none envisioned the Holocaust that
was to take place. However, it was impossible to get even small sums to finance Zionist
work from European Jewry, who would eventually be forced by the Nazis to pay many
times the 4 million pounds sterling that the Zionists required.
All these factors, plus sporadic Arab violence and initially poor conditions in Palestine, forced
the Zionist movement to proceed cautiously and slowly, cooperating with British authorities
in setting modest limits to the yearly immigration quotas as well as restrictive financial
requirements for immigrants.
Jewish immigration after the British entered Palestine is somewhat arbitrarily divided into
three further Aliyoth (plural of Aliya):
The third Aliya - The third aliya consisted mostly of Eastern European and Russian Jews,
including some who had left or been expelled by the Turks during the war. This immigration
began about 1919 when Palestine was still under British military rule and is considered to
have ended about 1923. Perhaps 35,000- 40,000 Jews came to Palestine in this period (see
Third Aliya).
The fourth Aliya - After the institution of the mandate, immigration quotas were established,
and applicants had to prove that they had some capital with which to begin life in Palestine.
The fourth Aliya lasted from 1924 to 1929 or 1932 and consisted in large part of Polish Jews
who were motivated to come to Palestine by the anti-Semitic regime and the new
immigration quotas imposed in the United States. The fourth Aliya is generally considered to
have ended in 1929, after Arab riots in Jerusalem seemed to show that settlement in
Palestine was not a safe solution for Jews, or in 1932, after which immigrants began coming
from Nazi Germany in large numbers. About 60,000-70,000 Jewish immigrants came to
Palestine in this period (see Fourth Aliya).
The fifth Aliya - The fifth Aliya lasted from 1929 or 1933 to 1939, when the British White
Paper closed the gates of Palestine to Jewish immigration due to the Arab revolt and
international Arab pressure on Great Britain. About 200,000- 250,000 Jews arrived in this
period; 174,000 of them came between 1933 and 1936, when severe quotas were first
introduced. Many of them were German Jews fleeing Nazism. The Germans allowed the
Jews to leave in part because of the "hesder" or "ha'avara" agreement under which the
property Jews took with them was treated as "export goods" in return for a ransom paid to
the Reich (see Fifth Aliya ).
The Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency was set up formally in 1929 through the efforts of Chaim Weizmann and
others, in accordance with the stipulation of the League of Nations Mandate that an
"agency" comprised of representatives of world Jewry assist in the establishment of the
Jewish National Home. The agency was the official interlocutor for the Jews of Palestine and
the Zionist endeavor with the British Mandate and the League of Nations. The Jewish
Agency was not a Zionist organization, however, since it was set up by the World Zionist
Organization and non-Zionist groups and leaders, including Leon Blum, Felix Warburg and
Louis Marshall.
When Jews began thinking about return to Israel in the early 19th century, there were
about 200,000 Arabs living in all of the land, mostly concentrated in the countryside of the
West Bank and Galilee, and mostly lacking in national sentiment. Palestine was, in Western
eyes, a country without a nation, as Lord Shaftesbury wrote. Early proto-Zionists did not
trouble themselves at all about the existing inhabitants. Many were heavy influenced by
utopianism. In the best 19th century tradition, they were creating a Jewish utopia, where an
ancient people would be revived. They envisioned a land without strife, where all national
and economic problems would be solved by good will, enlightened and progressive policies
and technological know-how. Herzl's Altneuland was in in fact just such a utopia. Jewish
population grew, but Arab population grew more rapidly. By 1914, there were over 500,000
Arabs in Palestine.
At the same time, Zionist pronouncements and outlook were often frankly colonialist,
especially when addressing leaders of foreign powers. The plantations sponsored by Baron
Rothschild were modeled on plantation settlement in Algeria and other colonies. Colonialism
was fashionable and "progressive" in Europe, and early Zionist leaders saw nothing wrong
in assimilating this idea to Zionism along with other "modern" ideas such as socialism,
utopianism and nationalism.
This changed as socialist Zionists came to dominate the Zionist movement. Later Zionists
were heavily influenced by socialism and embarrassed at the colonialist aspects of the
Zionist project. They were also aware, of course, that Palestine was already occupied by
Arabs. Many however, including the young David Ben--Gurion, who headed the Executive
Committee of the Zionist Yishuv (Jewish community) in Palestine and was later the first
Prime Minister of Israel, initially thought that the Arabs could only benefit from Jewish
immigration and would welcome it. Others, such as Eliezer ben Yehuda, frankly envisioned
removal of the Arabs from Palestine.
One of the earliest warnings about the Arab problem came from the cultural Zionist writer
Achad Haam (Asher Ginsberg), who wrote in his 1891 essay "Truth from Eretz Israel" that in
Palestine "it is hard to find tillable land that is not already tilled", and moreover
From abroad we are accustomed to believing that the Arabs are all desert savages, like
donkeys, who neither see nor understand what goes on around them. But this is a big
mistake... The Arabs, and especially those in the cities, understand our deeds and our
desires in Eretz Israel, but they keep quiet and pretend not to understand, since they do not
see our present activities as a threat to their future... However, if the time comes when the
life of our people in Eretz Israel develops to the point of encroaching upon the native
population, they will not easily yield their place.
Arab opposition to Zionism grew after 1900. The birth of Arab nationalism and Arab political
aspirations in the Ottoman empire coincided with the arrival of a fairly sizeable number of
Zionists with the announced program of settling the land and turning it into a Jewish
national home. In his book, Reveil de la Nation Arab in 1905, Najib Azouri stated that the
Jews wanted to establish a state stretching from Mt. Hermon to the Arabian Desert and the
Suez Canal. Azoury wrote:
Two important phenomena of the same nature but opposed, are emerging... They are the
awakening of the Arab nation and the latent effort of the Jews to reconstitute on a very
large scale the ancient kingdom of Israel. These movements are destined to fight each other
continually until one of them wins.
*Mandel, Neville, The Arabs and Palestine, UCLA, 1976
Arabs recognized that the Jews had a historic claim to the land, and that is precisely what
frightened them. The mayor of Jerusalem, Zia al Khalidi, wrote to Tsadok Khan, chief rabbi
of France:
Who can contest the rights of the Jews to Palestine? God knows, historically it is indeed your
country.
But he asserted that the brutal force of reality prevented resettlement of Palestine by Jews.
Khalidi concluded:
In the name of God, leave Palestine in peace. (Nusseibeh, Sari, Once Upon a Country, Farrar,
Strauss and Giroux, 2007, p 23)
Arab nationalism was not recognized by the early Zionists because it did not exist. The Arabs,
along with the West, recognized that Palestine had belonged to the Jews, and that the
Ottoman Empire and the Arabs were colonialist occupiers, asserting their claim based on
might rather than justice. This perception would soon change.
Local Arab opposition to Zionism and Zionist settlement was not initially based on national
sentiment, but on specific conflicts arising from land purchases and on racism and prejudice
and against Jews. Rashid Khalidi (Palestinian Identity, Columbia, 1997) notes that beginning
about 1908 Palestinian newspapers offer extensive evidence of anti-Zionist agitation. Actual
conflicts flared up because the Zionists purchased large tracts from landowners and
subsequently evicted the tenant farmers. The former tenants, though they had received
compensation, continued to insist that the land was theirs under time honored traditions,
and tried to take it back by force. A notable case was Al-Fula, where Zionists had purchased
a large tract of land from the Sursuq family of Beirut. Local officials took the side of the Arab
peasants against the Zionists and against the Ottoman government, which upheld the
legality of the sale. One hundred and fifty Palestinian notables cabled the Ottoman
government to protest land sales to Jews in March 1911. Azmi Bey, Turkish governor of
Jerusalem responded:
We are not xenophobes; we welcome all strangers. We are not anti-Semites; we value the
economic superiority of the Jews. But no nation, no government, could open its arms to
groups... aiming to take Palestine from us.
(Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, Knopf 1999 Page 62)
This was an Ottoman Turkish national claim, not an Arab one. However, national claims
were soon mixed with economic grievances. It was not clear which was the actual
motivation, and which was the issue used as an excuse to advance the issue.
Likewise, the Kibbush Haavoda "conquest of labor" movement displaced some Arab
watchmen and led to violence. While the actual number of persons displaced or
dispossessed may have been small, and may have been offset by real economic benefits and
increased employment provided by Zionist investment, the feeling grew among the Arabs
that the Zionists had arrived to dispossess them. A Nazareth group complained that the
Zionists were "a cause of great political and economic injury... The Zionists nourish the
intention of expropriating our properties. For us these intentions are a question of life and
death." (Morris, loc cit.) As the conflict intensified, the Zionists formed a guard association,
Hashomer, to guard the settlements in place of Arab guards. The attempts to retake land
and disputes with Jewish guards led to increased violence beginning in the second half of
1911.
Many Zionists however, believed at least initially that conflict was not inevitable, and
certainly most Zionist thinkers did not contemplate expulsion of the Arabs. Ber Borochov,
the founder of socialist Zionism, said in his last speech:
Many point out the obstacles which we encounter in our colonization work. Some say that
the Turkish law hinders our work, others contend that Palestine is insignificantly small, and
still others charge us with the odious crime of wishing to oppress and expel the Arabs from
Palestine...
When the waste lands are prepared for colonization, when modern technique is introduced,
and when the other obstacles are removed, there will be sufficient land to accommodate
both the Jews and the Arabs. Normal relations between the Jews and Arabs will and must
prevail. (Ber Borochov - Eretz Yisrael in our program and tactics - Kiev, September 1917)
The Zionists were well aware of Arab nationalism by the start of World War I, and Chaim
Weizmann took care to meet with the Emir Feisal. Weizmann wanted the Zionist and Arab
national struggles to be seen as causes with a common interest. Feisal did not go quite so
far perhaps, but he was willing to acquiesce in Zionist control of Palestine, provided that the
British fulfilled their promises to the Arabs. (see Feisal-Weizmann Agreement and FeisalFrankfurter Correspondence ) That support evaporated when France was given a mandate
for Syria, and the Arabs believed the British had betrayed their promises.
The Arabs of Palestine were appalled at the prospect of living in a country dominated by a
Jewish majority and feared that they would be dispossessed. By 1919, representatives of the
Jaffa Muslim-Christian council were saying Arab opposition to Zionism was not based only
on economic and social issues. It was colored by the traditional Muslim vision of the Jews as
second class citizens. They announced:
"We will push the Zionists into the sea or they will push us into the desert"
Anti-Jewish rioting and violence broke out in 1920 and 1921. By the 1920s, it was also
motivated by a strong admixture of Western anti-Semitism. In March of 1921, Musa Kazim
El Husseini, deposed as Mayor of Jerusalem because of his part in riots earlier that year, told
Winston Churchill:
The Jews have been amongst the most active advocates of destruction in many lands... It is
well known that the disintegration of Russia was wholly or in great part brought about by
the Jews, and a large proportion of the defeat of Germany and Austria must also be put at
their door.
It is not clear how Churchill received this unwitting testimonial to the aid supposedly
proffered to his country's war effort by the Jews, or what Husseini thought to accomplish by
it. Aref Dajani had earlier voiced similar sentiments to the King- Crane Commission:
It is impossible for us to make an understanding with them or or even to live with them...
Their history and all their past proves that it is impossible to live with them. In all the
countries where they are at present they are not wanted... because they always arrive to
suck the blood of everybody...
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, Knopf 1999 Page 91)

By this time, Zionist leaders could no longer ignore the conflict with the Arabs. David Ben
Gurion told members of the Va'ad Yishuv (the temporary governing body of the Jewish
community in Palestine) in June 1919:
But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is a gulf;
and nothing can bridge it.... I do not know what Arab will agree that Palestine should belong
to the Jews...We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this
country to be theirs.
While Palestinian Arabs now viewed themselves as a small group of helpless victims of
powerful British and Jewish "interests," the Zionists saw the opposite side of the coin. The
militant Zionist leader, Ze'ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, asked in 1918:
The matter is not ... an issue between the Jewish people and the Arab inhabitants of
Palestine, but between the Jewish people and the Arab people. The latter, numbering 25
million, has [territory equivalent to] half of Europe, while the Jewish people, numbering ten
million and wandering the earth, hasn't got a stone...Will the Arab people stand opposed?
Will it resist? [Will it insist] that...they...shall have it [all] for ever and ever, while he who
has nothing shall forever have nothing?
(Caplan, Neil, Palestine Jewry and the Palestine Question, 1917-1925, Frank Cass, 1978)
In his Iron Wall article of 1923, Jabotinsky answered his own question. He argued that
agreement with the Arabs was not possible, because they
...look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true fervor that any Aztec looked
upon his Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. To think that the Arabs will voluntarily
consent to the realization of Zionism in return for the cultural and economic benefits we can
bestow on them is infantile.
Jabotinsky was at least initially against expulsion of the Arabs, which he was "prepared to
swear, for us and our descendants, that we will never [do]". Rather in The Iron Wall, he
argued that the Jewish presence should be imposed by forming a strong defense that
would demonstrate to the Arabs that the Jews could not be forced out of Palestine. However,
while The Iron Wall expressed a comprehensive philosophy, its practical background and
intent were much more limited. Jabotinsky wanted the British authorities to allow the Jews
to form a separate defensive force under British supervision, to combat attacks such as the
riots that had occurred in 1920 and 1921. The British refused. The Zionist organization
resigned themselves to the British decision, but Jabotinsky wanted to continue with the
formation of such a force. Though the Haganah defensive underground was founded in
1920 by Jabotinsky, it didn't become a major project of the Zionist movement until after the
riots of 1930.
Meanwhile the Arab and Jewish communities grew progressively apart. Arabs refused to
participate in a Palestinian local government which gave equal representation to the Jewish
minority. The British, nearly bankrupt after WW I, insisted that the mandate should be selfsufficient. Mandate services were paid for from taxes paid by the Jewish and Arab
inhabitants of Palestine. Additional services were funded by philanthropists from abroad and
from membership dues in various organizations. Zionist philanthropy and organization faroutstripped what Palestinian Arabs could provide. By 1936, each Jewish worker in Palestine
was earning on average four times as much as each Arab, and paying four times as much
taxes. The Jews had set up an approximation of a modern industrial economy, while most of
the Arabs languished in feudalism, and their leaders did nothing to help them. Neither
Arabs nor Jews wanted integrated schools. Zionist groups funded religious, secular and
labor-Zionist educational networks for Jewish children in Hebrew, but few comparable
schools were set up for Arabs. The Zionists founded the Histadrut Labor federation to
encompass Jewish workers, providing Hebrew education, medical care, worker-owned
enterprises and cultural facilities as well as representation of labor rights. No comparable
association was created by the more numerous Arabs of Palestine, though the Histadruth
made some efforts to organize Arab labor beginning in 1927, and the Palestine Communist
party attempted to represent both Jewish and Arab labor.
Zionism, the Arab Revolt and the Conflict With Britain

From the beginning of the British Mandate, Arab opposition to
Zionism coalesced into organized resistance, taking the form of
riots and later a revolt. The chief architects of this mischief
were the Husseini clan led by Hajj Amin Al Husseini, the Grand
Mufti.The Mufti and others convinced Palestinian Arabs that
the Zionists were going to dispossess them of their lands by
force, and spread false rumors that the Jews were going to
desecrate the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Riots and
pogroms were instigated in 1920, 1921 and 1929 (see Arab
Riots and Massacres of 1929 andHebron Massacre)resulting in
deaths and injuries in Jaffa, Hebron, Jerusalem, Motza and
elsewhere. The British government increasingly understood
that its promises to the Zionists and Mandate obligations were
very unpopular in the Arab world. They split off the major part
of the Palestine Mandate territory to form Transjordan even as
the mandate came into effect, and in 1930 issued the Passfield
White Paper that proposed limiting Jewish immigration to
Palestine.
Grand Mufti Hajj Amin Al

Husseini featured on the
cover of Vienna Illustrated
(Wiener
Illustrierte)
magazine.
Husseini
is
apparently
reviewing
troops he had recruited.
The Passfield White Paper was quietly withdrawn under pressure from Zionists, from British
public opinion and from the League of Nations. However, Palestine did not remain quiet. The
Mufti allied himself with Fascist Italy and Germany, and probably was funded by the Italian
government beginning about 1936.
These policies turned the once-friendly British into antagonists of the Zionist movement.
Labor Zionists and the Zionist Executive were in favor of moderate policies that would try to
work around the British opposition to Zionism. A faction led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky believed in
confronting the British and the Arabs, and if necessary, using force. In 1925, Jabotinsky split
from the main Zionist movement and formed the Revisionist movement.
In 1936, in response to the large Jewish immigration from Europe, open Arab Revolt broke
out. Three years of bloody riots instigated by the Grand Mufti Hajj Amin Al Husseini and his
allies resulted in hundreds of Jewish casualties and an estimated 4,500 Arabs were killed,
the majority by the Mufti's gangs. The rioting forced the British to take draconian measures.
The Mufti fled to Iraq in 1937 and then to Nazi Germany in 1941 after instigating a pro-Axis
Coup in Iraq. In 1937, the British proposed tentatively to partition Palestine in the Peel
report. This caused additional divisions in the Zionist movement. Some believed in a binational Jewish Arab state and objected to the idea, contained in the Peel recommendations,
of transferring Arabs "voluntarily" out of the territory to be allotted to the Jewish state. The
revisionists and religious Zionists, on the other hand, objected to giving up any part of the
territory of Palestine. Subsequently the British issued the White Paper of 1939, severely
limiting Jewish immigration. The Revisionists formed the Irgun underground army, which
attacked British soldiers and administrators and perpetrated terror attacks against Arabs in
retaliation for Arab attacks on Jews.
Zionism during the Holocaust
The murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime in the Holocaust has become inevitably
and inextricably bound up to the history of Zionism. The relation of the Holocaust to Zionism
has provoked controversy and resentment, particularly among anti-Zionists. Zionists have
been accused of indifference to the plight of European Jews. To an an extent it was true at
first. Initially, the reports of Nazi persecution did not seem to be any worse than persecution
of Jews that had occurred in Europe for hundreds of years - confiscation of businesses,
discriminatory legislation and expulsion. The Yishuv was struggling with an Arab revolt and
trying to build a Jewish society. The tiny, more or less powerless and poor Israeli Yishuv and
the Zionist movement that supported it, could do very little to aid the Jews of Europe in any
case. Nonetheless, the Zionist organization and the Yishuv ransomed Jews from Nazi
Germany in return for economic concessions. The Zionists managed to save over 200,000
European Jews before World War II. When the British responded to Arab pressure and
ended Jewish immigration to Palestine, the Zionists, attempting to rescue Jews from the
Nazis, organized illegal immigration through the "Institution for Illegal Immigration"
(Hamossad L'aliya Beth).
Illegal immigration (Aliya Bet) was organized by the Jewish Agency between 1939 and 1942,
when a tightened British blockade and stricter controls in occupied Europe made it
impractical, and again between 1945 and 1948. Rickety boats full of refugees tried to reach
Palestine. Additionally, there were private initiatives, an initiative by the Nazis to deport Jews
and an initiative by the US to save European Jews. Many of the ships sank or were caught
by the British or the Nazis and turned back, or shipped to Mauritius or other destinations for
internment. The Patria (also called "Patra") contained immigrants offloaded from three other
ships, for transshipment to the island of Mauritius. To prevent transshipment, the Haganah
placed a small explosive charge on the ship on November 25, 1940. They thought the
charge would damage the engines. Instead, the ship sank, and over 250 lives were lost. A
few weeks later, the SS Bulgaria docked in Haifa with 350 Jewish refugees and was ordered
to return to Bulgaria. The Bulgaria capsized in the Turkish straits, killing 280. The Struma, a
vessel that had left Constanta in Rumania with about 769 refugees, got to Istanbul on
December 16, 1941. There, it was forced to undergo repairs of its engine and leaking hull.
The Turks would not grant the refugees sanctuary. The British would not approve
transshipment to Mauritius or entry to Palestine. On February 24, 1942, the Turks ordered
the Struma out of the harbor. It sank with the loss of 428 men, 269 women and 70 children.
It had been torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, either because it was mistaken for a Nazi ship,
or more likely, because the Soviets had agreed to collaborate with the British in barring
Jewish immigration. Illegal immigration continued until late in the war, apparently without
the participation of the Mossad l'aliya Bet. Despite the many setbacks, tens of thousands of
Jews were saved by the illegal immigration.
To circumvent British regulations against creating new settlements, the Zionists initiated the
"stockade and tower" ("homa umigdal") program, that allowed overnight creation of a new
"settlement," consisting of a wall and watch tower. Under the law, the British could not
destroy such an 'established' settlement.
The Zionists wanted to fight Fascism and rescue European Jews, but they could not do so
except as permitted by the British government. The British recruited soldiers in Palestine.
About 26,000 Jews out of a population of perhaps 500,000 and 6,000 Arabs out of a
population of over a million, volunteered to fight in the British army. The Zionists pleaded
for combat duty in Europe in a special Jewish Brigade. For the most part, however, they
were employed in the Middle East. Eventually a Jewish Brigade was formed. The Jewish
Agency proposed a scheme to send hundreds of Jewish commandos into occupied Europe to
liaison with partisan groups and rescue Jews. Over a year passed before the British finally
approved of a limited version of this plan. About 110 Zionist Parachutists were trained of the
250 who volunteered, but less than 40 reached Europe.
Reports of Nazi atrocities became increasingly frequent and vivid. Despite the desperate
need to find a haven for refugees, the doors of Palestine remained shut to Jewish
immigration. The Zionist leadership met in the Biltmore Hotel in New York City in 1942 and
declared that it supported the establishment of Palestine as a "Jewish Commonwealth." This
was not simply a return to the Balfour declaration repudiated by the British White Paper, but
rather a restatement of Zionist aims that went beyond the Balfour declaration, and a
determination that the British were in principle, an enemy to be fought, rather than an ally.
This was a defeat for the left-wing party of the Labor Zionists, Mapam, who wanted a binational Zionist state. David Ben-Gurion also portrayed it as a victory for himself over Chaim
Weizmann, who had opposed confrontation. Weizmann supported the Biltmore declaration,
but he was too irrevocably identified with the failed moderate line, and he lost support. The
Revisionists rejoined the Zionist movement, but were still called "dissidents" and did not
merge their underground armies, the Irgun (Etzel ) and the LEHI (also called the "Stern
Gang") into the Hagannah defense organization of the mainstream Zionists.
On November 6, 1944, members of the Lehi underground Eliyahu Hakim Eliyahu Bet Zuri
assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo. Moyne, known to be an anti-Zionist, was in charge of
carrying out the terms of the 1939 White Paper. Lord Moyne and his wife were personal
friends of the Churchills. The assassination turned Winston Churchill against the Zionists.
The Jewish Agency and Zionist Executive believed that British and world reaction to the
assassination of Lord Moyne could jeopardize cooperation after the war, that had been
hinted at by the British, and might endanger the Jewish Yishuv if they came to be perceived
as enemies of Britain and the allies. Therefore they embarked on a campaign against the
Lehi and Irgun, known in Hebrew as the "Sezon" ("Season"). Members of the underground
were to be ostracized. Leaders were caught by the Hagannah, interrogated and sometimes
tortured, and about a thousand persons were turned over to the British.
Following World War II, Britain continued to limit

Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Zionist factions
united and conducted an underground war against
the British, as well as applying pressure on the British
government through the United States. In June of
1947, the British rammed the Jewish illegal immigrant
ship Exodus (formerly "President Warfield") on the
high seas. They towed it to Haifa where it was the
subject of extensive publicity, generating public
sympathy for the Zionist cause. The passengers were
eventually disembarked in Hamburg. The incident set
world opinion, and particularly US opinion against the
British, and caused the British to intern illegal
immigrants thereafter in Cyprus, rather than
attempting to return them to Europe.
The Exodus - 1947
Post-State Zionism
Israel - Zionism creates the Jewish National Home
The British found it necessary to maintain a large military
establishment in Palestine to enforce the draconian immigration
policy and respond to Jewish underground attacks on British
personnel. This policy was increasingly unpopular at home owing
to loss of British lives. This forced the British to announce in
February 1947 that they were returning their mandate to the UN.
A special commission, UNSCOP, was set up to recommend a
solution to the UN. The commission recommended partition. The
Arabs were opposed to either partition or a binational state. The
U.S. and the USSR supported partition of Palestine, and carried a
large bloc of votes with them. On November 29, 1947, the United
Nations voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states
in General Assembly Resolution 181.
Map of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine, 1947
A war broke out in fact, while the British were still in Palestine. The Arab League initiated a war
against the Jewish community and the Jewish state, with the declared aim of "driving the Jews into
the sea." There was little doubt about their intentions. The Grand Mufti Hajj Amin Al Husseini, a
Nazi collaborator who escaped the clutches of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, had told the
British that in his view the preferred solution for the Jews of Palestine was the one adopted in
Europe, in other words, annihilation. Apparently he had planned to build a death camp near Nablus.
Almost as soon as the UN decided on partition of Palestine, Arabs began attacking Jews, beginning
with lethal riots in Jerusalem and attacks on Jewish transportation. The British allowed a volunteer
army under Fawzi El Kaukji, to enter Palestine in January of 1948. During the fighting, with Jerusalem
virtually blockaded, the state of Israel was established on May 15, 1948. Arab countries, chiefly
Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, invaded almost immediately.
Zionism, the Establishment of Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Question
The Arabs of Palestine were not well organized and could not attain their goal of cleansing
Palestine of Jews. Instead, it was they who suffered expulsion. The Jews were also able
to hold their own against the invading armies of Arab states. As a result of the war,
between 600,000 and 800,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their
homes. Population displacements are deplorable, but they often happen as a result of war.
The Czechs expelled the Sudetens Germans after World War II, because like the Arabs of
Palestine, the Germans of Czechoslovakia sought to destroy the state in which they lived.
It is absurd to claim that the Czechs had planned to expel the Germans since the
beginnings of Czech nationalism, but this claim is often made about Zionism.
Map of Israel showing the 1949 armistice lines.
Map of the Israel "Green Line" Borders

In a civil war such as occurred in 1948, armed militias use villages and neighborhoods as
bases. Civilian casualties were therefore inevitable, and it was very likely that once the war
was initiated, one side or the other would suffer massive displacement and tragedy. For the
Arabs of Palestine, their Nakba, or catastrophe, vindicated their fears that the Zionists were
bent on dispossessing them. (see Palestine Nakba, 1948 )
Both anti-Zionists and right-wing Zionists have claimed that the expulsion of Arabs in 1948
was a more or less deliberate result of Zionist policy and ideology. Anti-Zionists make this
claim to discredit Zionism, while right-wing Zionists make this claim in order to justify
possible transfer or expulsion of Arabs in the future. This is, in part, a major support for the
often repeated "Zionism is Racism" slogan. The evidence does not seem to support those
claims. It is true that some Zionists were (and are) in favor of "voluntary transfer," which is
not the same thing as forcible expulsion and genocide. A great many quotes of Zionist
leaders about "voluntary transfer" are cited in this connection. For the most part, these
statements were made in a very specific historical context, at a time when such transfers
were common practice. In 1937, the British were considering creation of a tiny Jewish state,
and it was the British Peel and Woodhead commissions that proposed transfer as part of this
plan, which was discussed with varying reluctance by different Zionist leaders. However,
there is no decisive evidence that transfer or expulsion became part of Zionist or Israeli
government planning. Several Zionist political parties strongly protested incidents of
massacre and expulsion in 1948. Ben Gurion was apparently genuinely surprised by the
early flight of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, and in Haifa and a few other places, Zionist leaders
tried to convince Palestinian Arabs to stay. The Haganah plan "D," (plan Daleth) is
frequently cited by anti-Zionists as the Zionist blueprint for expelling the Arabs of Palestine.
However, the plan did not call for mass expulsion, but only for temporary occupation of
villages as part of a defensive strategy.
From the first, the Zionist plan was to buy land and not to expel Arabs by force. Arthur
Ruppin, the Palestine land agent, described in detail some of the difficulties involved in
Palestine purchases. Purchase of land was hampered by lack of money, by the unwillingness
of Palestinian landowners to sell land to Jews, and by the arduous conditions obtaining in
the Middle East in those days. Additionally, and perhaps more important, there was not
much land to buy. Under Turkish law, most of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine leased their
land from the government or cultivated village land that was held in common. The Turks
had introduced private land ownership in the Tanzimat reform of 1858. However, as few
wished to pay taxes, they did not register their lands. Large tracts were bought by notables
close to the ruling circles, but much of this land was in the the West Bank. Land was also
purchased in the Galilee, and part of this land was purchased by the Jewish Agency. Some
land was and is owned either by the Waqf (Muslim religious endowment), The Greek
Catholic Church or other religious institutions. The Greek Orthodox church was and remains
one of the largest landholders in Palestine, and some of this land was leased by the Zionist
leadership, including the land where the Israeli Knesset (parliament) is located. The Greek
Orthodox Church however, could not sell its land. The British regularized the registry of land
to the extent that land that was not village land or government or Waqf land was considered
taxable, regardless of who owned it. The person or persons who worked the land paid taxes
and it was theirs to use, but not to sell as long as the land did not lie fallow for three years.
The lands of the Negev, which were not arable before the national water carrier was built,
were owned by the government and were not for sale. The government owned about 48%
of the land in all. The Jewish Agency managed to purchase only about 6% of the land area
of Palestine that became Israel by 1948. This was a small percentage of the total area, but it
was a large percentage of the land that was privately owned and could be bought.
The UN Partition Resolution and Israeli Legitimacy
Some argue that it was "understandable" that the Palestinians would defy the U.N. partition
resolution, because the resolution "took Palestine away from them and threatened to
dispossess them of their homes. However, there is no evidence that Jewish leaders planned
to dispossess Arabs or threatened to do so. Just before the establishment of the State of
Israel, Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization and first President of Israel,
wrote in his autobiography, Trial and Error, "... the world will judge the Jewish state by what
it will do with the Arabs." (Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error, Hamish Hamilton, London,
1949, p. 566).
That was Zionist policy and intent, but the war forced upon Israel by the Palestinians and
the Arab states produced an impossible reality. The right of the Jews to self-determination in
Palestine was recognized not only by the United States, South American and Western
European countries, but by the USSR as well. There is hardly a more eloquent defense of
Zionism then the one given by the Soviet representative, Andrei Gromyko in the United
Nations:
The delegation of the USSR maintains that the decision to partition Palestine is in keeping
with the high principles and aims of the United Nations. It is in keeping with the principle of
the national self-determination of peoples...
The solution of the Palestine problem based on a partition of Palestine into two separate
states will be of profound historical significance, because this decision will meet the
legitimate demands of the Jewish people... UN Debate on Palestine Partition- November, 26,
1947
Besides, the disposition of Palestine as a Jewish national home had already been recognized
as part of the post World War I peace settlement, and in the League of Nations British
Mandate for Palestine. Those who claim that this settlement was illegitimate because it was
inspired by imperialism and colonialist greed, must remember that the same arrangements
created all the Arab states of the Middle East as well as Czechoslovakia, Poland and other
countries. The Arab defiance of the UN in 1947 was not very different than the German
defiance of the League of Nations when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938. Indeed, the
Nazis used parallel arguments: the Versailles treaty was unjust, Czechoslovakia was an
"artificial state" and the Sudetens Germans had, according to Hitler a "general right to selfdetermination."
The Holocaust and anti-Zionism
The Holocaust and the historical view of the Holocaust have been made into a major item of
contention by anti-Zionists. The Holocaust was the tragic and dramatic fulfillment of Zionist
claims that Jews would never be safe without a sovereign Jewish homeland. This prophecy
was not just an abstract ideological principle. In particular, the revisionist Zionist leader
Ze'ev Jabotinsky repeatedly warned Polish Jews of the coming catastrophe. For example, in
August of 1938, he wrote, in an article published in Warsaw:
"...it is already three years that I am calling upon you, Polish Jewry, who are the crown of
world Jewry. I continue to warn you incessantly that a catastrophe is coming closer. I
became gray and old in these years, my heart bleeds, that you, dear brothers and sisters,
do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spit its all consuming lava. I know that you
are not seeing this because you are immersed in your daily worries. Today, however, I
demand your trust. You were convinced already that my prognoses have already proven to
be right. If you think differently then drive me out from your midst.
"However, if you do believe me, then listen to me in this 11th hour: In the name of G-d, Let
any one of you save himself as long as there is still time. And time there is very little.
Jabotinsky's warnings went largely unheeded.
The Holocaust seemed to be a solemn warning that Jews could not ever integrate securely
into European society. That question itself became moot after World War II, because there
were so few Jews left in Europe, and there was so much revulsion at the crimes of the Nazis,
that for a long period anti-Semitism seemed to have disappeared entirely. Nonetheless, the
Holocaust remains a major embarrassment for anti-Zionist ideologues, and they in turn,
have attempted to counter this impression in different ways. Some have resorted to
Holocaust denial, others insist that the Zionists were somehow at fault for the Holocaust,
because they didn't do enough to save European Jewry. Others insist that "the Zionists"
have made too much of the Holocaust and have created a "Holocaust industry," and that in
fact, the Holocaust was not aimed particularly at Jews, since some gypsies and homosexuals
and mental defectives were also killed by Nazis. Of course, nobody could have really
foreseen the extermination of European Jews, despite Jabotinsky's warning, and even if they
had, there was little more that the Zionists could have done than what they did. The tiny
Yishuv (community) and the struggling Zionist movement managed to save only a few tens
or hundreds of thousands of Jews out of all the millions of European Jewry, but the fact is
that nobody else saved more. The US Jewish community did little to protest the Nazi policies
even after there was hard evidence of the murders in the 1940s, and even if they had, it is
unlikely that the US government, fearing anti-Semitic backlash, would have done very much
about it.
To an outsider it may seem that the state of Israel would not have come into existence
without the Holocaust. Anti-Zionists have used this impression to claim that the state was
"given" to the Jews by the world as a "special favor" and that therefore the legitimacy of the
existence of Israel depends on the morality of Israeli acts, as judged by them. The same
people often give the idea that there were no Jews in Palestine before World War II, and
that immediately after the war, Zionists brought hundreds of thousands of Jews, creating
the state at the expense of the Palestinians, to atone for European misdeeds. That idea is
certainly false, since most of the 1948 Jewish population of Palestine had arrived before the
war, and since Zionism, born in 1897, could not have been motivated by the Holocaust that
happened nearly half a century later.
While it is certain that the Holocaust helped to mobilize international opinion in favor of a
Jewish state, it is by no means certain that it was a critical factor or necessary cause. Sever
Plocker and Tom Segev have both argued that without the Holocaust, a Jewish state would
have been born in any case, and it would have been much stronger because of the support
and presence of European Jews. Certainly, the Zionists envisioned that the Jewish state
would be built by European Jews. The Holocaust, and the imprisonment of Soviet Jewry
made this impossible and changed the nature of the state, exacerbating the problems it
faced. Segev wrote:
... After three decades of Zionism in Palestine, there was still no clear timetable for the
Jewish state, but no doubts remained that Jewish independence was on the horizon. The
social, political, economic and military foundations of the state to-be were firm, and a
profound sense of national unity prevailed. The Zionist dream was about to become a reality.
There is therefore no basis for the frequent assertion that the state was established as a
result of the Holocaust...." (Tom Segev in "One Palestine Complete" pp 490-491)
It is probably philosophically unsound to insist on the inevitability of the creation of the state
either with or without the Holocaust. However it is certainly unprovable that the state would
not have been created without the Holocaust. Israel came about through a series of
improbable events. Only a tiny group of people believed in 1897 that it could be possible to
establish a Jewish national home anywhere, that any power would grant a charter for such a
home, or that Jews would come to live in this country. However the Zionist movement was
opportunistic. Zionist leaders leveraged on anti-Semitic notions of mysterious "Jewish
power" as well as on Christian sentiment for restoration of Israel to obtain the Balfour
declaration during World War I.
Faced with the tragedy of the Holocaust, Zionist leaders used it to lobby for a Jewish state.
The Holocaust was a unique event in many ways, but there is little doubt, given the nature
of European history, that an anti-Semitic upheaval of some kind would have occurred in
Europe, as indeed it occurred in the USSR despite Soviet anti-Fascist propaganda. There is
also little doubt that any such anti-Semitic manifestation would have helped to mobilize
Jewish and world sentiment in favor of a Jewish state. The relatively small numbers of the
Jews in Palestine masked their potential, which was due to organization and economic
power. The organization was due to the ability of the Zionist leaders, despite differences, to
unite around a common program and to provide essential services that bound the
community to them. The economic power was due in part to the organizational ability and
social cohesion, which produced the kibbutzim, the Histadrut labor union, school systems,
agricultural training schools and an agricultural advisory service among other institutions. In
part, the economic power was due to the relatively large investment in Palestine made by
the Zionist organization. As a result, each Jew in Palestine produced about times the amount
that each Palestinian Arab produced, and Zionist investment accounted in large part for the
prosperity of the Palestinian Arabs. (see Zionism and its Impact Wars are decided by
economic power.. If conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine was unavoidable, the
outcome of such a conflict was predictable in advance. The Jews, being the more organized
and economically stronger power, would have won in any case, and certainly would have
had a better chance of success with the backing of a large population of European Jews.
See also discussion here and here ).
Labor Zionism vs Revisionism - After independence, the Labor Zionist movement became,
for many years, the leading political force in Israel. Mapai (Miflegeth Poalei Eretz Yisrael the party of the workers of the land of Israel) party led by David Ben-Gurion and his
successors held power continuously until 1977. The Zionist movement had split when
Jabotinsky led the revisionists out of the Zionist organization in the 1930s. The Zionist
executive was led by Labor Zionism under David Ben-Gurion. Revisionists and Labor Zionists
had separate underground armies. Revisionists and Labor Zionists cooperated against British
after World War II. However, the "Sezon" in 1944-45, the massacre perpetrated at Deir
Yassin by the Revisionists in April 1948, and the subsequent sinking of the "Altalena" Irgun
arms ship by the Israeli government, as well as numerous smaller incidents, helped to
deepen the split between mainstream Labor Zionism and Revisionist Zionism. Begin, the
leader of the Revisionist Zionists, was distrusted by Ben-Gurion and viewed a dangerous
extremist. It was not until the Six day war in 1967 that revisionists were allowed to
participate in a government coalition.
Zionism After the Establishment of the State of Israel
The Zionist organization has continued to function after the establishment of the Jewish
state. It has helped to bring millions of new immigrants to Israel; it encourages the teaching
of Hebrew and Jewish culture abroad; it lobbies for Israel with the US and other
governments, and rallies support to Israel in times of crisis. However, in Israel, "Zionism"
became somewhat of a pejorative, associated with government propaganda, superpatriotism and regimentation. Zionism, and the Israeli self-image, has reinvented itself many
times and will need to continue to reinvent itself to adapt to changing realities.
Israel was a surprise success story that confounded anti-Zionists and skeptics. Defying the
experts, Israel beat its enemies handily in the War of Independence, absorbed huge
numbers of immigrants in the first years of its existence and created a viable economy.
Detractors pointed out that Israel was accumulating a huge national debt. They insisted that
the new nation of Jews from all over the world would disintegrate because of differences
between Ashkenazic Jews, and Sephardic Jews or because Arabs would outnumber Jews, or
Israel would be conquered by Arab nationalists. In fact, in every period of Israel's existence
detractors and experts "proved" that Israel could not exist another ten years, or another
twenty years. The dogs barked, but the caravan moved on. The differences between
Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, so important in the first years of the state, diminished with
time. Lacking natural resources, Israel invented an economy driven by technological
excellence and scientific research. This required a revision of the agricultural and settlement
Zionism of the earlier pioneers and a reorientation of societal values that is not yet complete.
Beloved institutions such as the kibbutz, central to the early years of Zionism, were modified
or fell by the way-side if they failed to adapt.
The most important change brought about by Zionism was psychological rather than
material. It is very difficult for people living today to imagine the self-image of Jews or the
image of Jews in the eyes of others, before the existence of the Jewish state. Not all the
change has been positive. Anti-Semites who pictured Jews as cowards now picture Jews as
evil technological super-soldiers. Where once Jews idealized intellectualism and compromise,
over-zealous enthusiasts now imagine that force can solve all problems. However, the
cowering ghetto Jew, once a universally recognized icon, is now just a bad memory of
European culture. Zionism did not banish anti-Semitism yet, as early Zionists supposed it
would, but Zionism and the establishment of Israel changed the rules of the game.
Zionism and Modern Israel
Despite the initial successes of Israel in overcoming its enemies in the War of Independence,
absorbing and integrating over a million refugees, and the military victory of the Sinai
Campaign, Diaspora Jews in the affluent West remained largely indifferent to Zionism. If
they thought of Israel at all, it was as a charitable cause, a place where unfortunate
refugees might be settled. The Jews of Soviet Russia were unable to leave or to voice their
support for Israel. Substantial numbers of Jews who had survived the Holocaust did arrive
from Romania, Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. However the bulk of the new
immigrants to Israel in the first two decades of statehood were Jews who were forcibly
expelled from Arab countries or those who chose to leave Arab states.
The fortunes of Zionism and of Israel rose and fell with Israel's material success. Until the
mid-1960s, owing to this steady stream of immigrants and to investment and construction,
the Israeli economy enjoyed a steady expansion. A slow down in immigration, economic
downturn and political disaffection within the ruling Labor party brought on a movement of
great pessimism.
In the background, the Arab states had been repeatedly vowing to defeat Israel since the
Arab Summit of 1964. Palestinian terrorist groups were established by the Arab countries
with the aim of destroying Israel. Egyptian President Nasser and his Syrian rival embarked
on a dangerous rhetorical contest, each trying to demonstrate that they were the leaders in
the effort to destroy Israel. This was encouraged by the USSR, which hoped to gain by
maintaining a constant confrontation and using the issue of Israel to push the United States
out of the Middle East.
In its pessimistic national mood, Israel seemed hardly ready to deal with a military and
diplomatic crisis of any kind. in 1966, emigration exceeded immigration. A famous cartoon
showed a sign at Lod airport, "The last one to leave should please remember to shut off the
electricity."
Zionism after the Six Day War

The Arab political machinations escalated into a crisis in 1967. Increasingly violent border
incidents related to the Israel water carrier plan led to Syrian complaints, fed by deliberately
false Soviet information, that Israel was massing troops in preparation for an invasion.
President Nasser of Egypt, goaded for his inaction, closed the straits of Tiran to Israeli ships,
dismissed the UN Emergency Force that had been put in place in 1956 and moved about six
divisions of the Egyptian army into the Sinai desert. After a long waiting period, Israel
launched a lightning attack on Egypt on June 5, 1967, beginning the Six day war, Dealing
with each enemy in turn, Israel first conquered the Sinai desert from Egypt, then turned to
the West Bank and wrapped up the war with Jordan, and then proceeded to capture the
Golan heights from Syria.
The dramatic victory changed the image of Israel and of Zionism among Israeli Jews, Jews
in the Diaspora, friends and allies. Most Diaspora Jews came to look upon Israel as a
source of pride and an asset. The United States, had more or less ignored Israel or treated it
as a "poor relative" or "unviable client state," as one US diplomat expressed it. US foreign
aid and military sales to Israel had been minimal. The Israeli air force was French, because
the US refused to sell Israel aircraft. Israeli armor consisted mostly of third hand remodeled
Sherman tanks and tiny French AMX anti-tank vehicles. Though the US had supplied Israel
with some Patton tanks, these were being refitted at the time of the war. Requests for
temporary replacements were refused. Prior to the war, the US reneged on promises to
reopen the straits of Tiran closed by Gamal Nasser, owing to the unpopularity of the
Vietnam war and pressure by oil lobbies. However, the US understood that it could now
regain a foothold in the Middle East only by trading land won in the war for influence with
Arab countries. It also understood that Israel was an independent military power that had
won the war primarily with French military equipment. This was an uncomfortable state of
affairs. For the Arabs, the war was a humiliating defeat. It destroyed the Pan-Arab
nationalist dreams of Gamal Nasser.
A wave of euphoria and a false sense of invincibility engulfed Israel following the Six day
war. The unification of Jerusalem and the conquest of ancient Samaria and Judea (known as
the West Bank after the name given it by the Jordanians after World War II) with their
Jewish holy places inspired a wave of messianic Zionism. Religious Zionism, which had been
a relatively mild and dovish movement, veered to the right and took upon itself the
"mission" of settling the newly conquered territories.
Zionism after the Yom Kippur War
The sense of invincibility was shattered by the Yom Kippur War. Though Israel recovered
from the surprise attack and objectively had dealt the Arab countries another defeat, the
Arabs had proven that Israel was vulnerable after all. Zionism and the Israeli image had to
reinvent themselves again. The Labor Zionist movement, that had founded the state,
eventually found itself in a minority, replaced in large part by more militant religious Zionists
and the Likud party, which inherited the mantle of revisionism, carried on by Menachem
Begin after the death of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. This change both reflected a change in the
evolving self-image of Israel and the Zionist movement, and it catalyzed a further change.
Initially, the changeover from a state that had been ruled by one party for thirty years was
beneficial for democracy in the state and for the Zionist movement. However, the Likud
itself soon developed all the negative symptoms of an incumbent party that has held power
too long, and Israeli society moved away from pioneering values toward materialism. The
Likud actively promoted settlement of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza. For
many people in Israel and abroad, "Zionism" came to imply support for the settlement of
Jews in these territories, and assumed a very negative connotation for those who oppose
the occupation.
Post-Zionism
Beginning in the 1980s, some Israeli historians and sociologists began to question facts
about the official history of Israel and Zionism, as well as the Zionist ideology. They
reasoned that Zionism had accomplished its purpose in creating the Jewish state, and that
now it was time to move on. They posited that Israel and the Zionists had a large share of
the blame for the animosity between Jews and Arabs, and had in fact, ignored the existence
of the Arabs in Palestine and then dispossessed the Palestinians by force. This reasoning
was supported by new histories, that talked frankly about less savory aspects of Israeli
history that had been previously ignored. The new historians made a case that at least part
of Zionism had always envisioned expulsion or transfer of the Arabs, and described
massacres and expulsions which took place in 1948, often claiming that these were part of a
deliberate policy. The historians claimed that these new facts were revealed by declassified
archives. Actually, the main facts supposedly "revealed" by the new historians were known
to all Israelis who wanted to know them, though perhaps not in detail, and not presented in
the particular way that new historians presented them, and not written up in English. These
ideas, called by some "Post Zionism," do not form a coherent ideology and their
practitioners do not generally see themselves as members of a movement or followers of a
distinct philosophy. Some "post-Zionists" like Ilan Pappe are avowedly anti-Zionist, while
others, like Benny Morris, use the same facts to arrive at very different conclusions that
might support a militant Zionist ideology. Post-Zionism attained a wide popularity for a while,
fueled by resentment against the occupation. In an Israeli cultural atmosphere where
"Zionism" ("tsiyonut") was ridiculed as hypocritical political hot air, "post-Zionist" and antiZionist views and those who preached them enjoyed an easy tolerance. Post-Zionism fell
into eclipse after peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israel failed, and violence
flared in September of 2000. The flag of "post-Zionism" was raised aloft by anti-Zionists,
and revived and extended the different anti-Zionist currents discussed below.
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism has been inspired by several sources. The mainsprings of anti-Zionism were
independent of the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine. The first was opposition of orthodox
and reform and assimilationist Jews to Zionism. The second was anti-Semitism. A third
source was the insistence of communists that the coming of world communist would do
away with the nation state and nationalism. Palestinian and Arab propagandists were quick
to take advantage of all three of these potential sources of opposition to the Jewish state. In
particular, they make public efforts to mobilize the support of "progressive" (anti-Zionist)
Jews and of ultra-orthodox anti-Zionists. The conflicting opinions of these tiny minorities are
used to "prove" that Zionism is not a legitimate movement and does not represent the
Jewish people.
Under cover of combating the "occupation," anti-Zionists began to wage a militant campaign
of delegitimization, boycotts and divestment, aimed at proving that Israel is an illegitimate
state and Zionism is an illegitimate ideology. This campaign was apparently orchestrated by
pro-Palestinian groups and timed to coincide with the outbreak of the Intifadeh in 2000.
The existence of Israel, which many had thought to be secure after the Six day war was
now understood to be threatened once again. This time the threat is through a propaganda
war. Some reactions included "circling the wagons." Right wing Zionist extremists conducted
an extremely defensive campaign that tried to equate any opposition to any Israeli policy as
"anti-Semitism." Bona-fire anti-Semites capitalized on this to cloak anti-Semitic propaganda
and ideology as "justified criticism of Israel." A more sophisticated approach is evolving, that
attempts to separate legitimate criticism of Israel and internal debate from anti-Zionism and
anti-Semitism.
Jewish Anti-Zionism
Zionism was popular among Jewish people as a movement they might support with money
or at political meetings. However, few, especially in Western countries, thought of coming to
Palestine or Israel until the latter decades of the twentieth century, except when in danger
of persecution. Palestine was too far, economically backward and dangerous to draw many
immigrants. Nonetheless, non-Zionist groups like Alliance Israelite Universelle and many
others helped Zionist efforts in Palestine and joined the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Almost every national movement is of necessary also a social revolutionary movement.
Zionism had much more of the characteristics of a social revolutionary movement than other
national movements.
In the Diaspora, the Jewish communities had adopted a social life and organization that was
suited to their anomalous social situation. A cohesive part of the community that remained
orthodox was united under the rule of various rabbis. Other Jews, depending on their
countries, tried to free themselves from the physical or social ghetto and assimilate. Rabbis
and rich Jews controlled the social and charitable institutions and often represented "the
Jews" as a group to the government. Zionism introduced new priorities and social values,
and necessarily challenged the establish social order, though this was not necessarily
understood by the early Zionists like Herzl, who tried to work through rich Jews and "great
men." The Western European delegates to the first Zionist congress were largely looking for
a solution for their "unfortunate brethren" in the East. They were willing to accept Uganda
or Cyprus as an alternative to Palestine because they were not going there. Surprisingly, to
Herzl, the Russian Jews who were the intended recipients of this "benefit" rejected it, and
insisted that only the land of Israel could be the destination of Zionists. It is quite alright to
contemplate Uganda as a Jewish national home after all, if you don't intend to live there
yourself. The effect of the urgent situation of Russian and Eastern European Jews was to
overturn the established social order. The Western European Jews who saw themselves as
the "advanced" and natural leaders favored by fortune, were pushed aside by the more
dynamic and committed socialist Zionists of Russia. For that reason, Zionism represented an
additional threat to the established Jewish social order.
Several organized Jewish groups were actively anti-Zionist . Jews who sought to assimilate
in their own countries claimed that they were loyal citizens of a different faith, sometimes
styling themselves "of the Mosaic persuasion." They felt that the Zionist movement and the
concept of a "Jewish People" would raise questions about their own loyalty, and they
resented the fact that Zionists often spoke as though they represented all Jews. This
movement was particularly prevalent in Germany, where Jews were staunch supporters of
German nationalism. At one point, the reform Jewish movement went so far as to
systematically remove all references to the Holy Land and Jerusalem from their liturgy. A
large segment of ultraorthodox Jews were displeased by the secular ideas that dominated
Zionism, and insisted that the rebuilding of Israel must await the coming of the messiah. In
Europe, the agitation of assimilationist and ultraorthodox Jews helped to actively block
Zionist rescue efforts in the 1930s, when it began to be apparent that Nazism would soon
make Europe very dangerous for Jews.
Most religious Jews and the reform movement, initially anti-Zionist, reconciled themselves
with the Jewish state, after the Holocaust seemed to bear out the basic thesis that Jews
required a homeland of their own and would not necessarily be safe even in the best
circumstances, and after the creation of Israel proved that Zionist aspirations could become
a reality. Nonetheless, anti-Zionist ideologies and their representatives persist among
religious groups such as the ultraorthodox Neturei Karta and leftist writers such as Noam
Chomsky. In recent years they have leveraged on the issues raised by the occupation to try
to legitimize their ideas as "criticism of Israel." Jewish anti-Zionists include figures like Rabbi
David Weiss and others who support Holocaust Denial and other anti-Semitic claims.
Communist Anti-Zionism
Communists, including Jewish communists and the Jewish Bund were and are opposed to
Zionism because Marxism posited the disappearance of the Jews as a historic anomaly, once
international atheistic communism triumphed over nationalist particularism, and religion, the
opium of the people, died out. In the USSR, as part of his "nationalities" policy, which
assimilated or murdered numerous national groups, Stalin tried to handle the Jewish
problem by creating an autonomous Jewish republic in the wastelands of Birobidjan. This
project was never supported very seriously and was later abandoned. Though the USSR
supported the creation of the state of Israel, Stalin was opposed to Zionism inside Russia
and the USSR suppressed Zionist activities and at times persecuted Jews as well as Zionists.
"Zionism is Racism"
This ideological opposition to Zionism later dovetailed with the anti-Israel cold-war politics of
the Soviet Union and the Arab antagonism to Israel, as well as with anti-Semitism.
Retrospectively, communist ideologues pegged Zionism as a racist and colonialist ideology
bent on exploiting and dispossessing the native inhabitants of Palestine, and creating an
apartheid colonialist fascist Jewish state. Zionist theorists assumed that the Jews are socially
inferior and "abnormal" because they did not have a national home. The "abnormal"
Diaspora character of Jews would be corrected when the people returned to their own land,
realized their right to self-determination and renewed their nation existence. Zionists believe
that the Jewish right to the land is based on ancient historical links, not racial superiority.
Some Zionists see the Arabs as usurpers, just as the Arabs see the Zionists as usurpers.
Anti-Zionists saw matters differently, and branded Zionism as "racism." The ideological basis
for this was perhaps provided by Jean Paul Sartre's 1960 essay, "Racism and Colonialism as
Praxis and Process," in his "Critique of Dialectical Reason." Analyzing French colonialism in
Algeria, Sartre argued that racism grew out of the need of colonialists to rationalize
exploitation of natives by French "capitalists." This explanation of racism became popular,
regardless of the fact that racism existed since the days of ancient Greece and Rome, and
even though it could not explain anti-Semitism and other racist ideologies. When the
Palestinian movements adopted the "national liberation movement" ideology of the Algerian
FLN, it was natural that these same ideas would be transferred to Israel and Zionism.
However, the original Marxist rationale is largely forgotten by many and different
explanations are offered by various anti-Zionists to justify the slogan, "Zionism is Racism."
This slogan has prospered, whatever its merits as an explanation of social and historical
reality.
In 1975, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, a pro-Soviet and pro-Arab majority in the UN
passed General Assembly Resolution 3397, branding Zionism as racism. The resolution was
repealed in 1991, but similar sentiments were repeated at a conference of non-government

organizations in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
It is undeniable that early Zionist leaders used the language and rhetoric of colonialism and
established organizations with names like "The Jewish Colonial Trust." In part, this reflects
the influence of the 19th century European cultural milieu, when colonialism was a perfectly
acceptable concept. In part, it reflects efforts of Zionist leaders to sell leaders of the great
powers on the idea of supporting a Jewish colonization scheme that would support German
or British or French interests in the Middle East. The Socialist-Zionist movement certainly did
not see themselves as colonialists and were opposed to colonialism and imperialism, nor did
the USSR originally oppose Zionism on the basis that it is a colonialist movement.
Apartheid Israel
The slogan "Apartheid Israel," named after the South African practice of racial segregation,
was coined by anti-Zionists as a means of discrediting Zionism and the depriving the Jewish
people of the right of self determination. The implication is that the "politically correct"
democratic "peace" solution is to do away with Israel as a Jewish homeland. This slogan,
once the emblem of extremists and bigots, was rendered respectable when Jimmy Carter
used in the title of his book about the Israeli Palestinian peace process. The essential logic
behind the phrase is flawed. Israeli Jews and Palestinian people, unlike South Africans, are
not a single nationality that was separated by race laws. Palestinian Arabs do not want to
become integrated into Israeli society, but rather to erect their own state or to destroy
Israel. The facts behind the assertions are also wrong. See Israel is a democracy in which
Arabs vote - Not an apartheid State.
Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism
The equation of anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism is controversial. Anti-Zionism that is based
on the proposition that Jews do not have a right to self-determination, whereas Palestinians
and other peoples do have such a right is discriminatory. It is difficult to see how this idea
could not be considered racist and hence anti-Semitic. The pro-Palestinian academic, John L.
Strawson, has written:
These arguments all lead to an uncomfortable position that whereas all other self-declared
nationalisms have validity, the Jews have no such claims... While there are honorable AntiZionist positions they are few. On the whole Anti-Zionism is close to, or a mask for, AntiSemitism.
"Anti-Zionist" writings are redolent of the language of anti-Semitism, and the arguments,
with a few changes in wording, can often be easily shown to be a mask for anti-Semitic
sentiments. These have become "politically incorrect," but hide themselves easily behind a
facade of anti-Zionist terminology. "The Jews have too much power" becomes "The Zionists
have too much power" or "the Israel lobby has too much power." The "Internationalen
finanzjudentum" (international finance Jewry) of Adolf Hitler is recognizable in the phrase
"International Zionism," Conspiracy theories formerly based around the Jews or the
mythical "Elders of Zion: are now transferred to "Zionists." The doctrines of "progressive"
anti-Zionism are so indistinguishable from racism that a UK "Boycott Israel" activist saw no
problem in recommending an article that supposedly explains the truth about Israel, even
though the article was posted at the website of racist David Duke.
These phrases are taken from different Web sites:

Jewish Persecution - A Primary Tool Of International
Zionism (Rense)
What Zionism is -- and its pernicious influence upon
the USA (Serendipity)
Jew Watch - Jewish World Conspiracies - zionism
(JewWatch)
They are certainly anti-Semitic, and there are hundreds more scattered throughout "antiZionist" rhetoric.
The imagery of anti-Zionist cartoons and graphics in the Arab world and even in European
countries like Great Britain is indistinguishable from Nazi stereotypes used in anti-Semitic
cartoons and propaganda themes.
That is not to say, of course, that all criticism of Israeli policies or of the Zionist movement is
in itself anti-Semitic. One may be opposed to the occupation, or to a particular injustice in
Israel or in any other country, without being a bigot.
Revival of Zionism
The failure of the peace process and Palestinian initiated violence in September of 2000
entrained a world wide anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic revival. Supposedly respectable British
journals featured covers that portrayed the Jews taking over Europe, and caricatures of
baby-devouring Jews. The libels directed at Jews by anti-Semites were transformed and
thinly veiled as "anti-Zionist" accusations: The "Zionists" or "Israel Lobby," rather than the
Jews, were alleged to control the government and the media. This in turn caused many
Jews and others to rally to the cause of Israel and Zionism, and to re-examine some of the
beliefs that underlay the post-Zionist reaction. The so-called al-Aqsa Intifadah was
accompanied by violence, suicide bombings, beheading of Jews and calls to "Kill them
wherever you find them." The existence and indestructibility of Israel, formerly taken for
granted, were again understood to be directly threatened. A new generation came to
understand that anti-Semitism is a reality, and that violent, racist Arab and Muslim
opposition to the existence of the Jewish state and even to the existence of the Jewish
people was not a Zionist myth. A new generation of Israeli historians, including Yoav Gelber
and Anita Shapira, attempted to achieve some balance between the heroic exaggerations
and myths of early Israeli Zionist histories and the latter demonification and distortion of
Zionist and Israeli history by new historians. In this period, the "new historian" Benny Morris
"explained" that his earlier exposition of supposed Zionist evil-doing was misunderstood by
the public, and that Zionist actions in settling the land and during the Israel war of
Independence were, in his view, justified.
Conclusion
The Future: Challenges to Zionism; Political, organized Zionism is scarcely more than a
hundred years old. However, the work of Zionism, to oversee the collective well-being of the
Jewish people as a nation, began, in a sense, over 3,000 years ago. It can never be done.
As long as there is a Jewish people, there can never be a "post-Zionist" period. Some of the
challenges and tasks facing Zionism:
To establish the undisputed legitimacy of Israel - Zionism must answer the challenge of antiZionism, whether it is motivated by anti-Semitism or other ideological or political factors.
The existence of Israel must come to be truly taken for granted, in the same way as the
existence of German, France, the United States or Egypt.
To achieve peace with Israel's Arab neighbors - The Arab-Israeli conflict has warped the
development of the Jewish national movement and is a constant threat to Zionist
achievements in Israel. Israelis are always conscious, and Zionists living abroad must never
forget, that the threat of extinction hangs over Israel as long as the enmity of surrounding
Arab states is maintained. As well as being a moral imperative, peace is a practical
imperative. Given that Arab and Muslim states are far larger and more numerous than
Israel can ever be, it is obvious that Israel must make peace in order to survive.
To see to the physical defense and survival of the state of Israel - As long as there is no
peace, military preparedness is a regrettable and burdensome necessity.
To complete the ingathering of the exiles - Zionism set out to bring the Jewish people to
Israel. While the Jewish Diaspora will no doubt continue to exist, there are still, among the
numerous Jewish population scattered throughout the world, a large number of people who
would live in Israel if they could, but who are prevented from doing so for economic or
cultural reasons or family ties unrelated to Zionist ideology. The Zionist movement must
strive to remove the accidental impediments that prevent people from living in Israel.
To constantly improve Israeli society - No society is perfect; that certainly includes Israel.
Zionism must strive to improve and perfect Israeli society. A healthy democracy and a
strong society are also the best guarantees for Israeli survival.
To reunite and revitalize the Jewish people - Zionism must attempt to heal the numerous
divisions among the Jewish people by providing a broad framework for Jewish cultural and
national identity, and by providing cultural leadership for the Jewish community abroad.
References
Hertzberg, Arthur. 1959. The Zionist Idea, A conceptual Analysis and Reader. NYC,
Atheneum. This classic book of readings is essential for understanding Zionism.
Laqueur, Walter. 1997. A History of Zionism, Fine Communications. This authoritative and
readable history explains the beginnings of Zionism, from the French Revolution to the
creation of Israel. Unlike Sachar's even larger book, it does not go into details of modern
Israeli history.
Proto-Zionism and the "First Aliya". Retrieved May 26, 2014 from http://www.zionismisrael.com/zionism_history.htm
Sachar, Howard M. 1998. A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time. Alfred A.
Knopf,. A comprehensive overview of the subject, told from the Zionist point of view. A good
reference, but too detailed and compendious for casual reading by most.
Zionism and Israel Biographies Theodor Herzl. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_herzl.htm
Chapter 4
Zionism Is Seen As A Racist Ideology Like All Nationalism
Introduction
The Jewish State - 1896
Theodor Herzl's Program for Zionism
Theodore Herzl's pamphlet Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, was published in 1896. It
heralded the coming of age of Zionism. Several articles and books advocating the Zionist
idea had appeared beginning in the 1840s, and small Zionist groups such as Hovevei Tzion
(Lovers of Zion) had begun recruiting immigrants to Palestine, but no group had a coherent
plan or modern ideology. Herzl's plan for creating a Jewish State, arrived at after
contemplating other solutions as well, provided the practical program of Zionism, and led to
the first Zionist congress in Basle, Switzerland, in August, 1897.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, on May 2, 1860, Herzl was educated in the spirit of the GermanJewish "Enlightenment." His family moved to Vienna in 1878 after the death of his sister. He
became a doctor of law in 1884 and worked for a short while in courts in Vienna and
Salzburg. However, he soon left law and devoted himself to writing.
In 1891 Herzl became Paris correspondent for the liberal Vienna newspaper New Free Press.
Herzl was in Paris when a wave of anti-Semitism broke out over the court martial of Alfred
Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer. Dreyfus, falsely accused of espionage and banished to an
island prison, was divested of his rank in a humiliating public ceremony in January 1895, as
a mob shouted "Death to the Jews.
The Dreyfus case motivated Herzl to devote thought and effort to the Jewish problem. He
contacted Baron Hirsch for the first time with his ideas in the spring of 1895, but Hirsch and
others turned him down. Herzl began to keep a diary, in which his father made the entries
for some reason. The diary, as it progressed, shows the evolution of his ideas and political
understanding.
Herzl formalized the concept of emergence from the Diaspora (the dispersion of the Jews)
and return to Zion in The Jewish State. In The Jewish State, he proposed, for the first time,
a program for immediate political action. From the preface he wrote for the Jewish State, it
appears that he was inspired in part by a socialist Utopia written by Theodor Hertzka,
another Vienna visionary. Though Herzl claimed Hertzka's scheme was utopian, Hertzka did
try to carry it out in Africa.
Remarkably, Herzl had not read any early Zionist writings when he conceived of his idea for
a Jewish State. He heard about Leon Pinsker's Auto-Emancipation , about Elliots' Daniel
Deronda and Moses Hess's Rome and Jerusalem< only after he began traveling about and
consulting with others about his ideas.. He did not even hear of the Hovevei Tziyon before
embarking on his Zionist project.
The title "Der Judenstaat" was probably meant as an ironic play on words, since it literally
means "The Jews'-State," a derogatory construction like the "Judenstrasse" (Jews' Street) of
the medieval ghetto. In The Jewish State, Herzl proposed a modern solution to the Jewish
question. He believed that attempts at assimilation of Jews into European society were in
vain, as the majority in each country decided who was a native and who an alien. The
persistence of anti-Semitism determined that the Jew would always be an outsider and only
the creation of a Jewish state, a matter of interest to both Jews and non-Jews, would put an
end to the Jewish problem.
The Jewish State proposed that diplomacy would be the primary way of attaining the Jewish
State. Herzl called for the organized transfer of Jewish communities to the new state. Of the
location of the state, Herzl said, "We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by
public opinion."
Herzl's The Jewish State included social innovations such as the seven-hour working day. He
was interested in an economy where free enterprise and state involvement went hand-inhand. It was to be a modern, sophisticated and technologically advanced and Europeanized
society.
The Jewish State established Herzl as the leader of Zionism, and the "father of the Zionist
Idea." Zionism also provoked considerable opposition, in particular from the assimilationist
Jews of Central and Western Europe. The book became required reading for all Zionists and
was taken as the basic platform of political Zionism.
In the Jewish State, Herzl anticipated some of the antagonism that the Zionist idea would
provoke, especially among those who believed in the abolition of nationalism:
" To the first class of objections belongs the remark that the Jews are not the only people in
the world who are in a condition of distress. Here I would reply that we may as well begin
by removing a little of this misery, even if it should at first be no more than our own.
It might further be said that we ought not to create new distinctions between people; we
ought not to raise fresh barriers, we should rather make the old disappear. But men who
think in this way are amiable visionaries; and the idea of a native land will still flourish when
the dust of their bones will have vanished tracelessly in the winds. Universal brotherhood is
not even a beautiful dream."
Quite accurately, Herzl foresaw the sort of objections that some in the Jewish community
would raise to the idea of Zionism:
It might more reasonably be objected that I am giving a handle to anti-Semitism when I say
we are a people--one people; that I am hindering the assimilation of Jews where it is about
to be consummated, and endangering it where it is an accomplished fact, insofar as it is
possible for a solitary writer to hinder, or endanger anything. This objection will be
especially brought forward in France. It will probably also be made in other countries, but I
shall answer only the French Jews beforehand, because these afford the most striking
example of my point.
Precisely these objections were raised to the Balfour declaration in Britain, by some British
Jews. Along with objections to nationalism, they echo in the arguments of Jewish antiZionists today.
If however, Herzl foresaw the tremendous antagonism of ultra-orthodox rabbis to the
"heretical" doctrine of Zionism, which would supplant religious governance of the Jews by a
political and ideological framework, he was careful not to mention this issue, perhaps
because he understood the need to cultivate the allegiance of the rabbis and the religious
camp.
Without apparently having read modern Zionist writings, Herzl nonetheless understood the
paradoxical basis of modern anti-Semitism:
Modern anti-Semitism is not to be confused with the religious persecution of the Jews of
former times. It does occasionally take a religious bias in some countries, but the main
current of the aggressive movement has now changed. In the principal countries where antiSemitism prevails, it does so as a result of the emancipation of the Jews
In conclusion, Herzl wrote:
" And what glory awaits those who fight unselfishly for the cause!
Therefore I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The
Maccabeans will rise again.
Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We
shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes.
The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness.
And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and
beneficially for the good of humanity. "
(The Jewish State, Chapter 6).
In the Jewish State, at least, Herzl largely ignored the presence of Arabs or other minorities
in the prospective Jewish State. The book was not necessarily about colonization of any
particular country. Though he mentions Argentina or Palestine as choices, he generally
refers to the location of the state as "over there." By 1902 Herzl, who had visited Jerusalem
by then, had a different perspective and included Arab citizens in his vision of the Jewish
State which was now more firmly anchored around the ancient Jewish land.
Herzl was not a racist, and did not base his conception of the Jewish people on racist ideas
of nationalism current at the time, but rather on cultural and historical development. He
described himself as a "Spinozist" - a follower of Baruch de Espinoza, the Portuguese Jew
who rejected literal interpretations of the Bible and formal religion. Spinoza, who had been
excommunicated by the Jewish community, inspired many 19th century Jewish and nonJewish thinkers, including Zionists, from Heine and Marx and Hegel to Hess and Herzl.
Nonetheless, Herzl had a great respect for the formal manifestations of religion, perhaps in
part because he understood that he could only mobilize support for Zionism through the
rabbis, who were the leaders of Jewish society, especially in Eastern Europe. He wrote:
... We shall first of all ask for the cooperation of our Rabbis.
OUR RABBIS
...Our rabbis, on whom we especially call, will devote their energies to the service of our
idea, and will inspire their congregations by preaching it from the pulpit. They will not need
to address special meetings for the purpose; an appeal such as this may be uttered in the
synagogue. Thus it must be done. For we feel our historic affinity only through the faith of
our fathers as we have long ago absorbed the languages of different nations to an
ineradicable degree.
Herzl completely rejected the race theories of Israel Zangwill. He became increasingly aware
of the existence of Sephardic Jewry, but he envisioned the Jewish State as a state of
Europeans, who might speak German. In his diaries he wrote:
"I believe German will be our principal language...I draw this conclusion from our most
widespread jargon, 'Judeo-German.' But over there we shall wean ourselves from this ghetto
language, too, which used to be the stealthy tongue of prisoners. Our teachers will see to
that." (June 15, 1895, Diaries, 1: 171)
In The Jewish State, Herzl envisioned the government of the new state to be an "Aristocratic
Republic," apparently modeled on contemporary Austria or Germany. In 1902, Herzl
published a utopian novel about the Jewish state, Altneuland (old-new land) a vision
complete with monorails and modern industry. Altneuland envisioned a multipluralistic
democracy in which Arabs and Jews had equal rights. The novel concludes, "If you will, it is
no legend."
Der Judenstaat and Altneuland were visions of a Jewish state to be populated by European
Jewry, who in 1900 were far more numerous than the tiny remnant of oriental and
Sephardic Jews in Muslim lands and the Balkans. Herzl himself was no doubt aware of
Zionist yearnings among Sephardic Jews. His grandfather was a friend of Rabbi Yehudah
Alkalai, a Zionist precursor. But Herzl addressed his vision to the Jews of Europe.
The Jewish State would not have been important if Herzl had not taken active steps to
implement its program. Because of his contacts and organizational genius, Herzl was able to
organize the first Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, which was probably the key event
in the coming of age of the Zionist movement. Herzl did not invent either practical or
'political' Zionism. > Practical Zionism , the settling of the land for purposes of rebuilding a
Jewish community in Palestine, had been practiced by the BILU and other groups before
Herzl. Political Zionism, the attempt to secure a "charter" for a Jewish state from Turkey,
Egypt or another country, had been around for hundreds of years. It was the program of the
false Messiah Shabetai Tzvi in the seventeenth century. In 1839, Sir Moses Montefiore had
petitioned the Khedive of Egypt for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Herzl's contribution was
to establish a unified Zionist movement that made a public statement of its political
ambitions and settlement program.
The Jewish State of Israel was only established after the Holocaust had resulted in the
murder of about 40% of European Jewry, For most of the first fifty years of its existence,
Israel had an oriental, Sephardic majority. Nonetheless, Herzl's vision dominated many
aspects of the Zionist program for better or worse. Like Herzl, Zionists ignored the presence
of Arabs in Palestine. Like Herzl, they became committed to the premise that Jews must
return to performing productive work, and like Herzl, they were committed to a democratic
society. As in Herzl's utopian vision, Israel evolved, through conscious effort, to an advanced
technological society. Herzl's vision of a secular, liberal democracy inspired the Israeli
Declaration of Independence.
Herzl appealed in vain to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild, to join
the national Zionist movement. He found allies however, in impoverished Eastern European
socialists and Zionists who had already formed Zionist groups. The result was the First
Zionist Congress in Basle, which established the World Zionist Organization and adopted the
program of attaining a Jewish State to be provided by "public law." Herzl convened six
Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1902. The Congresses created the instruments of
Zionist action for implementing the settlement plan, including The Jewish Colonial Trust, the
Jewish National Fund and the movement's newspaper Die Welt.
After the first Basle Congress, Herzl wrote in his diary, "Were I to sum up the Basle
Congress in a word- which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly- it would be this: 'At
Basle, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by
universal laughter. If not in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.'"
Herzl then negotiated with the British regarding the possibility of settling the Jews on the
island of Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, the El Arish region and Uganda. After the Kishinev
pogroms, Herzl visited Russia in July 1903. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Russian
government to help the Zionist Movement transfer Jews from Russia to Palestine. At the
Sixth Zionist Congress Herzl proposed settlement in Uganda, on offer from the British, as a
temporary "night refuge." The idea met with sharp opposition, especially from the same
Russian Jews that Herzl had thought to help. Though the Congress passed the plan as a
gesture of esteem for Herzl, it was not pursued seriously, and the initiative died after the
plan was withdrawn. Herzl met with the king of Italy, who was encouraging, and with the
Pope, who expressed opposition.
Herzl quarreled with the Zionist movement over the Uganda project, which had proposed
only as a "night refuge" and at one point he resigned from the chairmanship briefly.
However, he never thought of Uganda as a preferred solution. In September 1903, he wrote
in his diary of a visit to the Duke of Baden:
At one point the good old Duke seemed moved: when I told him that we would gladly
renounce the good land in East Africa for the poor land in Palestine. I would particularly
regard it as a vindication for us avaricious Jews, if we gave up a rich country for the sake of
a poor one.(Sept. 1, 1903, 4: 1549)
Frustrated by quarrels in the Zionist movement, Herzl wrote in his diary what may be a
fitting epitaph:
One day, when the Jewish state will be in existence, everything will appear petty and selfevident. Perhaps a fair-minded historian will find that it was something, after all, that an
impecunious Jewish journalist, in the midst of the deepest degradation of the Jewish people
and at a time of the most disgusting anti-Semitism, made a flag out of a rag and a people
out of a decadent rabble, and was able to rally this people around such a flag. (June 1, 1901,
Diaries, 3: 1151).
Herzl died in 1904 and was buried in Vienna. After the establishment of the State of Israel
his remains were reburied on Mt. Herzl, Jerusalem in the summer of 1949.65
65
The Jewish State Theodor Herzl's Program for Zionism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.zionism-israel.com/js/Jewish_State.html
Zionism = Racism
Zionism is a racist ideology, like all nationalisms. The specific racist
characteristics are summarised here: labelling them racist should be
uncontroversial in itself. However Israel and its supporters are allergic for the
label, and that hinders rational assessment of nationalist ideology.
Nationalism and racism

Nation states are components of a nationalist world order, and nationalism is the ideology or
movement that promotes that world order. The present world order is composed of
permanent states. With one exception, the Vatican, they are formed by trans-generational
communities - nations. Together these states hold all inhabitable territory, as contiguous
national territories: a planet of nations. All nationalists hold certain core beliefs about this
world order, about the nation itself and about the nation state. Some of these core beliefs
are clearly racist. Others - such as the belief that nation states should be transgenerational are not racist in themselves, but lead almost inevitably to racist policies by the states. All
modern nation states are founded on certain racist principles, which derive directly from
nationalist ideology. The multi-ethnic empires, the traditional target of European nationalist
resentment, did not always apply such principles.
The catechism of nationalism
The nations are collectively equivalent to humanity: they are its natural
units.
Each person inherently belongs to a specific nation, and no-one can
validly claim not to belong to any nation.
Nations are sacred: they have a status which no other group or
collectivity can have. Nations deserve supreme respect, beyond that for
other groups.
The nations have a monopoly of state formation. No entity which is not
a nation may acquire or hold territory, to form a state.
Nations have a great historical continuity and should be continued.
National cultures have intrinsic value, therefore nations must exist to
produce and preserve them.
Nations may not be abolished, singly or collectively. No process which
terminates the existence of any nation is legitimate. The world order of
nation states shall never be terminated. If a nation ceases to exist, by
decline or erosion, then its place in the world order shall be taken by a
successor nation.
from: Nation Planet
All nation states are founded on the nationalist belief that each nation has a specific claim to
a specific territory. Nationalists can and do recognise other nations claims to other
territories, but almost all make an exclusive claim to at least some territory. This claim is,
by definition, an expression of group superiority. The members of the nation, according the
nationalist movement in question, possess an inherently superior claim to the territory,
purely by membership of the group. They do not have to do anything for it. The claim
covers not only their claimed right to live there, but their claimed right to exclude others.
There is one exception to this pattern: the diaspora nationalism of the Roma. The Roma do
not know exactly where their ancestral homeland is located. Therefore, in sharp contrast to
other nationalist movements, Roma nationalism does not claim territory. And until they
know where it is, Roma nationalists can not attempt to expel the existing inhabitants of that
territory.
All existing nation states do make a claim of superior right to national territory. In all cases,
this claim is made on behalf of a single ethnic group, or a cluster of ethnic groups (titular
nation plus national minorities). That the groups are ethnic is the source of most of the
racism in ideology and policy. If states were exclusively founded on gender, their ideology
might be sexist, but not racist.
Conversely, all nation states claim that other groups do not possess that specific right to the
territory in question. Irish nationalists believe that the 'Irish people' have a superior right to
the island of Ireland, and that the Paraguayan people do not possess this right. They believe
that individual Irishmen and Irish women are the bearers of this collective right, and that
these individuals can not be denied the right to reside in Ireland. They they do not believe
this about randomly selected individual Paraguayans. Ireland has no indigenous ethnic
minorities so the definition of the nation is relatively simple. However these beliefs can be
held on behalf of more than one national group, but never on behalf of all nations of the
world - at least not in any existing nation state. The formal expression of these underlying
beliefs is the citizenship and immigration policy of the nation states. Note that nothing stops
Irish and Paraguayan nationalists from respecting each others claims, especially since they
have no common disputed territory. However, that does not make their claims any less
racist.
It is often said, that the nation states have widely differing conceptions of citizenship. In fact
they all operate in conformity with these two principles of superior claim, and legitimate
exclusion. All existing nation states share two other characteristics. No nation state has an
absolute open-border policy (totally free immigration), and all nation states allow the
acquisition of citizenship by descent.
These four characteristics allow Zionism to be considered racist - in the company of other
nationalisms, including the quasi-official ideologies of each nation state.
The superior claim to national territory is the attribution of a superior quality to members of
the national group. The denial of this claim to certain other ethnic groups is the attribution
of an inferior status to their members. The lack of an open-door immigration policy means,
that these claims are translated into real exclusion. Finally, the acquisition of citizenship by
descent is a purely biological mechanism: it is racist in the general sense, but it is also
closest to the biological ideologies first described by the term 'racism'.

French and German attitudes are said to represent the extremes of citizenship policy, but in
fact both states share a biological concept of citizenship. Both illustrate this core policy,
despite their differences in emphasis. Germany has a generally restrictive immigration
policy, which it relaxed in the 1960's and 1970's to allow labour migration for (West)
German industry. The children of the many Turkish immigrants grew up in Germany as
foreign citizens, with a Turkish passport and a German residence permit. Even the third
generation, often born in Germany of German-born parents, usually speaking only German,
were still Turkish citizens. If they committed a crime they were liable to be deported to
Turkey, even if they did not speak a word of Turkish and had never been there before. Only
in the last few years has naturalisation become almost automatic for the third generation. In
contrast, descendants of Germans who settled in eastern Europe, sometimes two or three
centuries ago, can arrive in Germany and claim full citizenship. It is not necessary that their
parents are German citizens, and they are not required to speak a word of German. The
German state will pay for their full integration in German society, because they are
considered part of the German 'Volk'.
French policies are based on different assumptions, about the effectiveness of French
society in transferring its own core values. Living in France for a long period, or growing up
in France, is considered to effectively assimilate the migrant or the child. (There is an
underlying belief in the self-evident superiority of French values). Naturalisation is therefore
easier, and in principle birth in France confers citizenship - but the parents must get there
first, for the child to be born there.
However in both cases a basic rule applies, which undermines the French pretensions to
have a 'non-racist' citizenship and nationality policy. The child born of citizens is a
citizen. All existing nation states apply this principle, usually without regard to place of
birth. The child born to a French-citizen mother and a French-citizen father, in Zambia, is a
French citizen. The child born to a German-citizen mother and a German-citizen father, in
Zambia, is a German citizen. No special procedure is required of either the parents or the
baby, and no supplementary qualifications.
The child of Zambian parents, who have no German or French ancestors and no connection
with Germany or France, can make no claim on the citizenship of these countries. Both
doors are equally closed. That essential inequality is by definition racist. As an adult, the
Zambian child can later try to enter either country, and acquire citizenship. That means
going through a special procedure, and meeting certain norms, for instance on educational
level. Ultimately, acquiring citizenship might be easier in France, but there is no guarantee
there either.
This is the reality of nation states: most people got their citizenship from their parents, and
they did nothing for it. They certainly did not have to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in a small
boat, and spend 10 years picking tomatoes or cleaning toilets - which is what a Zambian
might do to acquire legal residence in an EU country. In other words the average citizen,
certainly in the richer countries, is complicit in a grand racist scheme. They benefit greatly
from their privilege at birth, while others lose horribly. That is presumably why they don't
like to talk about the issue, but in terms of human suffering this is the worst aspect of the
inherent racism of the nation states. If adults in a western city were arrested, and
condemned on the basis of their ethnicity to the typical conditions of life in rural Africa, it
would be considered a crime against humanity.

Origins and definition of Zionism
The racist characteristics of nationalism can be found in the Zionist ideology and in the State
of Israel, a nation state. The word Zionism is used today for the foundational ideology of the
Israeli nation state - the claims by which it justifies its existence. However Zionism as a
nationalist movement is older than that state: past and present Zionism do not always
coincide.
Zionism is a diaspora nationalism of the Jewish people. In a diaspora nationalism, most
members of the national group are not resident on the claimed national territory, and the
nation state can only be achieved by 'return' migration. Zionism is an unusual nationalism: it
is largely the creation of a single individual, Theodor Herzl. He was the first to make a public
claim to a Jewish State, and promoted that idea in Europe. His work reflected the general
climate of nationalist revival movements in eastern Europe at the time, especially in the
Austro-Hungarian empire. It was almost inevitable, that a Jewish movement would identify
Jews as 'a people' when all around them Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,
Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and Hungarians were doing the same. The other historically
possible options - a purely religious revival movement, and an emancipation movement were side-tracked.
Zionism is also unusual because, in the early years, there was no clear idea of the national
homeland. There was a clear territorial concentration of Jews in Europe, in what is now
Poland, Belarus, the Ukraine and southern Russia. However, except for local concentrations,
they were in a minority even in this territory. The idea of a Jewish nation state in eastern
Europe was never influential in Zionism. Some of the early plans for Jewish resettlement
were not even formally nationalist: they made no claim to a state. Resettlement in a British
colony, such as Uganda, was for a time the most serious option. The negotiations came to
nothing - but the idea influenced British policy, when Palestine became a British mandate
territory, after the First World War.
By the time of the Balfour Declaration, Zionism was a standard nationalist movement.
Zionists claimed to speak on behalf of a people, the Jewish people. They claimed a nation
state for that people in Palestine, on the grounds that it was the historic homeland of the
Jewish people. The 'Jewish people' for almost all Zionists was (and is) an ethno-national
group - and not a religious community. A minority of religious Jews still opposes Zionism for
religious reasons.
Zionism in the State of Israel
When the State of Israel came into existence, it included a mainly Arab minority, now about
one million people. Historically Zionism has never recognised any 'national minority' within
the nation, the status of (for instance) the Frisians within the modern Dutch nation. For
Zionists, the Jewish people is the Jewish nation: Zionism is a mono-ethnic nationalism
comparable to Irish nationalism. The present State of Israel generally has the constitutional
structure of a secular nation state. It has conceded citizenship to the 'Israeli Arabs',
although many will identify themselves as 'Palestinians'. However there is no tradition in
Zionism which sees this group ('Arabs' or 'Palestinians') as a constituent minority of the
Jewish people. Although many Zionists claimed the territory where Yasir Arafat lived, no
Zionist ever saw him as a Jew.
There is also no nationalist movement to establish a bi-national state on the former
mandate territory of Palestine. Zionism is not such a movement, and the State of Israel does
not claim to be a bi-national state. In this respect, Zionism is comparable to Czech
nationalism or Slovak nationalism - not to Czechoslovak nationalism.. No Zionists call
themselves Palestino-Jews or Judaeo-Palestinians. The State is called Israel, not FilastinoIsrael or Israelo-Filastina
Within this framework, which includes contradictory ideas about Israeli citizenship, the four
racist characteristics can be identified.
Firstly, the Zionist movement historically made a claim to territory on behalf of 'the Jewish
people', an exclusive geopolitical claim. It claimed that individual Jews had a right to
residence in that territory, which did not apply to randomly selected non-Jews outside that
territory. None of the early Zionists advocated the ethnic cleansing, which in fact preceded
the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 - but none of them believed that non-Jews
had a right to the Jewish homeland either. Zionists attribute a superior quality to Jews,
namely the exclusive right to the Jewish national territory. The State of Israel, by
definition, claims Israeli territory for Israeli's. It attributes a superior quality to Israeli's,
although paradoxically that includes the Arab minority with Israeli citizenship. However, the
State of Israel is not 'Israelist' - in the sense of consistently presenting these claims for both
its Jewish and Arab citizens. In official pronouncements, such as its defensive speech to the
Durban anti-racism conference, Israel continues to claim state legitimacy as the national
homeland for the 'Jewish people'. It is therefore not correct to say, that in Israel Jewish
diaspora nationalism has been succeeded by Israeli nationalism. The legitimising ideology of
Israel is still largely Zionism, and not 'Israelism'.
Secondly, Zionism attributes an inferior status to members of non-Jewish ethno-national
groups: that they lack the absolute right to residence in the Jewish homeland, and to
citizenship of a Jewish nation state. The State of Israel confers no right of residence or
citizenship on persons born outside Israel, unless they have specific links to Israel, to the
Jewish people, or to Judaism. That excludes about 99% of the world population. The only
exception to the general pattern of nationalist exclusion is, that the State of Israel extends
citizenship to the historically resident Arab minority. However, some groups in Israel dispute
even their right to residence, and propose their expulsion as part of a 'peace settlement' together with the expulsion of Palestinians from all or part of the occupied territories.
According to a 2003 opinion poll in Israel (Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies), 31% now
support the expulsion of the Arab minority, and 46% support clearance of the territories.
The most obvious exclusion, which was not foreseen by the early Zionists, is the status of
the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Theodor Herzl never imagined that a Jewish state
would be an occupying power, and therefore the de facto government, for a large nonJewish population. In addition, about three million people belong to the clearly identifiable
'Palestinian-refugee' minorities, in other Arab countries, although most were born in their
present country of residence. The State of Israel clearly attributes an inferior status to this
population: namely that they do not possess the right to Israeli citizenship. This population
is generally equivalent to the 'Palestinian people' in the occupied territories, although it
includes small non-Jewish, non-Arab minorities. The members of this population, (primarily
Palestinian), can not vote, for instance, and if they did all vote in Israeli elections, it would
mean the end of the State of Israel. Again it is true that all nation states operate this
exclusion, and none of them extend citizenship to everyone, certainly not to hostile
populations. That does not make such policies any less racist, since the exclusions are by
definition on ethnic or national grounds.
That would not matter so much, if Israeli borders were open to all immigrants: but they are
not, and this is the third racist characteristic of Zionism. Israel has one of the highest
immigration rates in history, but immigration policy has always been restrictive. Although
Israel grants citizenship to the resident Arab minority, it does not permit Arab immigration,
even by former residents of its territory. Only those who stayed in their villages in 1948 got
Israeli citizenship: those who crossed the front line to the Arab side can not get back - not
as a citizen, and probably not as a visitor. Other Arabs, who have no connection with
Palestine, can not simply migrate to Israel, nor can most of the world's population. Israeli
immigration is essentially for Jews only, and this is the most obviously racist policy of
present Zionism. In this case, the State of Israel has a formal and explicit policy of Jewish
immigration, which is clearly Zionist. It is the logical consequence of the original Zionist
demand for a Jewish state formed by migration, meaning migration of Jews.
In one respect Israeli policy differs from most national immigration policies: citizenship can
be indirectly acquired on religious grounds. A person who converts to Judaism can be a Jew
in the sense of the Israeli Law of Return, if the conversion is accepted as valid by religious
authorities in Israel. The convert can then go to Israel (entry can not be legally refused),
and can claim Israeli nationality and citizenship. Sometimes this is quoted by Israel's
supporters, to show Israel is not racist. In theory, all the inhabitants of the Palestinian
territories can sincerely convert to Judaism tomorrow, and on acceptance of their conversion
move to Israel. - where they will all presumably live as good and prosperous Israeli citizens.
In practice this is absurdly unlikely. And the question is: why should they have to convert to
Judaism, when native-born atheist or Buddhist Israelis can still be part of the Jewish people?
This is the fourth racist characteristic, equally present in the state policies of Israel and
present Zionist belief. It was not very relevant for the early Zionists, who were too far from
a Jewish state to think about its future citizenship policy. Nevertheless, it was predictable
even at the time Herzl wrote, on the basis of the general characteristics of European nation
states (and of the Austro-Hungarian empire where he lived). The child of an Israeli citizen
mother and and Israeli citizen father is an Israeli citizen. (I am not sure if this applies to the
children of Israeli Arabs, born in the occupied territories). The child acquires this privilege
without effort: no application under the Law of Return, no conversion to Judaism, no other
qualification for citizenship. The child simply acquires the rights (and duties) of an Israeli
citizen through unconscious biological process. The child without this biological advantage
(birth, or parentage, or genetic material) does not automatically acquire citizenship. Life in
Israel is not always pleasant, and many western Jews hesitate to emigrate there, but within
the region an Israeli-born child has the advantage. The child born to Israeli settlers in
central Hebron will statistically live longer, be better educated, and have a higher standard
of living, then the Palestinian child born in an adjoining house. This advantage is part of the
general advantage of being born in a rich country, which about one-fifth of the world's
population share.
In citizenship and immigration issues, biology determines fate. Not inevitably, but
because nation states are structured that way. There is no inherent moral reason why states
should limit immigration, or residence, or citizenship, simply on grounds of birth. In fact, it is
hard to think of any moral justification for it. It is clearly racist in the general sense of the
word, and its derivation from the ideology of nationalism indicates the racist origins of that
ideology. The nationalism underlying the nation state Israel, which is accurately called
Zionism, is no different in this respect. Here too, Zionism is racist.66
Why Zionism Is Racism?

Zionism is a racist and irredeemable movement, like Bolshevism, Nazism, and Apartheid.
(Note: This article is a direct response, using the same format, on a line by line basis, to an
editorial that appeared in the Montreal Gazette on April 26, 2001, written by Gil Troy, a
Professor of History at McGill University.)67
On this, the 53rd anniversary of the Nakbe' (the Catastrophe of the Palestinian people), it is
all too tempting for friend and foe alike to define Israel, and zionism, solely by the
Americans' proclamations of its enlightened democracy. To do so is to miss the normal
atrocities that occur in Israel daily, the millions who are under curfew and blockade, starving
and brutalized, in the Middle East's only colonized state. To do so is to feign the reality of
zionism, a racist and irredeemable movement, that survived the twentieth centuries' other
genocidal and seemingly passing revolutions such as Bolshevism, Nazism, and Apartheid.
The sad truth is that over a century after its founding, zionism seems to be grander and
more honorable than its reality. Arabs have suffered from Zionism's belligerence and
exclusivity, and many have blamed the United States, and the West, for this because of their
unshakeable support of zionism. Israeli aggression over the past seven months has finally
renewed international recognition that zionism is racism.
On this anniversary of the Nabke', it is now up to all Jews to follow in the footsteps of the
brave few, and denounce the racist and separatist nature of zionism, while the world should
encourage them to do so. The world should not allow the torchbearers of zionism to silence
and quell the idealism of these few. No nationalism is pure, no movement is perfect, no
state is ideal, but today, Zionism persists as a menace, a militaristic and dictatory movement
to me and to most Palestinians. A century ago, zionism extended Western colonialism to
Palestine; today, as in the rest of the world, colonialism must be ideologically purged from
Palestine.
I believe that zionism is racism, because 53 years after being exiled from their homeland, in
defiance of the four Geneva Conventions, UN Resolutions 181, 194, 242, 338, and others,
and other multilateral and international human rights conventions, including the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the disinherited refugees of Palestine, continue to endure
66
Zionism = Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/zionism.html
67
Rabee' Sahyoun. 2001. Why Zionism Is Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/zionism_racism.shtml
merciless punishment from the Zionist entity, most recently in the bulldozing of makeshift
homes in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza.
I believe that zionism is racism, because I am a Palestinian, and without recognizing the
colonialist component in zionism, I cannot explain its racist character, a western movement
uprooting the native peoples of Palestine, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Samaritan alike, a people
bound to their land, through centuries of raising orange groves, and herding sheep, lending
grace to the Hills of God, historically, religiously and culturally.
I believe that zionism is racism, because it fails to appreciate or acknowledge the
Palestinians' ties to their homeland, their love for their historical capital, Jerusalem, and the
53-yar plight they have endured as refugees worldwide, in Europe, in North America, in
camps Dheishe, Shatila, Wehdaat and others, never giving up hope or struggle in yearning
to return home.
I believe that zionism is racism, because it fails to admit the reality that the minority
indigenous Jewish community in Palestine, that lived there for the last two thousand years,
was an undistinguishable people from its Christian and Muslim Palestinian brethren, and that
the leader of the Jewish community of the Jewish quarter of Old Jerusalem, Rabbi Lamram
Blau, stood on the side of his Palestinian brothers and sisters being exiled in 1948.
I believe that zionism is racism because in modern times, the promise of liberal democracy
and justice is a double-edged sword, preached by the Western powers, yet only paid lipservice to in the case of Israel, where Palestinian are continuously expelled, ethnically
cleansed, and subjugated, and in the cases where they are assimilated, they are granted,
limited, if any, civil rights.
I believe that zionism is racism, because in establishing the racially exclusive state of Israel,
in 1948, and expelling the indigenous Palestinians from the land, the zionists severed a
relationship that people had to the land for over 4,000 years, uninterrupted, since before
Abraham.
I believe that zionism is racism, because in building Israel, the zionists were revising history,
embracing the notion of racial superiority, an ideology that has empowered them to
discriminate, with all of its associated social ills, injustices, and moral bankruptcy.
I believe that zionism is racism because it fails to distinguish between the nationalism of the
American, based on multi-cultural harmony, and the racial exclusivity, separatism, ethnic
cleansing, and brutality of zionism, that stands in clear violation of the most basic elements
of international law and human rights practices, as most recently highlighted by reports
issued by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
I believe that zionism is racism because in our world of post-modern identities, I know that
we do not have to be "either-ors", we can be "ands and buts" a zionist and a settler, an
American citizen of Polish heritage but a soldier in the Israeli army.
I believe that zionism is racism because it self-propagates itself as a democratic movement.
However, a democracy, cannot, by definition, only be representative of one community in a
bi-national and tri-religious contiguous geographic area. A democracy cannot exist for one
people and not for another. This as called Apartheid in South Africa, and is now called
zionism in Palestine.
I believe that zionism is racism, because it espouses an independent and sovereign Jewish
state, in a land where there is no Jewish majority. It espouses that such a sovereign state
be at peace and harmony with its neighbors without allowing the Palestinian refugees
dwelling within their borders, who were expelled from their homes in Palestine by zionist
militias, as is clearly documented by numerous sources including the memoirs of David-Ben
Gurion himself, to return to their homes, which is a basic human right guaranteed by Article
13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I believe that zionism is racism because it is presented by its champions, from Gil Troy to
Elie Wiesel, as a romantic movement, which allowed zionists to reclaim the desert and build
a model nation-state. This is racism at its most acute, since there was no desert in Palestine,
other than the Negev in the South. This is simply a myth that has been propagated by
racists who have supported Israel for the last 53 years, and economic data on agricultural
exports to Europe from Palestine dating to medieval times easily rejects and exposes this as
a blasphemous claim.
Yes, it sounds far-fetched today. But as Vladamir Jabotinsky, father of revisionist zionism
said in a racist boast in 1923, "There can be no discussion of a voluntary reconciliation
between us and the Arabs Any native peopleview their country as their national home
They will not voluntarily allow, not only a new master, but even a new partner
Colonization can have only one goal. For the Palestinian Arabs this goal is inadmissible. This
is in the nature of things. To change that nature is impossible colonization can, therefore,
continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local
population - an iron wall which the native population cannot break through. This is, in toto,
our policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other way would only be hypocrisy."
And thus, Gil Troy and zionists abound are exposed as nothing more than unabashed racists.
[Mr. Rabee' Sahyoun is a economic development policy researcher, human rights activist,
and columnist residing in Beirut, Lebanon. He is affiliated with the global grassroots
Palestine Right To Return Coalition.]68
Definition of Racism, Definition of Zionism, are Zionism and Racism the same?69
Racism
On January 4th 1969, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination adopted General Assembly Resolution 2106 of 21st December 1965, in
accordance with Article 19.
In included the following:
The term racial discrimination shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or
preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the
purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal
footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social,
cultural or any other field of public life.
68
Ibid.
Definitions of Zionism and Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/antizionism/Zionism_and_Racism_definition.htm
69
These were always the principles of the Zionists, and twenty years before the UN Resolution,
Israels Declaration of Independence of 14/5/1948, stated:
In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of
Israel to return to the ways of peace and to play their part in the development of the State,
with full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions,
provisional or permanent.
Israel has adhered to this Declaration in the face of continual attacks by its neighbours and,
(see is Zionism Apartheid), non-Jews are active in every walk of Israeli life, in its public
institutions such as hospitals, politics and education.
Zionism
Put simply, Zionism is the belief in a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people, in Israel.
Zionism is the Jewish people's instantiation of the human right of self determination. No
more, no less.70
Zionism is Racism - True or False?71
It is shameful to condemn the national liberation movement of one people only as "racism,"
but the "Zionism is Racism" slogan does just that, because Zionism is the national liberation
movement of the Jewish people. If Zionism is racism, then the Italian, Irish American,
French, Algerian, Palestinian and Indian national movements are all "racism."
The Zionism is Racism campaign apparently grew out of an anti-Zionist conference held in
Mexico city in 1975. Riding the crest of pro-Arab appeasement following the Arab oil boycott
of 1973, the PLO managed to win an observer seat in the UN, a UN resolution legalizing
"resistance" (terror) as legitimate, a U.N. permanent committee on the "inalienable rights"
of Palestinians at the UN and in 1975, UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 - the "Zionism
is Racism" resolution. The idea behind this campaign was to take advantage of world
indignation at South African apartheid and racism and try to show that somehow Israel is
like South Africa. The resolution stated inter alia:
RECALLING ALSO that, in its resolution 3151 G (XXVIII) of 14 December 1953, the General
Assembly condemned, inter alia, the unholy alliance between South African racism and
Zionism,
TAKING NOTE of the Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their
Contribution to Development and Peace 1975, proclaimed by the World Conference of the
International Women's Year, held at Mexico City from 19 June to 2 July 1975, which
promulgated the principle that "international co-operation and peace require the
achievement of national liberation and independence, the elimination of colonialism and
neo-colonialism, foreign occupation, Zionism, apartheid and racial discrimination in all its
forms, as well as the recognition of the dignity of peoples and their right to selfdetermination",
70
Ibid.
Zionism is Racism - True or False? . Retrieved May 26, 2013 from http://www.zionismisrael.com/issues/racism.htm
71
In view of the situation of women in Arab countries, the fact that this resolution came out of
an International Women's Year conference is sadly ironic. Israel is one of the few countries
in the Middle East where women enjoy equal protection under the law.
Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, described this as the "low point" in the
history of the organization. This odious resolution was ultimately repealed in 1991.
Unfortunately, the same theme was adopted at the Durban conference of NGOs in 2001,
which became a festival of racism and Jew hate. Respectable organizations that had agreed
to participate in this conference condemned the anti-Israel resolutions and some withdrew
from the conference.
On the other hand, most anti-Zionist propaganda is racist and anti-Semitic. The racist David
Duke is a leading proponent of anti-Zionism. Palestinian leader Grand Mufti Hajj Amin El
Husseini was a Nazi who organized SS units in Yugoslavia and told the British that his
solution for the Jews of Palestine was the same as the one adapted in Europe by the
Germans - extermination. John Strawson, a vigorous advocate of the Palestinian cause, has
written, On the whole Anti-Zionism is close to, or a mask for, Anti-Semitism
Is Zionism racism? Israel patriots and Zionists include non-Jews such as Azzam Azzam,
LaVon Mercer and Ayub Kara. Zionists and Israeli Jews also include Africans like Mehereta
Baruch. Figure it out for yourself.72
Focus on Jerusalem~Zionism and Racism73
In the many centuries of their Roman enforced separation from the Promised Land, the
Jews never ceased to mourn the loss of their national homeland, and never gave up hope of
a return to the land of their ancestry. The prayer book of Jewish Synagogue is replete with
petitions to God for the restoration of the people to the land of Israel, and thereafter for the
rebuilding of the fallen temple.
In 1897 Theodore Herzl wrote Der Judenstat (the Jewish State) which gave birth to the
modern movement of Political Zionism. The revival of Zionism was induced by the plague of
persecution heaped upon Jewry through anti-Semitism in Europe and Russia.
The onslaught of Satanic evil unleashed upon the world in 1914-1918 during World War I
actually was utilized by God almighty to avail the land of Palestine to the nation of Great
Britain. Great Britain under the auspices of the League of Nations was authorized to effect
the Palestine Mandate. This mandate sought to resolve the Jewish problem in Europe by
according the Zionist Congress with a national homeland in Palestine. So, in essence God
used WWI to prepare the land to receive the people of Zion. Although the land was ready
for the Jewish people, the people themselves were not quite ready to return. Judaism
expected the Messiah to prepare the agency of that return. Then came the dark days of
WWII, an era of unprecedented evil that saw the forces of Satan attempt to wipe out the
people of Zion. But again, God utilized that terrible evil to place the people back into the
land and to re-fashion the nation of Zion amongst the community of nations of the world on
May 14, 1948.
72
Ibid.
Darrell G. Young. 2001. Focus on Jerusalem~Zionism and Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.focusonjerusalem.com/zionismandracism.html
73
Then in 1975, at the behest of the Arab world, the United Nations equated Zionism with
racism. This resolution stated unequivocally, that the zeal of Zionists to rebuild Israel in the
Promised Land is tantamount to racism against the Arabic-Muslim peoples, and an
obstruction to peace in the world. In 1990 the UN repealed that resolution prior to the 1991
Persian Gulf War against Iraq.
At the United Nations World Conference against Racism, held recently in Durban, South
Africa, tiny Israel again was specifically singled out as today's number one villain of world
racism. Thousands took to the streets with banners calling Israel an apartheid state,
comparing Zionism to racism and calling for the indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon.
UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, in his opening speech, used Israel as the poster country to
single out for racism, condemning it for occupying, displacing, blockading and utilizing
genocide and ethnic cleansing upon the Palestinians.
He further upbraided Israel for using the Holocaust as a means to overwork the worldsympathy issue, while it used similar tactics against the Palestinians. The draft resolutions of
the conference mention no other country but Israel, blaming it for "ethnic cleansing" and
executing its own holocaust upon the Palestinian people.
In reality it is the Arab countries themselves that brought about the atrocities on the
Palestinian people. Israel never wanted conflict and never initiated any wars. The Arab
countries, refusing to accept the Partition Plan approved by the UN, started the 1948 war,
hell-bent on destroying Israel. The Arab countries have continuously provoked Israel and
brought about each war and conflict since then, never for a moment giving up their dream
of cleansing the Middle East of its purported cancer, the Jewish people. All the atrocities,
those experienced by Israelis and Palestinians, were brought about by the leaders of the
Arab people. Israel fought in self-defense. It is still, unfortunately, fighting on the defensive.
Today, Israel does not want to occupy the Palestinians, nor does it want to blockade their
cities. Yet the constant threat of an attack on a passenger bus, or an explosion on a street,
or a suicide blast in some inconspicuous shopping center leaves Israel with only one choice,
simply to act to defend itself. So who is to blame? Leaders of Palestinian terrorist groups
who send their suicide bombers to blow up women and children, or the leaders of Israel
who are merely doing their best to ensure that their people can live without the constant
threat of violence?
What is the problem with Zionism? Why does it stir up so much hatred and passion in the
world? Why is the nation of Israel such a controversial dynamic in our world today? It is
quite well known that this dilemma is rooted in thousands of years of religious history. But
what exactly is the root of all of these complex problems concerning Zion? As I alluded to in
a previous article, Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken, it is a dilemma rooted in Divine
Providence! God has chosen Jerusalem and Mt. Zion to be the manifest parallel of the Divine
in the eternal realm. The controversy over Zion and Jerusalem exemplifies the reality that
there is an ever intensifying supernatural conflict concerning the one whose right it is to rule
in Zion!
Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a
stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not
make haste.
That precious cornerstone, which was foreordained before the foundation of the world, is
Jesus Christ! Therein lies the whole problem! This world, its nations, its religions, and its
peoples are not sympathetic to the right of Jesus Christ to reign in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.
This plain fact was pointed out by the apostle Paul in his writings to the Romans.
Romans 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I ( God ) lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of
offence: (Jesus Christ) and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Thus Zion is a stone of offence to this whole world. While the world can find an
accommodation and tolerance with, or for any of man-kinds humanistic philosophies or
religiosity, it simply cannot condone the fact that God has manifest his own son in human
flesh, allowed him to be sacrificed for sin, bore him away to Heaven via the resurrection
awaiting the great Day of the Lord, when he shall return unto his people Israel, whereupon
he shall become the reigning King in Zion!
And the obstacle for people toward that accommodation is their complicity with the
conspiratorial rebellious scheme of the God of this world, Satan himself, to usurp the throne
of God. The Luciferic Conspiracy began in the Heavenly Zion and is now increasingly focused
on the earthly Zion.
Obviously included within that conspiracy are those who equate Zionism with racism. The
UN sponsored conference on Racism was commandeered by radical elements of real racists.
The assembly branded Zionism as being based solely upon a religious teaching that elevates
Jewry to a position of racial superiority. The very same nations that have sought to rewrite
history by indicating that the Holocaust never really happened, were the same nations
represented at the racism conference demanding that Israel be liquidated, and the Jews be
exterminated. It reminds me of another conference that was held in Germany in 1938. At
the Wansee Conference of Nazi Germany, Palestinian Chief Mufti Haj al-Husseini met with
Adolph Hitler to discuss the means of annihilating the Jews of Palestine as well as those in
Europe. Once the plan was drawn up, it was called the "Final Solution." But even the Nazis
couched their plans in less-open terms than do the anti-Zionists of today. Terms like
"killing," "extermination" and so forth were never again used in public or committed to paper
by the Nazi's. They sought to keep secret their evil scheme until it was too late for anyone
to obstruct their mission. The Arab states today are far more explicit in their language
describing their ultimate plans for Israel. Listen to Yasser Arafat himself: Our struggle
against Zionism is not a struggle about borders, nor about peaceful co-existence, it is a
struggle about the existence of Israel! Peace to us only means the total extermination of
Israel! Furthermore, many of the fanatical Muslim clerics declare that Holy Jihad must be
waged by the Islamic faithful to eradicate the Middle East of the Zionist state altogether.
This agenda has historically been the dream of Satan ever since the enmity between the
seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman first raised its head of conspiracy. ( Genesis
3:15 ) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Yahweh God, by his mere choosing the Woman (Israel) is the real target of this targeted
hatred.
In a conference that was intended to denounce racism and prejudice, we witnessed instead
the open and blatant hatred which yet prevails in our world against God's chosen people.
This is racism that reeks of the discrimination that Jews have experienced throughout their
history. When I hear and see so many of our world leaders and thousands of their followers
point to Israel as the villain in the Middle East conflict, while at the same time tolerating the
terrorists threats, and the persistent rumors of war that is associated with terror
organizations, I cannot help but realize that Satan is already gathering steam for his final
war on the remnant of Israel. But let there be heard a word of caution to all anti-Zionists:
Psalms 129:5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
Psalms 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool.
Anti-Zionists will find themselves squarely positioned in the storm of the wrath of almighty
God. Acts 2:34-35; Mark 12:36; Psalms 110: 1-2; Matthew 5:25 all allude to the idea that
God will put down all enemies of Zion, and make them the footstool of Jesus Christ when he
comes to reign in Zion. The world will become the footstool of Israel and heavenly Zionism!
Still, the conspiracy of Satan permeates much of the human race, and compels mankind to
engulf himself in the program of evil against God's anointed! But God is not mocked! The
Psalmist states: The heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing, the kings and rulers
take counsel together against Israel, conspiring to cut Israel asunder; but God sitteth in the
heavens and laughs in derision, because his son hath already perfected salvation, and will
soon return unto Zion!
Psalms 2:6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion
This is the reason that Christians should pray for the peace of Jerusalem! (Psalms 122:6)
For hundreds of years, Jews have prayed the prayers of David, asking; how long Oh Lord
wilt thou not remember Zion? The day of the Lords return to Zion is set in stone, and it
draws nearer as the world gathers itself together in total opposition to Israel's mere
existence.
Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the
inhabitants of the land tremble: for the Day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
Joel 3:16-17 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and
the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the
strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in
Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass
through her any more.
That there seems to be a great many evidences to show that we have reached the period in
the great roll of the centuries, when the ever-living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is up
lifting his strong right hand to bring his people from afar, to plant them in their own land,
and to return his Divine attention once again to Zion, is indisputable. None other people
under Heaven can boast of such high authority to their earthly inheritance, for it is rooted in
the Holy Word of God, and that very same God has planted them back in the land of Zion,
because it is time for their King to return!
The Jewish people and the land are inseparable! Providentially the aim of God is the
establishment of the Zionist Kingdom on this earth, a kingdom which shall have no end.
Luke 1:32-33 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of
Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of
the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will
walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem.
Psalms 132:13-14 For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This
is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
Psalms 69:35-36 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may
dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they
that love his name shall dwell therein.
No wonder that there is such a controversy over Zion! Surely the most frustrated creature in
the entire cosmos would have to be Satan. He has conspired to utilize every evil means his
wicked cadre of associates can hatch to thwart the Divine plan of God to fulfill his covenant
with Abraham, and through that reality to bless all nations through the King of Zion. Satan
will soon give up on his anti-Zionist stance, and seek to perpetrate a deceptive evil plot to
establish his own king in Zion. Having seduced Israel into an illicit covenant, Satan will once
again think that he has conquered Jesus Christ. But then just like he did back on Calvary,
Jesus Christ will crush the head of the ole serpent with a mighty vengeance! The Lord is
jealous over Zion, and he will deal harshly with the enemies of Zion.
Zechariah 1:14 So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus
saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
Zechariah 8:2-3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy,
and I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion,
and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and
the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.
Almighty Yahweh God, who chose Israel to proclaim to the world his existence, his
revelation of prophecy, his priesthood, his blessings, his Holy Word, and finally his own
precious son shall soon choose to return his Son to Israel, whereupon he will upbuild the
fallen tabernacle of David and establish his throne upon Mount Zion. Finally at long last the
promises that Yawweh made to the Old Testament prophets of Israel concerning Zion will
be realized. Daniel prophesied that Israel would cut off their Messiah in mid-stream, leaving
half of his mission to this old world still as yet unaccomplished. But soon it will become
fulfilled!
Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the most Holy.
These six things remain to be accomplished in our world. Sin, iniquity, transgressions,
unrighteousness, completion of prophecy, and un-holiness abound in our world today. That
is because the whole world is confederated together against the rightful King of Zion!
The Most Holy is soon to be Anointed! He was rejected two thousand years ago when Israel
conspired with Satan, and joined him in crucifying the only begotten son of God, but the day
is fast approaching when Israel will mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son.
( Zechariah 12:10-11 )
Psalms 102:13-16 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her,
yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust
thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy
glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
Psalms 14:7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth
back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Zechariah 1:17 Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity
shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose
Jerusalem.
Yes, there is a Set time for God to favor Zion. The setting for that re-choosing of Zion
commenced with the return of the Jewish nation in 1948, and using Jesus own analogy, that
set time comes like a woman in travail with child. The child that is depicted as causing
Israel's labor pains today is Mt. Zion!
Oh but there cometh out of Zion a great Deliverer! Zionism stirs deep within my heart and
soul, for I know that the Lord awaits me on the beautiful hill of Zion. I take heart in the ages
old songs about Zion.
THERE WAITS FOR ME A GLAD TOMORROW, WHERE GATES OF PEARL SWING OPEN WIDE,
AND WHEN I'VE PASSED THIS VALE OF SORROW, I'LL GO TO DWELL UPON THE OTHER
SIDE.
SOME DAY I'LL HEAR THE ANGELS SINGING, BEYOND THE SHADOWS OF THE TOMB, AND
ALL THE BELLS OF HEAVEN RINGING, WHILE SAINTS ARE SINGING, HOME SWEET HOME.
SOMEDAY MY LABORS WILL BE ENDED, AND ALL MY WANDERINGS WILL BE O'ER, AND
ALL EARTH'S BROKEN TIES BE MENDED, AND I SHALL SIGH AND WEEP NO MORE.
SOMEDAY THE DARK CLOUDS WILL BE LIFTED, AND ALL THE NIGHT OF GLOOM BE PAST,
AND ALL LIFE'S BURDENS WILL BE LIFTED, THE DAY OF REST SHALL DAWN AT LAST.
SOMEDAY BEYOND THE REACH OF MORTAL KEN, SOMEDAY GOD ONLY KNOWS WHERE
AND WHEN, THE WHEELS OF MORTAL LIFE SHALL ALL STAND STILL, AND I SHALL GO TO
DWELL ON ZION'S HILL.
I want to be with my precious redeemer, and I want to hear him say well done my child,
and I long for the day when he will bring peace to this ole world, and he will live and reign
upon Mount Zion, but I also know that the enemy is targeting all lovers of Zion, and is trying
to steal Zion's hope.
But until then, we can all carry a song in all of our hearts, a song about our wondrous new
home that awaits just over the hill: Were marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, were
marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God! Psalms 50:22 Out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty, God hath shined!74
74
Ibid
Conclusion
Claims regarding racism and Zionism are made by some critics of Zionism and the state of
Israel, particularly supporters of the Palestinians and anti-Zionists who reject the concept of
Israel as a Jewish state.
Some commentators, particularly in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict consider aspects
of Zionist ideology or Zionist practice to be racist. They refer to the way Palestinian Arabs
were considered by Zionism in the period of Mandatory Palestine, to some implications of
the creation of a Jewish State, and to discrimination against Arab Israelis that still exists in
Israel.
Others, such as Robert Wistrich, have rejected this view, arguing that Zionism is a legitimate
national liberation movement and claim that criticism singles out Zionists, Jews and Israel,
while ignoring similar failings in other countries. Some argue that accusations that Zionism is
racist are themselves antisemitic.
References
Definitions of Zionism and Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/antizionism/Zionism_and_Racism_definition.htm
Rabee' Sahyoun. 2001. Why Zionism Is Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/zionism_racism.shtml
The Jewish State Theodor Herzl's Program for Zionism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://www.zionism-israel.com/js/Jewish_State.html
Zionism = Racism. Retrieved May 26, 2013 from
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/zionism.html
Zionism is Racism - True or False? . Retrieved May 26, 2013 from http://www.zionismisrael.com/issues/racism.htm
Chapter 5
Zionism and the creation of Israel
Introduction
The Zionist movement developed against the background of events in Palestine/Israel and
influenced those events. This account of Zionism is meant to be read together with the brief
history of Israel and Palestine and History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict since the Oslo
Accords. Likewise, the Labor Zionist movement
implementation of Zionism, and therefore
was a major force in the early
the history of Zionism cannot be intelligible
without understanding the history of Labor Zionism.

The word "Zionism" has several different meanings:
1. An ideology - Zionist ideology holds that the Jews are a people or nation like any other,
and should gather together in a single homeland. Zionism was self-consciously the Jewish
analogue of Italian and German national liberation movements of the nineteenth century.
The term "Zionism" was apparently coined in 1891 by the Austrian publicist Nathan
Birnbaum, to describe the new ideology, but it was used retroactively to describe earlier
efforts and ideas to return the Jews to their homeland for whatever reasons, and it is
applied to Evangelical Christians who want people of the Jewish religion to return to Israel in
order to hasten the second coming. "Christian Zionism" is also used to describe any
Christian support for Israel.
2. A descriptive term - The term "Zionism" was apparently coined in 1891 by the Austrian
publicist Nathan Birnbaum, to describe the new ideology. It is also used to describe anyone
who believes Jews should return to their ancient homeland.
3. A political movement - The Zionist movement was founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897,
incorporating the ideas of early thinkers as well as the organization built by Hovevei Tziyon
("lovers of Zion").
"Zionism" derives its name from "Zion," (pronounced "Tzyion" in Hebrew) a hill in Jerusalem.
The word means "marker" or commemoration. "Shivath Tzion" is one of the traditional terms
for the return of Jewish exiles.
"Zionism" is not a monolithic ideological movement. It
includes, for example, socialist Zionists such as Ber Borochov, religious Zionists such as rabbi
Kook, revisionist nationalists such as Jabotinsky and cultural Zionists exemplified by Asher
Ginsberg (Achad Haam). Zionist ideas evolved over time and were influenced by
circumstances as well as by social and cultural movements popular in Europe at different
times, including socialism, nationalism and colonialism, and assumed different "flavors"
depending on the country of origin of the thinkers and prevalent contemporary intellectual
currents.
Accordingly, no single person, publication, quote or pronouncement should be
taken as embodying "official" Zionist ideology.75

False beliefs about Zionism76
A number of false beliefs and myths have been circulated about Zionism - both by
detractors and by supporters of the movement:
Zionism and religion - Zionism is not a religious movement, and Israel is not the state of
the Jewish religion. The Jewish religious establishment was originally opposed to Zionism,
and then tried to take over or direct the movement. There are religious Zionists, who have
their own motivations for adhering to Zionism, and Zionism was certainly meant to include
religious Jews, but Herzl, Weizmann and other Zionist leaders were not observant Jews
and approached Zionism as a national problem, not as a religious issue.
Zionism and Land - Several misconceptions about Zionism and land exist. The first is that
Zionism did not particularly aim to settle the "Holy Land" (Palestine) and that Zionists were
willing to settle in places such as East Africa and Cyprus. The latter were considered for a
time as temporary asylums in order to alleviate the suffering of Russian Jews, but they
were never accepted as end goals for settlement by the Zionist movement. In order to
further the goal of settlement outside Palestine, Israel Zangwill left the Zionist movement
and founded the Territorial Zionist movement, a separate political and ideological stream,
that tried to secure a national home for the Jews in other territories. Zangwill also became
a champion of immigration to America and of assimilation. Another myth is that Zionism
aspires to extend the borders of Israel throughout the Middle East. Zionists certainly
wanted the largest possible territory for the Jewish state, but the main goal was always to
have a national home for the Jewish people within the ancient territory of Israel and Judea,
and the Zionist movement accepted partition of the British mandate in 1922, a tiny
truncated state offered in 1937 and the UN partition resolution of 1947. A peculiar claim of
anti-Zionists offered as "proof" of "Zionist expansionism" is the claim that Israel is the only
country whose constitution does not define its borders. Israel does not have a constitution,
and many or most constitutions do not define the borders of the state, as for example the
United States constitution. The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel does
not declare its borders, but neither does the United States declaration of Independence.
After Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967, religious Zionists and the Greater Israel
movement tried to claim that settlement of the newly conquered lands in what the
75
The history of Zionism and the creation of Israel. Retrieved May 27, 2013 from
http://www.mideastweb.org/zionism.htm
76
Ibid
Jordanians called the West Bank since 1945, and what was historically part of Judea and
Samaria, was a central goal of Zionism. But the fact is that even when there was an
opportunity for free purchase of land and settlement in the 1920s and 1930s, the Zionist
movement did not purchase much land in those areas. Of the territories taken by Israel in
1967, only Jerusalem and perhaps Hebron have real national symbolic significance.
Zionism and expulsion of the Arabs - Anti-Zionists have insisted that Zionism plotted to
expel the Arabs from Palestine. The claim has also been taken up by right-wing Zionist
extremists, who can document it with various statements of leaders made at different
times in favor of transfer of Arabs. It is true that some Zionist leaders made statements in
favor of voluntary transfer of Arabs out of Palestine. There was no Zionist transfer policy
however, except in acquiescence to the British Peel plan, which called for voluntary
transfer of Arabs, and there was never an official Zionist policy or directive or order calling
for mass expulsion of Arabs by force as a general policy. Plan Dalet (Plan D) issued in
1948, before Israeli independence, called for temporary expulsion of inhabitants of areas
where it was necessary to secure roads that communicated between Jewish towns. This
was necessitated by the road ambushes set up by Arab inhabitants in those villages.
A land without a people for a people without a land - The myth that this is a major slogan
of Zionism was propagated by Edward Said (Edward Said, The Question of Palestine (New
York: Times Books, 1979), p. 9)and Rashid Khalidi (Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity:
The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press,
1997), p. 101.), and opponents of Zionism insisted that it meant that Zionism assumed or
taught its enthusiasts that no people lived in Palestine. The slogan was coined by
a Christian Zionist, a British advocate of the restoration of the Jews, Alexander Keith, who
wrote that the Jews are "a people without a country; even as their own land, as
subsequently to be shown, is in a great measure a country without a people." (Alexander
Keith, The Land of Israel According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob (Edinburgh: William Whyte and Co., 1843). This was soon shortened to "a land
without a people and a people without a land" (The United Secession
Magazine(Edinburgh), vol. 1, p. 189). The phrase did not evidently mean to imply that
there were no people living in Palestine. The intent of the phrase was apparently that
there was no nation or nationalist entity other than the Jews who claimed Palestine as its
homeland, as the Arabs of Palestine identified themselves variously as Arabs, Syrians,
Nabulsi, Qudsi etc. and did not have a concept of Palestinian Arab nationhood or any
Palestinian national organizations at that time. That this was the intent is shown by Lord
Shaftesbury's version of the slogan, "There is a country without a nation; and God now in
his wisdom and mercy, directs us to a nation without a country." (Shaftsbury, quoted in
Albert Hyamson, "British Projects for the Restoration of Jews to Palestine," American
Jewish Historical Society Publications, 1918, no. 26, p. 140). Diane Muir reviews the
extensive use of the phrase by Christian Zionists including the American Blackstone, and
its use in Jewish Zionism. Israel Zangwill is the first prominent Zionist recorded to have
used the phrase and probably the only one who used it with serious intent in 1901 (Israel
Zangwill, "The Return to Palestine," New Liberal Review, Dec. 1901, p. 615.). There was
also apparently an isolated use of the phrase in the American Zionist journal, The
Maccabean in 1901 (Raphael Medoff, American Zionist Leaders and the Palestinian Arabs,
1898-1948 (Ph.D. diss., Yeshiva University, 1991), p. 17. ). By 1914, Zionist leader Chaim
Weizmann was referring to the phrase retrospectively (Paul Goodman, Chaim Weizmann:
A Tribute on His Seventieth Birthday (London: V. Gollancz, 1945), p. 153) and other
Zionists have since used the phrase ironically, in view of the bitter struggle with the Arab
inhabitants of Palestine. It would probably be an exaggeration to conclude that "a land
without a people for a people without a land" was never a slogan of Zionism at all, as
most Jewish Zionists were familiar with it, but it was not a particularly important slogan or
part of any political action platform, and Zionists certainly did not understand it to mean
that there were no people in Palestine.
Zionism and Judaism - Opponents of Zionism and anti-Semites have sometimes identified
all Jews as "Zionists" and used the terms "Jew" and Zionist interchangeably. For example,
the Hamas charter lays the blame for the French Revolution on "Zionists" - though there
were no Zionists in the 18th century. They clearly mean "Jews." Conversely, others have
claimed that Zionism is not, and was never, representative of views of the majority of
Jews. From its inception, Zionism enjoyed wide popular support, particular in Eastern
Europe and Russia. Most German Jews were probably not Zionists, but Germany was the
center of the Zionist movement for many years. Jewish financiers and philanthropists,
however, most of whom were Western Europeans, were largely indifferent to Zionism and
reluctant to finance settlement in Palestine. In the United States, Zionism became popular
among Jews thanks to the leadership of Justice Louis Brandeis, but most American Jews
supported Zionism as a solution for other Jews. They have been active Zionists in the
sense of contributing money for settlement in Palestine and Israel and offering political
support, but not to the extent of settling in Palestine or Israel themselves. A small minority
of American Jews remains actively and vocally anti-Zionist, and many profess indifference.
Some new groups, such as Brit Tsedek veshalom and J Street use the term "pro-Israel"
and avoid the words "Zionism" and "Zionist." Their motivation for avoiding the word
"Zionism" is not clear, since they claim to support Israel as the state of the Jewish people,
which is the heart of Zionist ideology. Some studies have shown that "Zionism" and "Jew"
have negative connotations even among Jews.
Background his*
Zionism did not spring full blown from a void with the creation of the Zionist movement in
1897. Jews had maintained a connection with Palestine, both actual and spiritual, even
after the Bar Kochba revolt in 135, when large numbers of Jews were exiled from Roman
Palestine, the remains of their ancient national home. The Jewish community in Palestine
revived and, under Muslim rule, is estimated to have numbered as many as 300,000 about
1000 AD, prior to the Crusades. The Crusaders killed most of the Jewish population of
Palestine or forced them into exile, so that only about 1,000 families remained after the
reconquest of Palestine by Saladin. The Jewish community in Palestine waxed and waned
with the vicissitudes of conquest and economic hardship, and invitations by different
Turkish rulers to displaced European Jews to settle in Tiberias and Hebron. At different
times there were sizeable Jewish communities in Tiberias, Safed, Hebron and Jerusalem,
and numbers of Jews living in Nablus and Gaza. A few original Jews remained in the town
of Peki'in, families that had lived there continuously since ancient times.
In the Diaspora, religion became the medium for preserving Jewish culture and Jewish ties
to their ancient land. Jews prayed several times a day for the rebuilding of the temple,
celebrated agricultural feasts and called for rain according to the seasons of ancient Israel,
even in the farthest reaches of Russia. The ritual plants of Sukkoth were imported from
the Holy Land at great expense.
From time to time, small numbers of Jews came to settle in Palestine in answer to
rabbinical or messianic calls, or fleeing persecution in Europe. Beginning about
1700, groups of followers led by rabbis reached Palestine from Europe and the Ottoman
Empire with various programs. For example, Rabbi Yehuda Hehasid and his followers
settled in Jerusalem about 1700, but the rabbi died suddenly, and eventually, an Arab mob,
angered over unpaid debts, destroyed the synagogue the group had built and banned all
European (Ashkenazy) Jews from Jerusalem. Rabbis Luzatto and Ben-Attar led a relatively
large immigration about 1740. Other groups and individuals came from Lithuania and
Turkey and different countries in Eastern Europe.
At no time between the Roman exile and the rise of Zionism was there a movement to
settle the holy land that engaged the main body of European or Eastern Jews. The
condition of Jews both in Europe and Eastern countries made such a movement
unimaginable. Many, however, were attracted to various false Messiahs such as Shabetai
Tzvi, who promised to restore Jews to their land. For most Jews, the connection with the
ancient homeland and with Jerusalem remained largely cultural and spiritual, and return to
the homeland was a hypothetical event that would occur with the coming of the Messiah
at an unknown date in the far future. European Jews lived, for the most part in ghettos.
They did not get a general education, and did not generally engage in practical trades that
might prepare them for living in Palestine. Most of the communities founded by these early
settlers met with economic disaster, or were disbanded following earthquakes, anti-Jewish
riots or outbreaks of disease. The Jewish communities of Safed, Tiberias, Jerusalem and
Hebron were typically destroyed by natural and man-made disasters and repopulated
several times, never supporting more than a few thousand persons each at their height.
The Jews of Palestine, numbering about 17,000 by the mid-19th century, lived primarily
on charity - Halukka donations, with only a very few engaging in crafts trade or productive
work.
Proto-Zionism
Following the French Revolution and the emancipation of European
Jewry however, the vague spiritual bonds of the Jews to the "Holy
Land" began to express themselves in more concrete, though not
always practical ways. About 1808, groups of Lithuanian Jews, followers
of the Vilna Gaon (a famous rabbi and opponent of Hassidism) arrived
in Palestine and purchased land to begin an agricultural settlement. In
1836, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer petitioned Anschel Rothschild to buy
Palestine or at least the Temple Mount for the Jews. In 1839-1840, Sir Rabbi Zvi Hirsch
Moses Montefiore visited Palestine and negotiated with the Khedive of Kalischer
Egypt to allow Jewish settlement and land purchase in Palestine.
However, the negotiations led to nothing, possibly frustrated by the
outbreak of an anti-Semitic blood-libel in Damascus. Thereafter,
Montefiore continued with less ambitious philanthropic schemes in
Palestine and in Argentina. In the 1840s,
British Zionism - The idea of a Jewish restoration also took the fancy of British intellectuals
for religious and practical reasons. It had been championed by Protestants since the
seventeenth
century.
The
restoration
was
championed
in
the
1840s
by Lords Shaftesbury and Palmerston, who in addition to religious motivations, thought
that a Jewish colony in Palestine would help to stabilize and revive the country, Jewish
national stirrings were also voiced by novelists and writers such as Lord Byron, Benjamin
Disraeli, George Eliot and Walter Scott. (see also British Zionism and off-site: Christian
Zionism)
Role of Sephardic Jews - Through an accident of history, European

(Ashkenazy) Jews took the lead in organized Zionism for many years.
However, Sephardic (Spanish) Jews and Jews in Arab lands maintained
a closer practical tie with the holy land and with the Hebrew language
than did Ashkenazy Jews and also influenced and participated in the the
Zionist movement from its inception. Sarajevo-bornJudah ben Solomon
Hai Alkalai (1798-1878,) is considered one of the major precursors of
modern Zionism. Alkalai believed that return to the land of lsrael was a
precondition for the redemption of the Jewish people. Alkalai's ideas
greatly influenced his Ashkenazy contemporary, Rabbi Zvi Hirsh
Kalischer. Alkalai was also a friend of the grandfather of Theodore
Rabbi
SolomonHerzl, the founder of modern Zionism. Another Sephardi Jew, David
Hai Alkalai
Alkalai, a grand-nephew of Judah Alkalai, founded and led the Zionist
movement in Serbia and Yugoslavia., and attended the first Zionist
Congress in Basel (1897).
Early Zionists
The modern formulation of Zionism was at least partly divorced from religious aspirations.
The rise of modern nation states and the 18th and 19th century enlightenment and
emancipation movements allowed the Jews to leave the ghettos of Europe for the first
time, catalyzing a host of changes in Jewish society and culture, many of which were
expressed in the Haskalah movement. While the Haskalah movement in Germany
promoted assimilation, Haskalah in Germany and later in Russia also set in motion a
number of processes that would ultimately make possible a Jewish national movement,
including the study of Hebrew as a secular language, the creation of a Hebrew press and
literature, the creation of a Jewish cultural life outside the framework of rabbinical and
religious Judaism, and the movement to bring Jews into "productive" occupations and
agriculture.
Some Jews converted to Christianity and assimilated to surrounding society. Others,
exposed to a general education, dropped their religious beliefs, but considered themselves
Jews, and understood that others still considered them to be Jews. This suggested a
conundrum. If one could be a non-believer and still be a Jew, then "Jew" must be more
than just the name of a religion. German racists solved this conundrum by inventing a
racial theory, which lacked any real scientific basis. Socialists cited the aberrant class
structure of Jewish society and labeled Jews a "caste." Zionists solved the conundrum by
declaring that Jews are a people, a fact implicit and explicit in the Jewish biblical and
cultural concept of "t;am Yisrael." The Jews were a people without a country however,
and would remain politically powerless as long as they did not have a national home. They
would be guests everywhere and at home nowhere, according to Zionist ideology. This
homelessness was the cause of the "Jewish Problem," and it could not fail to be
exacerbated by the rise of nationalism and nations in the 19th century. This explained why,
paradoxically, anti-Jewish sentiment might become more pronounced in "enlightened"
Europe than it had been in previous centuries, when nationalism had been less
pronounced.
Moses Hess, a relatively secular Jew and a socialist, was probably the first to enunciate
these ideas in so many words in his book Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National
Question, published in 1862, calling for a Jewish national movement similar to the
Italian risorgimento nationalist movement. These and similar sentiments were adopted by
numerous small groups that formed primarily in Eastern Europe, but also in Britain and in
the United States.
The "first aliya" - The first groups of immigrants who came to the land of Israel (it had no
official name in the Ottoman Empire) with the idea of turning the land into a national
home for the Jews are known as the "first Aliya." "Aliya" literally means "going up" and it
is a term Jews have used for a long time for coming to the holy land. Beginning in the
1870s, religious and nonreligious Jews established several study groups and societies for
purchasing land in Palestine and settling there. In 1870 the Alliance Israelite, an ostensibly
non-Zionist organization, founded the Miqveh Yisraelagricultural school near Beit Dagan.
In 1882, the BILU (an acronym for "Beyt Ya'akov Lechu
Venelcha" - House of Jacob let us go) and Hibbat
Tziyon (love of Zion) groups were established. They were
inspired by the impetus of the wave of anti-Jewish violence
that had swept Russia in 1881. Hibbat Tziyion began as a
network of independent underground groups. These and
similar groups established a number of early Jewish
settlements including Yesod Hamaalah, Rosh Pinna,
Gedera, Rishon Le Tziyon, Nes Tziyonna and Rehovot on
land purchased from Arab owners with the aid of Jewish
philanthropists, chiefly Lord Rothschild. Joel Solomon led a Petah Tiqva
group of orthodox Jews out of Jerusalem to found Petah
Tikva in 1878.
The settlements were characteristically vineyards and orange orchards. The settlers were
mostly religious Jews at least nominally, though the religious Jewish establishment
frowned on Zionism. In 1882, 150 Yemenite Jews also found their way to Palestine. The
first Aliya numbered about 25,000 persons, primarily from Eastern Europe. Many of them
returned home defeated by disease, poverty and unemployment.
Revival of Hebrew - Among the first arrivals of the first Aliya was Eliezer ben Yehuda
(Perelman). Inspired by European, particularly Bulgarian nationalism, Ben Yehuda was
moved to settle in Palestine. He arrived in 1881 and undertook to revive the Hebrew
language. With the help of Nissim Bechar, principal of a school operated by the Alliance
Israelite Universelle, Ben Yehuda began teaching Hebrew. Later he founded and published
the Hatzvi newspaper, and set up a linguistic council. Ben Yehuda's work was the major
force in the revival of Hebrew as a modern language.
Leon Pinsker and Hovevei Tziyon - Inspired by the anti-Semitic violence in Russia, Leon
Pinsker formulated the modern idea of Zionism in a small pamphlet called AutoEmancipation, published in 1882. Pinsker believed that anti-Semitism was inevitable as
long as Jews were guests in every country and at home nowhere, and wrote that the
Jews' only salvation lay in liberating themselves and settling in their own country. Pinsker
favored Argentina or other countries as sites for the Jewish homeland. However, Western
Jews who might have favored this idea rebuffed him. In his native Russia, however, his
ideas were well received, but they were channeled to settlement in Palestine. In 1882,
Pinsker was made head of the Hovevei Tzion organization, which united many small and
scattered groups, primarily in Russia, into a single organization. Pinsker favored "political
Zionism," that is, organization of Jews in Europe and petitioning the great powers for land
on which to establish a national home. However, his efforts in this direction were rebuffed
by the Russian government. Instead, he directed his energies to the gradual purchase of
land and settlement of small groups in Palestine.
Early settlers faced innumerable cultural and economic

difficulties. In 1800, the ravages of misadministration and
war had reduced the population to about 200,000. By the
1880s, the land had recovered somewhat, but it was still
poor and disease ridden. The total population was about
450,00. Jerusalem was a small town of 25,000 inhabitants,
slightly more than half Jewish. The first settlement of
Petah Tikva in 1878 failed and was later refounded. The
Ottoman government barely tolerated the settlers,
especially those who retained their foreign nationality, and
occasionally the government restricted immigration. Early Jewish Settlers
Settlers who adopted Ottoman nationality were liable for
the Turkish draft. Disease, poverty and unemployment
caused many to leave.
Theodore Herzl and the Foundation of the Zionist Movement
The Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish officer of the French army was
falsely convicted of treason in 1894, initiated waves of anti-Semitism in
the French press and in the street. It cast doubt on the notion that
Jews could achieve acceptance in modern liberal democracies,
and made Western European Jews conscious of their national identity.
In particular, it affected a young Vienna journalist, Theodor Herzl . Theodor Herzl
His pamphlet Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, was published in
1896. Herzl's plan for creating a Jewish State, arrived at after
contemplating other solutions as well, provided the practical program of
Zionism, and led to the first Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in
August, 1897.
After the first Basle Congress, Herzl wrote in his diary, Were I to sum
up the Basle Congress in a word- which I shall guard against

pronouncing publicly- it would be this: At Basle, I founded the Jewish
State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal
laughter. If not in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.
There had been lesser Zionist political gatherings with the same aims in the years just
prior to the Zionist Congress, but they did not attract the attention that Herzl's congress
did, and were largely forgotten. The Basle congress marked the foundation of Zionism as a
world political movement.
In 1902, Herzl published a utopian novel to popularize the Jewish state, Altneuland, (oldnew land) a vision complete with monorails and modern industry. The novel concludes, "If
you will, it is no legend."
Herzl thought that diplomatic activity would be the main method for getting the Jewish
homeland. He called for the organized transfer of Jewish communities to the new state. Of
the location of the state, Herzl said, "We shall take what is given us, and what is selected
by public opinion."
Herzl negotiated with the British regarding the possibility of settling the Jews on the island
of Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, the El Arish region and Uganda. After the Kishinev pogroms,
Herzl visited Russia in July 1903. He tried to persuade the Russian government to help the
Zionists transfer Jews from Russia to Palestine. At the Sixth Zionist Congress Herzl
proposed settlement in Uganda, on offer from the British, as a temporary "night refuge."
The idea met with sharp opposition, especially from the same Russian Jews that Herzl had
thought to help. Though the congress passed the plan as a gesture of esteem for Herzl, it
was not pursued seriously, and the initiative died after the plan was withdrawn. In his
quest for a political solution, Herzl met with the king of Italy, who was encouraging, and
with the Pope, who expressed opposition. A small group, the Jewish Territorial
Organization ("Territorial Zionists") led by Israel Zangwill, split with the Zionist movement
in 1905, and attempted to establish a Jewish homeland wherever possible. The
organization was dissolved in 1925.
The insistence of Eastern European Jews on Palestine as the Jewish homeland, coupled
with the failure of alternatives, maintained the focus of the Zionist movement on Palestine.
The "political Zionism" approach originally tried by Montefiore, Pinsker and Herzl, which
attempted to obtain a Jewish homeland from colonial powers, failed to attain results at
least initially. Meanwhile, however, practical settlement efforts gradually increased the
Jewish population of Palestine from about 25,000 in 1882 to approximately 85,000 to
100,000 just prior to World War I.
A fresh wave of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia provided the
impetus for a second wave of immigration, beginning about
1904 and called the Second Aliyah. At the same time, the
rise socialist - Zionist stirrings had inspired several socialist
Zionist movements. Thousands of new immigrants dedicated
to the conquest of labor ethic and socialist ideals arrived in
Palestine. Their Zionism was typified by the thinking of men
like Ber Borochov andA.D. Gordon,. Hapoel Hatzair, ("The
young worker") was founded by A.D. Gordon, Poalei
Tziyon ("workers of Zion") , and later Hashomer
Hatzair ("the young guard) were inspired by Ber
Borochov. Borochov, an ideologue of the Poalei Tziyon
movement, did not cite anti-Semitism as the basis or
motivation of Zionism. According to him, the Diaspora
produced aberrant social conditions that made Jews
economically inferior and politically helpless. The normal
organization of society was a pyramid, according to
Borochov, with a large body of workers and smaller groups of
intelligentsia, land owners and capitalists. The Diaspora had
created an 'inverted pyramid' in Jewish society, with no
Jewish peasant or worker class. Self-liberation of the Jews
would come about by proletarianization of the Jews in their
homeland, and the nascent Jewish proletariat would join the
socialist international. Similarly, A.D. Gordon, inspired by
19th century romanticism, called for a Jewish return to the
soil and virtually made a religion of work. These ideas fused
into the ideals of "productivization" (returning the Jews, who
Labor Zionism - Detail of

photo showing delegates to
the fourth meeting of the
Hapoel
Hatzair,
about
1909. Click here for full
photo and more about Labor
Zionism
and
socialist
Zionism.
engaged mostly in professional and mercantile trades, to

productive labor) and "conquest of labor" (Kibbush
Haavoda). "Conquest of labor" later took on additional
meanings. (See also Labor Zionism and Socialist Zionism )
The new immigrants arrived with the ideals of socialist Zionism, but reality was not
favorable to implementing those ideas. The Zionist movement attempted to find them
work. but the new immigrants , who had no training in agriculture and poor physical
stamina, were unable to compete with Arab peasants. Arabs certainly would not hire
Jewish workers, who could not work well and could not speak Arabic. Arab labor was also
preferred by the plantation and vineyard owners of the first Aliya. Arabs were experienced
and hard workers, and were able to work for much lower wages because they were often
members of an extended family that made its main income from sharecropping. The
plantation owners had also developed a superior colonialist mentality which suited the
hiring of "natives," and clashed with the egalitarian ideas and social demands of the newly
arrived socialists.
The socialist Zionist movements tried to force plantation owners to grant higher wages,
and also began to insist that plantation owners hire only Jewish workers. This aspect of
"conquest of labor" was controversial within the socialist-Zionist movements because it
engendered lack of solidarity with the Arab working class and was discriminatory. One
labor Zionist leader wrote:
"How can Jews, who demand emancipation in Russia, rob rights and act selfishly toward
other workers upon coming to Eretz Israel? If it is possible for many a people to hide
fairness and justice behind cannon smoke, how and behind what shall we hide fairness
and justice? We should absolutely not deceive ourselves with terrible visions. We shall
never possess cannons, even if the goyim shall bear arms against one another for ever.
Therefore, we cannot but settle in our land fairly and justly, to live and let live. "
(Meir Dizengoff (writing as "Dromi") "The Workers Question," Hatzvi, September 21, 22,
1909)
At the same time, Conquest of Labor was a central part of Labor Zionist ideology, as a
means of rebuilding the Jewish people, not a discriminatory ideology. A.D. Gordon wrote:
But labour is the only force which binds man to the soil it is the basic energy for the
creation of national culture. This is what we do not have, but we are not aware of missing
it. We are a people without a country, without a national living language, without a
national culture. We seem to think that if we have no labour it does not matter - let Ivan,
John or Mustafa do the work, while we busy ourselves with producing a culture, with
creating national values and with enthroning absolute justice in the world.
(A.D. Gordon, "Our Tasks Ahead" 1920)

The boycott of Arab labor, only partly successful, was carried out reluctantly as a matter of
necessity, and because the establishment of Jews as a class of colonial plantation owners
seemed worse than the alternative. The discriminatory program of "conquest of
labor" also provoked bitterness among some Arabs, particularly watchmen who lost their
jobs to Jews. In the main however, the "conquest of labor" movement was initially
unsuccessful, nor could it have much real influence on the economic prospects of Arabs.
Only a few thousand Jewish workers were involved. Gershon Shafir (Land, Labor and the
Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 18821914, University of California Press, 1996)
estimates that about 10,000 such workers passed through Palestine in the second Aliya,
many leaving in discouragement. Other sources claim there were about 3,000 workers out
of approximately 33,000 who came to Palestine in the second Aliya. Because of the wage
differential and because of the expertise of Arab workers, Arab labor continued to find
employment in Jewish settlements. It was only with the massive Jewish immigration of the
1930s, coupled with Arab unrest and sabotage attempts, that Jewish workers began to
replace Arab workers in most of the Jewish economy. Of course, few Jews worked in the
Arab economy.
The kibbutz collective settlements were started as a practical method of settling Jewish
laborers on the land and overcoming the preferences of plantation owners for Arab labor.
A small group of Jewish immigrants was settled in an economic cooperative in Sejera, later
founding Kibbutz Degania in 1909. The arrangement, originally thought to be temporary,
proved to be practical, as well as suited to the socialist ideals of the new settlers and the
practical requirements of Zionism. It soon inspired several other kibbutzim (collective
farms). The kibbutz movement was to become the backbone of Labor Zionism in Palestine,
and eventually provided political and military leadership. Kibbutzim provided ideal places
for hiding arms from the British and recruiting and training troops, as well as for
organizing local defense and guarding borders.
Chaim
Weizman
The Zionist movement did not give up efforts to find a political solution. The
political Zionism and practical settlement approaches were merged into
"Synthetic Zionism" advocated by Chaim Weizmann . The efforts ultimately
bore fruit in the Balfour Declaration, a promise by Britain to further efforts
for a Jewish national home in Palestine. and in the League of Nations
Mandate,which give international sanction to the Jewish national home.
Weizmann became head of the Zionist organization and later was the first
President of Israel.

When Zionism had its first beginnings, in the early 19th century, there were about 200,000
Arabs living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean in the approximate area that
later became "Palestine," mostly concentrated in the countryside of the West Bank and
Galilee, and mostly lacking in national sentiment. Palestine was, in Western eyes, a
country without a nation, as Lord Shaftesbury wrote. Early proto-Zionists did not trouble
themselves at all about the existing inhabitants. Many were heavy influenced by
utopianism. In the best 19th century tradition, they were creating a Jewish utopia, where
an ancient people would be revived. They envisioned a land without strife, where all
national and economic problems would be solved by good will, enlightened and
progressive policies and technological know-how. Herzl's Altneuland was in in fact just
such a utopia. In the novel, Herzl envisioned a modern pluralistic society, in which Jews
and Arabs had equal rights. A demagogic politician who wanted to form a narrow hypernationalist Jewish state, was defeated in elections.
In reality, Jewish population grew, but Arab population grew more rapidly. By 1914, there
were over 500,000 Arabs in Palestine, but only about 80,000 to 100,000 Jews. Arab
opposition to Jewish settlement grew as Arabs perceived that the Zionist goal was more
than just a myth, and as they increasingly identified Zionism with British interests in the
Middle East.
At the same time, early Zionist pronouncements and outlook were often frankly colonialist,
especially when addressing leaders of foreign powers. The plantations sponsored by Baron
Rothschild were modeled on plantation settlement in Algeria and other colonies.
Colonialism was fashionable and "progressive," and some early Zionist leaders saw nothing
wrong in assimilating this idea to Zionism along with other modern ideas such as socialism,
utopianism and nationalism.
Later Zionists were heavily influenced by socialism and embarrassed at the colonialist
aspects of the Zionist project. They were also aware, of course, that Palestine was already
occupied by Arabs. Many however, including the young David Ben-Gurion, who headed the
Executive committee of the Zionist Yishuv (Jewish community) in Palestine and was later
the first Prime Minister of Israel, initially thought that the Arabs could only benefit from
Jewish immigration and would welcome it. Others, such as Eliezer ben Yehuda, frankly
envisioned removal of the Arabs from Palestine.
One of the earliest warnings about the Arab problem came from the Zionist writer Ahad
Ha'am (Asher Ginsberg), who wrote in his 1891 essay "Truth from Eretz Israel" that in
Palestine "it is hard to find tillable land that is not already tilled", and moreover:
From abroad we are accustomed to believing that the Arabs are all desert savages, like
donkeys, who neither see nor understand what goes on around them. But this is a big
mistake... The Arabs, and especially those in the cities, understand our deeds and our
desires in Eretz Israel, but they keep quiet and pretend not to understand, since they do not
see our present activities as a threat to their future... However, if the time comes when the
life of our people in Eretz Israel develops to the point of encroaching upon the native
population, they will not easily yield their place.
Ahad Ha'am, believed that the Jews would need to first build a strong Jewish culture
abroad, and that this culture and awareness would then make the dream of a Jewish
homeland possible. The Jewish community in Palestine, he felt should be a cultural center
for Jews of the Diaspora, that would catalyze this revolution in Jewish life and eventually
bring about mass Jewish support for the Zionist project. Contrary to the impression that
some modern interpretations give, Ahad Ha'am was not anti-Zionist and was not an
opponent of the formation of a Jewish national home. In fact, he was an enthusiastic
supporter of Zionism. Hed wrote an article eulogizing Leon Pinsker in glowing terms and
he emigrated to Palestine and lived in Tel Aviv.
Arab opposition to Zionism grew after 1900. The birth of Arab nationalism and Arab
political aspirations in the Ottoman empire coincided with the arrival of fairly sizeable
number of Zionists with the announced program of settling the land and turning it into a
Jewish national home. In his book, Reveil de la Nation Arab in 1905, Najib Azouri stated
that the Jews want to establish a state stretching from Mt Hermon to the Arabian Desert
and the Suez Canal. Azoury wrote:
Two important phenomena of the same nature but opposed, are emerging... They are the
awakening of the Arab nation and the latent effort of the Jews to reconstitute on a very
large scale the ancient kingdom of Israel. These movements are destined to fight each
other continually until one of them wins.
(Mandel, Neville, The Arabs and Palestine, UCLA, 1976)
Rashid Khalidi (Palestinian Identity, Columbia, 1997) notes that beginning about 1908
Palestinian newspapers offered extensive evidence of anti-Zionist agitation. Actual conflicts
flared up because the Zionists purchased large tracts from landowners and subsequently
evicted the tenant farmers. The former tenants, though they had received some
compensation, continued to insist that the land was theirs under time honored traditions
and tried to take it back by force. A notable case was Al-Fula, where Zionists had
purchased a large tract of land from the Sursuq family of Beirut. Local officials took the
side of the Arab peasants against the Zionists and against the Ottoman government, which
upheld the legality of the sale. 150 Palestinian notables cabled the Ottoman government
to protest land sales to Jews in March 1911. Azmi Bey, Turkish governor of Jerusalem
responded:
We are not xenophobes; we welcome all strangers. We are not anti-Semites; we value the
economic superiority of the Jews. But no nation, no government, could open its arms to
groups... aiming to take Palestine from us.

Likewise, the "conquest of labor" movement displaced some Arab watchmen and led to
violence. While the actual number of persons displaced or dispossessed may have been
small, and may have been offset by real economic benefits and increased employment
provided by Zionist investment, the feeling grew among the Arabs that the Zionists had
arrived to dispossess them. A Nazareth group complained that the Zionists were "a cause
of great political and economic injury... The Zionists nourish the intention of expropriating
our properties. For us these intentions are a question of life and death."(Morris, loc
cit.) As the conflict intensified, the Zionists formed a guard association, Hashomer, to
guard the settlements in place of Arab guards. The attempts to retake land and disputes
with Jewish guards led to increased violence beginning in the second half of 1911. ry
zionism * history
Following World War I, Palestine came under British rule. Even before they had conquered
Palestine from the Ottoman Turkish Empire, owing to the efforts of Zionists, the British
government declared its intentions, in the Balfour declaration, of sponsoring a "national
home" for the Jews in Palestine. Britain was given a League of Nations Mandate to
develop Palestine as a Jewish National home. The Arabs of Palestine were appalled at the
prospect of living in a country dominated by a Jewish majority and feared that they would
be dispossessed. Anti-Jewish rioting and violence broke out in 1920 and 1921. By this
time, Zionist leaders could no longer ignore the conflict with the Arabs. By 1919,
representatives of the Jaffa Muslim-Christian council were saying
"We will push the Zionists into the sea or they will push us into the desert"

Arab opposition to Zionism was not based only on economic and social issues. It was
colored by the traditional Muslim vision of the Jews as second class citizens. By the 1920s,
it was also motivated by a strong admixture of Western anti-Semitism. In 1920, Musa
Kazim El Husseini, deposed as Mayor of Jerusalem because of his part in riots earlier that
year, told Winston Churchill:
The Jews have been amongst the most active advocates of destruction in many lands... It
is well known that the disintegration of Russia was wholly or in great part brought about
by the Jews, and a large proportion of the defeat of Germany and Austria must also be put
at their door.

It is not clear how Churchill received this amazing and unwitting testimonial to
the aid proffered to his country's war effort by the Jews, or what Husseini
thought to accomplish by it. Aref Dajani had earlier voiced similar sentiments to
the King- Crane Commission
It is impossible for us to make an understanding with them or or even to live
with them... Their history and all their past proves that it is impossible to live
with them. In all the countries where they are at present they are not wanted...
because they always arrive to suck the blood of everybody...

While Palestinian Arabs viewed themselves as a small group of helpless
victims of powerful British and Jewish "interests," the Zionists saw the
opposite side of the coin. The militant Zionist leader, Vladimir
Jabotinsky, asked in 1918:
The matter is not ... an issue between the Jewish people and the Arab
inhabitants of Palestine, but between the Jewish people and the Arab
people. The latter, numbering 25 million, has [territory equivalent to] half
of Europe, while the Jewish people, numbering ten million and wandering Vladimir Ze'ev
the earth, hasn't got a stone...Will the Arab people stand opposed? Will it Jabotinsky
resist? [Will it insist] that...they...shall have it [all] for ever and ever, while
he who has nothing shall forever have nothing?
(Caplan, Neil, Palestine Jewry and the Palestine Question, 1917-1925,

Frank Cass, 1978)
Soon after World War I, Zionist leaders clearly recognized the problem. David
Ben Gurion told members of the Va'ad Yishuv (the temporary governing body of
the Jewish community in Palestine) in June 1919:
But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution!
There is a gulf; and nothing can bridge it.... I do not know what Arab will agree
that Palestine should belong to the Jews...We. as a nation,. want this country to
be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs.

In 1923, in his Iron Wall article, Jabotinsky replied to his own question. He
asserted that agreement with the Arabs was impossible, because they:
...look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true fervor that any Aztec looked
upon his Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. To think that the Arabs will voluntarily
consent to the realization of Zionism in return for the cultural and economic benefits we can
bestow on them is infantile.
Jabotinsky, was initially against expulsion of the Arabs, which he was "prepared to swear,
for us and our descendants, that we will never [do]". Rather in The Iron Wall, he claimed
that the Jewish presence should be imposed by a strong defense that would show the
Arabs that the Jews could not be forced out of Palestine. However, while The Iron
Wall expressed a comprehensive philosophy, its practical background and intent were
much more limited. Jabotinsky wanted the British authorities to allow the Jews to form a
separate defensive force under British supervision, to combat attacks such as the riots that
had occurred in 1920 and 1921. The British refused, and the Zionist organization resigned
themselves to the British decision, but Jabotinsky wanted to continue with the formation of
such a force. Though the Haganah defensive underground was founded in 1920 by
Jabotinsky, it didn't become a major project of the Zionist movement until after the riots of
1929. These riots, and not any intrinsic aspect of Zionist ideology, were the real trigger
for the birth of militant Zionism as a political force, as well as the progressively more
important role played by self-defense and military prowess in Zionist thought, action and
society.
Meanwhile the Arab and Jewish communities grew progressively apart. Arabs refused to
participate in a Palestinian local government which gave equal representation to the
Jewish minority. The British, nearly bankrupt after WW I, insisted that the mandate
should be self-sufficient. Mandate services were paid for from taxes paid by the Jewish
and Arab inhabitants of Palestine. Additional services were funded by philanthropists from
abroad and from membership dues in various organizations. Zionist philanthropy and
organization far-outstripped what Palestinian Arabs could provide. Neither Arabs nor Jews
wanted integrated schools. Zionist groups funded religious, secular and labor-Zionist
educational networks for Jewish children in Hebrew, but few comparable schools were set
up for Arabs. The Zionists founded the Histadruth Labor federation to encompass Jewish
workers, providing Hebrew education, medical care, worker-owned enterprises and
cultural facilities as well as representation of labor rights. No comparable association was
created by the more numerous Arabs of Palestine, though the Histadruth made some
efforts to organize Arab labor beginning in 1927, and the Palestine Communist party
attempted to represent both Jewish and Arab labor.
As the conflict unfolded, attitudes hardened on both sides. Some Zionist factions called for
expulsion or "transfer" of Arabs "voluntarily" or otherwise. Beginning with the Husseini
clan led by Hajj Amin El Husseini, the Grand Mufti, different factions of Palestinian Arabs,
successively allied themselves with Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and, after WW II with
communist countries. Arab rhetoric became increasingly colored by European antiSemitism, and adopted many of the claims and ideas of Holocaust deniers such as Roger
Garaudy as well as the anti-Zionist ideology of radical Jewish intellectuals.
The conflict was intensified and complicated by the 1948 war. About 700,000 Palestinian
Arabs fled or were expelled during the war, and Israel did not allow them to return.
Many Palestinian refugeeswere settled in camps under miserable conditions, where they
have remained for several generations. The Israeli point of view had in mind the recent
convulsions of World War II, and the exchange of populations that occurred when India
and Pakistan were created. Most Israelis believed the Palestinians became refugees
through their own fault. Their exile was the result of the war which the
Palestinians themselves had started by rejection of the UN partition plan, just as, for
example, the Germans of Sudetensland, who helped instigate the German occupation of
Czechoslovakia, were eventually banished as the result of their own mischief. For the
Arabs of Palestine, their Nakba, or catastrophe, vindicated their fears that the Zionists
were bent on dispossessing them.
Zionism and the Conflict With Britain

The British government increasingly understood that its promises to the Zionists and
Mandate obligations were very unpopular in the Arab world. They split off a large part of
the Palestine Mandate territory to form Transjordan and issued the Passfield White
Paper that proposed limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Passfield White Paper
was quietly withdrawn under pressure from Zionists, from British public opinion and from
the League of Nations. However, the British eventually did impose a limit on immigration.
These policies turned the once-friendly British into antagonists of the Zionist movement.
Labor Zionists and the Zionist Executive were in favor of moderate policies that would try
to work around the British opposition to Zionism. A faction led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky
believed in confronting the British and the Arabs, and if necessary, using force. In 1923,
Jabotinsky split from the main Zionist movement and formed the Revisionist movement. In
1925, an Arab Revolt (The Great Uprising) broke out in Palestine, triggered by rising
Jewish immigration and systematic agitation by extremists. In 1937, the British proposed
tentatively to partition Palestine in the Peel report. This caused additional divisions in the
Zionist movement. Some believed in a bi-national Jewish Arab state and objected to the
idea, contained in the Peel recommendations, of transferring Arabs "voluntarily" out of the
territory to be allotted to the Jewish state. The revisionists and religious Zionists, on the
other hand, objected to giving up any part of the territory of Palestine. Subsequently the
British issued the White Paper of 1939, severely limiting Jewish immigration. The Arab
revolt and the reaction to it crystallized the Zionist ethos of self-defense and emphasis on
military service. The Revisionists formed the Irgun underground army, which
attacked British soldiers and administrators and perpetrated terror attacks against Arabs
in retaliation for Arab attacks on Jews. Atrocities committed by the Arabs, as well as
counter-terror by Jewish groups, inculcated in both Jews and Arabs the idea that any
means at all may be used against the enemy, even though the Hagannah officially
maintained a military ethic of "purity of arms" - forbidding needless violence. The Arab
revolt and the Peel report also legitimized, to some extent, the idea of "transfer," and
solidified and entrenched the idea that conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine was
inevitable.
The Zionists, attempting to rescue Jews from the Nazis, organized illegal immigration. The
Revisionist Zionist movement began to organize immigration, both legal (with certificates)
and illegal, in 1937, from Austria, and later from the free city of Danzig. At least 20,000
Jews were saved in this way. The Jewish agency opposed illegal immigration until the
promulgation of the British White Paper of 1939, which stopped Jewish immigration.
Thereafter, they founded and supported the Mossad l'aliya Bet ("B immigration institution")
to bring immigrants from abroad. This operated between 1939 and 1942, when a
tightened British blockade and stricter controls in occupied Europe made it impractical, and
again between 1945 and 1948. Rickety boats full of refugees tried to reach Palestine.
Additionally, there were private initiatives, an initiative by the Nazis to deport Jews and an
initiative by the US to save European Jews. Many of the ships sank or were caught by the
British or the Nazis and turned back, or shipped to Mauritius or other destinations for
internment. The Patria (also called "Patra") contained immigrants offloaded from three
other ships, for transshipment to the island of Mauritius. To prevent transshipment,
the Haganah placed a small explosive charge on the ship on November 25, 1940. They
thought the charge would damage the engines. Instead, the ship sank, and over
250 lives were lost. A few weeks later, the SS Bulgaria docked in Haifa with 350 Jewish
refugees and was ordered to return to Bulgaria. The Bulgaria capsized in the Turkish
straits, killing 280. The Struma, a vessel that had left Constanta in Rumania with about
769 refugees, got to Istanbul on December 16, 1941. There, it was forced to undergo
repairs of its engine and leaking hull. The Turks would not grant the refugees sanctuary.
The British would not approve transshipment to Mauritius or entry to Palestine. On
February 24, 1942, the Turks ordered the Struma out of the harbor. It sank with the loss
of 428 men, 269 women and 70 children. Apparently, it had been torpedoed by a Soviet
submarine, either because it was mistaken for a Nazi ship, or more likely, because the
Soviets had agreed to collaborate with the British in barring Jewish immigration. Illegal
immigration continued until late in the war, apparently without the participation of
the Mossad l'aliya Bet. The illegal immigrant Mefkure, organized with the help of the
United States government, was sunk by a Soviet submarine in 1944. Despite the many
setbacks, tens of thousands of Jews were saved by the illegal immigration.
To circumvent British regulations against creating new settlements, the Zionists initiated
the "stockade and tower" ("homa umigdal") program, that allowed overnight creation of a
new "settlement," consisting of a wall and watch tower. Under the law, the British could
not destroy such an 'established' settlement.
Reports of Nazi atrocities became increasingly frequent and vivid. Despite the desperate
need to find a haven for refugees, the doors of Palestine remained shut to Jewish
immigration. The Zionist leadership met in the Biltmore Hotel in New York City in 1942 and
declared that it supported the establishment of Palestine as a "Jewish
Commonwealth." This was not simply a return to the Balfour declaration repudiated by
the British White Paper, but rather a restatement of Zionist aims that went beyond the
Balfour declaration, and a determination that the British were in principle, an enemy to be
fought, rather than an ally. This was a defeat for the left-wing party of the Labor Zionists,
Mapam, who wanted a bi-national Zionist state, and for Chaim Weizmann, who opposed
confrontation with the British and favored partition. The Revisionists rejoined the Zionist
movement, but were still called "dissidents" and did not merge their underground armies,
the Irgun and the Lehi (also called the "Stern Gang") into the Hagannah defense
organization of the mainstream Zionists.
On November 6, 1944, members of the Lehi underground Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet
Zuri assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo. Moyne, a known anti-Zionist, was in charge of
carrying out the terms of the 1939 White Paper. The assassination turned Winston
Churchill against the Zionists. The Jewish Agency and Zionist Executive believed that
British and world reaction to the assassination of Lord Moyne could jeopardize cooperation
after the war, that had been hinted at by the British, and might endanger the Jewish
Yishuv if they came to be perceived as enemies of Britain and the allies. Therefore they
embarked on a campaign against the Lehi and Irgun, known in Hebrew as the "Sezon"
("Season"). Members of the underground were to be ostracized. Leaders were caught by
the Hagannah, interrogated and sometimes tortured, and about a thousand persons were
turned over to the British.
Following World War II, Britain continued to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. The
Zionist factions united and conducted an underground war against the British, as well as
applying pressure on the British government through the United States. In June of 1947,
the British rammed the Jewish illegal immigrant ship Exodus (formerly "President Warfield")
on the high seas. They towed it to Haifa where it was the subject of extensive publicity,
generating public sympathy for the Zionist cause. The passengers were eventually
disembarked in Hamburg. The incident set world, and particularly US, opinion against the
British, and caused the British to intern illegal immigrants thereafter in Cyprus, rather than
attempting to return them to Europe. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to
partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Arabs did not accept the partition plan,
and a war broke out. The state of Israel was established on May 14, 1948. The civil war
that took place beginning on December 1, 1947, between Arab and Jewish Palestinians,
and the subsequent invasion of the state of Israel by Arab States on May 15 1948, shaped
the ideological development of Zionism, and the conflict and propaganda surrounding the
Arab invasion of Israel and subsequent refusal to recognize the state, as well the Arab
Palestinian refugee that was created, shaped the perception of Zionism in the Arab world
and in the West.
David
Gurion
Labor Zionism vs Revisionism - After independence, the Labor Zionist

movement became, for many years, the leading political force in Israel.
Mapai (Miflegeth Poalei Eretz Yisrael - the party of the workers of the land
of Israel) party led by David Ben-Gurion and his successors held power
continuously until 1977. The Zionist movement had split when Jabotinsky
led the revisionists out of the Zionist organization in the 1930s. The Zionist
executive was led by Labor Zionism under David Ben-Gurion. Revisionists
Ben-and Labor Zionists had separate underground armies. Revisionists and
Labor Zionists cooperated against British after World War II. However, the
"Sezon" in 1944-45, the massacre perpetrated at Deir Yassin by the
Revisionists in April 1948, and the subsequent sinking of the "Altalena"
Irgun arms ship by the Israeli government, as well as numerous smaller
incidents, helped to deepen the split between mainstream Labor Zionism
and Revisionist Zionism. Begin, the leader of the Revisionist Zionists, was
distrusted by Ben-Gurion and viewed a dangerous extremist. It was not
until the 6-day war in 1967 in 1967 that revisionists were allowed to
participate in a government coalition.
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is often defined as "opposition to the existence of Israel," but that definition
is a historical distortion and probably detracts from understanding the nature of antiZionism and its diverse ideological roots. It is true that anti-Zionists are necessarily
opposed to the existence of a Jewish state, but it is not the essence of their ideology. AntiZionism existed long before there was a Jewish state and long before the Zionist
movement formally adopted the goal of founding an independent Jewish state in 1942.
Anti-Zionists were and are opposed to Zionism for a variety of reasons. Assimilationist
Jews denied that there is a "Jewish people." Marxists admitted that there is a separate
Jewish group, but believed that it is undesirable to perpetuate its existence (se
. Marx's views of Judaism are more or less indistinguishable from those of anti-Semites. In
"A World Without Jews," Marx wrote,
The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange.
The Jew is perpetually created by civil society from its own entrails.
The chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of of the merchant, of the man of
money in general.
Contempt for theory, art, history, and for man as an end in himself, which is contained in an
abstract form in the Jewish religion
We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time, an

element which through historical development -- to which in this harmful respect the Jews
have zealously contributed.
Ultra-orthodox Jews are anti-Zionist because, while they recognize the existence of the
Jewish people, they believe that redemption of the Jews must come through the agency of
the Messiah rather than through any actions of the Jews, and that certainly it cannot come
about through the agency of a non-religious political organization such as Zionism.
Arab nationalists are anti-Zionists because Zionism conflicted with their nationalism,
though Feisal himself envisaged cooperation with the Zionists.
Zionism was popular among Jewish people as a movement they might support with
money or at political meetings. However, few, especially in Western countries, thought of
coming to Palestine or Israel until the latter decades of the twentieth century, except
when in danger of persecution. Palestine was too far, economically backward and
dangerous to draw many immigrants. Nonetheless, non-Zionist groups like Alliance
Israelite Universelle and many others helped Zionist efforts in Palestine and joined the
Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Jews who sought to assimilate in their own countries claimed that they were loyal citizens
of a different faith, sometimes styling themselves "of the Mosaic persuasion" as did early
reform Jews (see Reform Jewish anti-Zionism )They felt that the Zionist movement and
the concept of a "Jewish People" would raise questions about their own loyalty, and they
resented the fact that Zionists often spoke as though they represented all Jews. This
movement was particularly prevalent in Germany, where Jews were staunch supporters of
German nationalism. Valuable insight into the prevailing ideologies of the time can be
gained from Amos Elon's book, "The Pity of it All" (Henry Holt, 2002) which chronicles the
tragic history of German Jewry. At one point, the reform Jewish movement went so far as
to systematically remove all references to the Holy Land and Jerusalem from their liturgy.
A large segment of ultraorthodox Jews were displeased by the secular ideas that
dominated Zionism, and insisted that the rebuilding of Israel must await the coming of
the messiah. In Europe, the agitation of assimilationist and ultraorthodox Jews helped to
actively block Zionist rescue efforts in the 1930s, when it began to be apparent that
Nazism would soon make Europe very dangerous for Jews. Jewish communists were and
are opposed to Zionism because Marxism posited the disappearance of the Jews as a
historic anomaly, once international atheistic communism triumphed over nationalist
particularism, and religion, the opium of the people, died out. In the USSR, as part of his
"nationalities" policy, which assimilated or murdered numerous national groups, Stalin
tried to handle the Jewish problem by creating an autonomous Jewish republic in the
wastelands of Birobidjan. This project was never supported very seriously and was later
abandoned. Though the USSR supported the creation of the state of Israel, Stalin was
opposed to Zionism inside Russia and the USSR suppressed Zionist activities and at times
persecuted Jews as well as Zionists.
Most religious Jews and the reform movement, initially anti-Zionist, reconciled themselves
with Jewish state, after the Holocaust seemed to bear out the basic thesis that Jews
required a homeland of their own and would not necessarily be safe even in the best
circumstances, and after creation of Israel proved that Zionist aspirations could become a
reality. Success has many fathers. Nonetheless, anti-Zionist ideologies and their
representatives persist among religious groups such as the ultraorthodox Neturei
Karta and writers such as Noam Chomsky.
This ideological opposition to Zionism later dovetailed with the anti-Israel cold-war politics
of the Soviet Union and the Arab antagonism to Israel, as well as with anti-Semitism.
Retrospectively, communist ideologues pegged Zionism as a colonialist ideology bent on
exploiting and dispossessing the native inhabitants of Palestine, and creating an apartheid
colonialist fascist Jewish state. In 1975, a pro-Soviet and pro-Arab majority in the UN
passed General Assembly Resolution 3397, branding Zionism as racism. The resolution
was repealed in 1991, but similar sentiments were repeated at a conference of nongovernment organizations in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The rationale for this idea is
that Zionism is a colonialist movement that assumes that the racial superiority of the Jews
gives them the right to dispossess the Arabs of Palestine. However, Zionist ideology is not
based on racial notions and didn't assume superiority of the Jews. Zionist theorists
assumed that the Jews are socially inferior and "abnormal" because they did not have a
national home. The "abnormal" Diaspora character of Jews would be corrected when the
people returned to their own land, realized their right to self-determination and renewed
their nation existence. Zionists believe that the Jewish right to the land is based on ancient
historical links, not racial superiority. Some Zionists see the Arabs as usurpers, just as the
Arabs see the Zionists as usurpers. As the conflict between Arab and Jew escalated, some
Zionists favored voluntary or not so voluntary transfer to remove the Arabs, and others
seem to have thought the Arabs could be wished away. However, Zionism as an ideology
did not posit dispossession of the Arabs.
It is undeniable that early Zionist leaders used the language and rhetoric of colonialism
and established organizations with names like "The Jewish Colonial Trust." In part, this
reflects the influence of the 19th century European cultural milieu, when colonialism was a
perfectly acceptable concept. In part, it reflects efforts of Zionist leaders to sell leaders of
the great powers on the idea of supporting a Jewish colonization scheme that would
support German or British or French interests in the Middle East. The Socialist-Zionist
movement certainly did not see themselves as colonialists and were opposed to
colonialism and imperialism, nor did the USSR originally oppose Zionism on the basis that
it is a colonialist movement.
Anti-Semitic writers identify Zionism with the spurious program enunciated in the
"Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a nineteenth century forgery of the Russian secret police,
and insist that Zionists are intent on taking over the world.. A related notion, perhaps
inspired by the writings of Najib Azouri, is that Zionism insists on expanding the Jewish
state to the borders promised in the Old Testament - the Nile and Tigris Euphrates rivers.
Though there are at present some religious and nationalist extremists in Israel who want
such borders, Zionism never had any such program. Early Zionists did not always envision
a national home in the Middle East, and "Palestine" did not exist as a political entity before
1922. The map of Zionist borders presented by Zionists to the Paris conference in 1919
was somewhat larger than modern Israel. It covered parts of what are now Jordan and
Lebanon and Syria, ending just west of the Damascus-Hejaz railway. However, this
optimistic (from the Zionist point of view) proposal was a bargaining position, had little to
do with biblical promises, and did not reflect any deep seated ideology.
Zionism After the Establishment of the State of Israel
The Zionist organization has continued to function after the establishment of the Jewish
state. It has helped to bring millions of new immigrants to Israel, encourages the teaching
of Hebrew and Jewish culture abroad, lobbies for Israel with the US and other
governments, and rallies support to Israel in times of crisis. However, in Israel, "Zionism"
became somewhat of a pejorative, associated with government propaganda, super-
patriotism and regimentation. The Labor Zionist movement, that had founded the state,
eventually found itself in a minority, replaced in large part by more militant religious
Zionists and the Likud party, which inherited the mantle of revisionism, carried on by a
Begin after the death of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
Zionism and the 6-day War- The 6-day war, which resulted in a dramatic victory for
Israel, had a profound affect on the attitude of Jews in Israel and abroad to Zionism and
Israel. The war and lightning victory taught many Arabs that Israel was here to stay, and
in fact, it did the same for Jews. In Israel, it lifted the populace out of the doldrums of
economic stagnation and frustration, and gave them renewed faith in the Zionist idea and
the state. Abroad, the war had a more profound effect. The United States and Canada
held the largest concentration of Jews outside the USSR. The vast majority of American
Jews had looked upon Israel benignly and condescendingly as a refuge for persecuted
Jews, and as a charitable cause that they would support with the same feelings of
superiority that they supported their less fortunate relatives in Europe. Among secular
American Jews, Zionism was regarded as the aberration of misfits and dreamers,
somewhat as it had been at the beginning of the twentieth century. The state of Israel,
had after-all been founded and Zionism had therefore "accomplished its purpose," they
felt. They had seen the penniless immigrants, the wretched of the earth, arriving in the
displaced-persons refuge called Israel with their pitiful bundles and strange clothing,
coming off the gangplanks of ships in Haifa on newsreels. This was all very well for those
poor unfortunates, who needed a place to live, but surely, it could have nothing to do with
them or their lives, living in the United States or Canada and building their futures there.
As an ideology, Zionism threatened their own sense of identity as Americans perhaps, or
even worse, threatened to take their sons and daughters to a far-away land.
The ultra-orthodox Hassidic Jews were opposed to the Zionist state, or at best neutral.
The focus of religious Zionism was the dovish Mizrachi movement, whose representatives
in the Israeli government, the National Religious Party (NRP) had opposed the war.All this
changed rapidly in June of 1967. Israel became a source of pride for most Jews. They all
wanted to be partners in this successful enterprise and to claim pride of ownership.
Socialists came to volunteer in kibbutzim. Capitalists brought investment capital. Willing
donors were found for the beautification and revitalization of Jerusalem. The NRP began to
mobilize to settle and retain the conquered territories. Ultra-orthodox rabbis who did not
recognize the Zionist state, nonetheless issued injunctions against returning any part of
the "liberated" "holy land."
Zionism and Occupation - For many people in Israel and abroad, "Zionism" came to
imply support for the settlement of Jews in the territories occupied by Israel in the 6-day
war. It assumed a very negative connotation for those who oppose the occupation. The
word "Zionism" in the sense of support for settlers is used both by right wing Zionist
extremists, and by anti-Zionists. Right wing Zionist extremists insist that withdrawal from
the occupied territories will mean the "end of Zionism." Anti-Zionists insist that
"expansionism" is part of Zionist ideology. Historically, this view does not seem to have
ideological support, since "Greater Israel" was the ideology of the breakaway religious
movement created after 1967, and was never the ideology of mainstream Zionism except
perhaps for a few decades following the Six Day war. Messianism was part of protoZionism, but the Zionist movement was pragmatic in all that it said and did. Expansionism
became popular as a result of historical accidents, and not because of ideology. The
territory that might be allotted to the Jewish state shrank during the British mandate,
creating a sort of irredentism. Rather than being friendly neighbors, it became apparent
that the Arab countries would be hostile, generating a desire for "strategic depth" to
protect against invasion. It was easy for Israeli governments to say they would return
territories for peace, and at the same continue to build Greater Israel, since peace or
anything approaching it appeared to be a remote abstraction.
A part of the religious Zionist movement grafted itself on to the temporary realities created
after the 6 day war, and evolved a radical messianic ideology. They insisted that they, and
only they, represent the "real" Zionism. A quiet coup had transformed Zionism.
Unfortunately, a considerable part of the world took them at their word. The image of
Zionism in the world was transformed from that of a progressive movement of liberation to
a movement of fanatics who wanted to create a religious state and disenfranchise a native
population.77
The Promised Land78

The history of the Jewish people begins with Abraham, and the story of Abraham begins
when G-d tells him to leave his homeland, promising Abraham and his descendants a new
home in the land of Canaan. (Gen. 12). This is the land now known as Israel, named after
Abraham's grandson, whose descendants are the Jewish people. The land is often referred
to as the Promised Land because of G-d's repeated promise (Gen. 12:7, 13:15, 15:18, 17:8)
to give the land to the descendants of Abraham.
The Land of Israel
Level: Basic
Israel is the land promised to Abraham in the Bible

Israel is central to the Jewish religion
Zionism is a political movement to establish a Jewish homeland
Israel is a democratic country
Israel is home to more than 1/3 of the world's Jews
20% of Israel's citizens are not Jewish
The land is described repeatedly in the Torah as a good land and "a land flowing with milk
and honey" (e.g., Ex. 3:8). This description may not seem to fit well with the desert images
we see on the nightly news, but let's keep in mind that the land was repeatedly abused by
conquerors who were determined to make the land uninhabitable for the Jews. In the few
decades since the Jewish people regained control of the land, we have seen a tremendous
improvement in its agriculture. Israeli agriculture today has a very high yield.
Jews have lived in this land continuously from the time of its original conquest by Joshua
more than 3200 years ago until the present day, though Jews were not always in political
control of the land, and Jews were not always the majority of the land's population.
The land of Israel is central to Judaism. A substantial portion of Jewish law is tied to the
land of Israel, and can only be performed there. Some rabbis have declared that it is
a mitzvah (commandment) to take possession of Israel and to live in it (relying on Num.
33:53). The Talmud indicates that the land itself is so holy that merely walking in it can gain
you a place in the World to Come. Prayers for a return to Israel and Jerusalem are included
in daily prayers as well as many holiday observances and special events.
77
78
Ibid
The Land of Israel. Retrieved May 27,2013 from http://www.jewfaq.org/israel.htm
Living outside of Israel is viewed as an unnatural state for a Jew. The world outside of Israel
is often referred to as "galut," which is usually translated as "diaspora" (dispersion), but a
more literal translation would be "exile" or "captivity." When we live outside of Israel, we are
living in exile from our land.
Jews were exiled from the land of Israel by the Romans in 135 C.E., after they defeated the
Jews in a three-year war, and Jews did not have any control over the land again until 1948
C.E.
Zionism and the Formation of the State of Israel
The Jewish people never gave up hope that we would someday return to our home in Israel.
That hope is expressed in the song Ha-Tikvah (The Hope), the anthem of the Zionist
movement and the state of Israel.
Kol od baleivav p'nima
Nefesh Y'hudi homiya
Ul'fa-atey mizrach kadima
Ayin L'Tziyon tzofiya
Od lo avda tikvateynu
Hatikva bat sh'not alpayim
Lih'yot am chofshi b'artzenu
Eretz Tziyon v'yirushalayim.
Lih'yot am chofshi b'artzenu
Eretz Tziyon v'yirushalayim.
As long as deep within the heart
The Jewish soul is warm
And toward the edges of the east
An eye to Zion looks
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years
To be a free people in our own land
In the land of Zion and Jerusalem.
To be a free people in our own land
In the land of Zion and Jerusalem.
But for a long time, this desire for our homeland was merely a vague hope without any
concrete plans to achieve it. In the late 1800s, Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann founded
Zionism, a political movement dedicated to the creation of a Jewish state. They saw a state
of Israel as a necessary refuge for Jewish victims of oppression, especially in Russia, where
pogroms were decimating the Jewish population.
The name "Zionism" comes from the word "Zion," which was the name of a stronghold in
Jerusalem. Over time, the term "Zion" came to be applied to Jerusalem in general, and later
to the Jewish idea of utopia.
Zionism was not a religious movement; it was a primarily political. The early Zionists sought
to establish a secular state of Israel, recognized by the world, through purely legal means.
Theodor Herzl, for example, was a completely assimilated secular Jewish journalist. He felt
little attachment to his Jewish heritage until he covered the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish
captain in the French military who was (unjustly) convicted of passing secrets to Germany.
The charges against Dreyfus brought out a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment that shocked
Herzl into realizing the need for a Jewish state. Early Zionists were so desperate for a refuge
at one point that they actually considered a proposal to create a Jewish homeland in Uganda.
Alaska and Siberia were also discussed. But the only land that truly inspired Jewish people
worldwide was our ancient homeland, at that time a part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire
known as Palestine.
During World War I, the Zionist cause gained some degree of support from Great Britain. In
a 1917 letter from British foreign secretary Lord Balfour to Jewish financier Lord Rothschild,
the British government expressed a commitment to creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
This letter is commonly known as the Balfour Declaration. Unfortunately, the British were
speaking out of both sides of their mouth, simultaneously promising Arabs their freedom if
they helped to defeat the Ottoman Empire, which at that time controlled most of the Middle
East (including the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, as well as significant
portions of Saudi Arabia and northern Africa). The British promised the Arabs that they
would limit Jewish settlement in Palestine mere months after the Balfour Declaration
expressed support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
people."
After World War I, Palestine was assigned to the United Kingdom as a mandated territory by
the newly-formed League of Nations. The Palestinian Mandate initially included the lands
that are now Israel and Jordan, but all lands east of the Jordan River were later placed into
a separate mandate known as Transjordan (now the nation of Jordan). The document
creating the Palestinian mandate incorporated the terms of the Balfour Declaration,
promising the creation of a national Jewish homeland within the mandated territory. Many
Arab leaders were initially willing to give Palestine to the Jews if the rest of the Arab lands in
the Middle East were under Arab control. However, the Arabs living in Palestine vigorously
opposed Jewish immigration into the territory and the idea of a Jewish homeland. It is
around this time that the idea of Palestinian nationality (distinct from Arab nationality
generally) first begins to appear. There were many riots in the territory, and the British
came to believe that the conflicting claims were irreconcilable. In 1937, the British
recommended partition of the territory.
The Holocaust brought the need for a Jewish homeland into sharp focus for both Jews and
for the rest of the world. The Jews who tried to flee Nazi Germany were often turned back
due to immigration limitations at the borders of every country, including the United States,
Britain and Palestine. Many of those who were sent back to Germany ended up in death
camps where they were systematically murdered.
The British were unable to come up with a solution that would satisfy either Arabs or Jews,
so in 1947, they handed the problem to the newly-founded United Nations, which developed
a partition plan dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab portions. The plan was ratified in
November 1947. The mandate expired on May 14, 1948 and British troops pulled out of
Palestine. The Jews of Palestine promptly declared the creation of the State of Israel, which
was recognized by several Western countries immediately.
However, the surrounding Arab nations did not recognize the validity of Israel and invaded,
claiming that they were filling a vacuum created by the termination of the mandate and the
absence of any legal authority to replace it. The Arabs fought a year-long war to drive the
Jews out. Miraculously, the new state of Israel won this war, as well as every subsequent
Arab-Israeli war, gaining territory every time the Arabs attacked them.
Israel Today
Today, approximately five million Jews, more than a third of the

world's Jewish population, live in the land of Israel. Jews make up more than eighty percent
of the population of the land, and Jews are in political control of the land, though non-Jews
who become citizens of Israel have the same legal rights as Jewish citizens of Israel. In fact,
there are a few Arab members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament).
About half of all Israelis are Mizrachim, descended from Jews who have been in the land
since ancient times or who were forced out of Arab countries after Israel was founded. Most
of the rest are Ashkenazic, descended from Jews who fled persecution in Eastern Europe
starting in the late 1800s, from Holocaust survivors, or from other immigrants who came at
various times. About 1% of the Israeli population are the black Ethiopian Jews who fled
during the brutal Ethiopian famine in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Jews continue to immigrate to Israel in large numbers. Immigration to Israel is referred to
as aliyah (literally, ascension). Under Israel's Law of Return, any Jew who has not
renounced the Jewish faith (by converting to another religion) can automatically become an
Israeli citizen, somewhat similar to the way Ireland gives automatic citizenship to second or
third generation descendants of Irish citizens. Gentiles may also become citizens of Israel
after undergoing a standard naturalization process, much like the one required to become a
United States citizen.
Israel is governed by a legislative body called the Knesset (literally, "Assembly"), made up of
120 members. Under the Israeli electoral system, each party presents a list of candidates,
and voters vote for the list rather than for individual candidates. The party receives a
number of seats proportional to the number of votes it received, thus a party getting 10% of
the vote will get 10% of the available seats. As a result, no Israeli party ever has a majority
of the seats in the Knesset, and governmental business is conducted by coalition building.
This system can give minority groups a significant amount of power, because their support
may be needed to gain a majority. Israel also has a president, elected by the Knesset, and a
Prime Minister, formerly elected directly but this system is in flux.
Most Jews today support the existence of the state of Israel, though not necessarily all of
the policies of its government (as one would expect in any democracy). There are a small
number of secular Jews who are anti-Zionist. There is also a very small group of rightwing Orthodox Jews who object to the existence of the state of Israel, maintaining that it is
a sin for us to create a Jewish state when the messiah has not yet come. However, this
viewpoint does not reflect the mainstream opinion of Orthodoxy. Most Orthodox Jews
support the existence of the state of Israel as a homeland, even though it is not the
theological state of Israel that will be brought about by the messiah.79
Conclusion
79
Ibid
The modern State of Israel was formed in 1948 from part of Palestine, the ancestral
homeland of the Jewish people and a region sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.
In biblical times the area was controlled by the kingdoms of Israel, Judah, and Judea. After
the 1st century AD, it was held successively by virtually every power of the Middle East. The
founding of Israel was the climax of the modern Zionist movement of the late 19th century,
which sought the reestablishment of a Jewish national state in Palestine. At the time, the
region was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, and most of the people living there were Palestinian
Arabs. On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Zionist leaders led by David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the
State of Israel. The next day British troops withdrew, relinquishing the mandate. The
surrounding Arab countriesEgypt, Jordan (then called Transjordan), Syria, Iraq, and
Lebanonimmediately invaded Palestine to help the Palestinian Arabs and to try to crush
the Jewish state.
References
The history of Zionism and the creation of Israel. Retrieved May 27, 2013 from
http://www.mideastweb.org/zionism.htm
The Land of Israel. Retrieved May 27,2013 from http://www.jewfaq.org/israel.htm
Chapter 6
Coclusion: Zionism And Nationalism of Jews
Lets briefly look at Zionism. In the present epoch it has become open Israeli chauvinism
i.e., extreme Israeli nationalism. Zionism began in the mid-nineteenth century as a
movement of middle and upper class Jews seeking a way out of the vicious anti-semitism
prevailing in many European countries, particularly marked by pogroms (mass slaughter of
Jews) in Tsarist Russia, of which Poland was a part.
Zionism grew up in Europe at a time when the revolutionary working class movement had
resulted in a great growth of socialism. The socialist (Marxist, that is) solution to the Jewish
question was in general similar to its solution to all antagonisms namely, the overthrow of
capitalism which used the national question to divide the working class on the basis of
religious differences, instead of unifying the workers; irrespective of creed or colour, to
overthrow their oppressors, the capitalist class. Nevertheless, Marxists fought for all the
demands of political democracy even within imperialism, includmg the right to the selfdetermination of nations i.e., independence. 80
A so-called Jewish State
By contrast Zionism was from the beginning a bourgeois national movement. It claimed that
the only real protection for Jews worldwide was the establishment of the Jewish state. Early
in its history, the Zionists would have gladly accepted settlement in any tolerable territory
made available to them by one or other bourgeois government. None was offered them. So
they utilised religion to try to influence the western bourgeois world to allow them to settle
in Palestine.
At the close of the nineteenth century they were active collecting funds to buy land in
Palestine, hoping in time to get enough bought to give the Jews political power, with
Palestine (as it was then) as a Jewish state.
Zionism and the Creation of Israel. [Reproduced from the October 8, 2000 issue of the
fortnightly The Spark Organ of the Workers Party of New Zealand]. Retrieved May 27,
2013
from
http://www.bannedthought.net/India/PeoplesMarch/PM199980
2006/archives/2000/dec2k/zionism.htm
Imperialism at work
In Russia, many Jewish workers belonged to an organisation called The Bund. In the
Social-Democratic Party which was based on Marxian socialism and led by V I Lenin, they
had a considerable amount of autonomy. However, they used this to oppose and agitate
against the unity of all Russian workers for the overthrow of Tsarism. As a result, they were
expelled.
While the Zionists kept up their land buying, the Palestinian Arabs the main body of the
population became aware that they were losing their country. This tendency gathered
strength after World War I, when the Anglo-French imperialists seized Palestine with
great help from the Arab armed forces who were promised Palestine for themselves once
Turkey was defeated.
Betrayal, plus divide and rule
This promise was callously betrayed. Playing their long-practised imperialist game of divide
and rule, Britain and France secretly signed a promise to the Zionists to establish a national
home for the Jews in Palestine, and shortly afterwards secretly signed the Sykes-Picot
Agreement promising Palestme to the Arabs in return for a revolutionary Arab liberation war
against the Ottoman Empire (Turkey); which war in fact largely won the war in the Middle
East for the Allied Powers.
What became Palestme was actually only a part of the original territory. The newly-formed
League of Nationsdivided that territory between Britain and France, the latter getting Syna
and Lebanon while Britain got Iraq, Palestine and semi-colonial rule over Jordan. The socalled mandates handed by the League to Britain and France over these lands were simply
the transfer of colonial rule from Turkey to Britain and France. These were the spoils of the
imperialist world war. The Arab peoples got absolutely nothing except lies.
In Palestine, Britain played up to both Jews and Arabs. In 1924 Sir Alfred Mond, head of the
armaments combine Brunner Mond, (later to become Imperial Chemical Industries) wrote to
the British Government promising that Britain would have a loyal ally m Zionism in the
Middle East.
Growth of the Arab National Movement
Britain welcomed this with the Balfour Declaration, knowingly inflaming Arab nationalism by
its promise of a Jewish National Home. At that time the Arab national movement was a
force to be reckoned with in the Middle East. Much of British policy was designed to weaken
it in order to hold on to the Suez canal. For that reason, while keeping the Arabs at arms
length, Britain kept the Zionist settlement in Palestine within limits. A rightwing group of
Jews took up a terrorist struggle against British forces. Ex-premier Shamir was a prominent
leader and proudly proclaimed his terrorist past.
They did not at all mind using terrorism to seize Palestine and throw out the British.
However, when Palestinians fought against Israel for their land theirs for centuries past,
they were denounced as terrorists.
Israeli expansionism and land grabs
When the United Nations partitioned Palestine between Israel and its Arab occupants, war
broke out in 1948 between Israel and neighbouring Arab states. With imperialist backing,
Israel annexed a large swath of Arab land, expellmg the Arab inhabitants. There have been
five Arab-Israeli wars, each won by Israel. Each time Israel has annexed more Arab land. All
this has only been made possible by Israel receiving full backing of the main imperialist
powers. At first these were mainly Britain and France. Later, after the failure of a combined
British, French and Israeli attack in 1956, the US became top dog which it has been ever
since. It has kept Israel supplied with $4 billion of aid a year and also the latest in high-tech
weaponry. In return, Israel plays the role of defender of US strategic and oil interests in the
Middle East. Ofcourse, periodically, as in the Gulf War, these mterests become a single
strongpoint for oil magnates and the military.
Zionism an anti-working class, pro-imperialist movement
Thus, even before the state of Israel was established, Zionism proved itself a force hostile to
the interests of the international working class. Its aim was to turn Jewish workers away
from the class struggle for socialism. It co-operated fully with Anglo-French imperialism, and
then particularly with US imperialism.
Israel, once established, small as it was, itself became an imperialist power, seizing Arab
territory by force and expelling its inhabitants in order to expand its control over the region.
Thanks to imperialist control over the worlds media an enormous brainwashing exercise has
taken place with Israel the hero and Arab nationalists the villains. In reality, while there are
many shortcomings in the Arab world, the boot is on the other foot.
Lack of working class leadership the main Arab fault

As to the Arab national movement, after its betrayal by Britain and France following World
War I, it has tended towards anti-imperialism. This still remains a potent force among the
Arab masses of the Middle East and North Africa, heightened by the 1991 US-led imperialist
invasion of Iraq. However, while it is anti-imperialist, the movement has suffered from a
succession of bourgeois nationalist leaders who regularly led the masses to costly failures.
The problem has been the lack of working-class leadership of the liberation movement and
in particular, the lack of a proletarian revolutionary party capable of uniting the masses
under proletarian and not bourgeois or religious fundamentalist, leadership.
Both Nasser and Saddam Hussein began with the aim of securing a secular Arab state. As a
bourgeois to his bones, Nasser suppressed the Communist Party by jailings and torture. This
foul record did not stop Khrushchev to his eternal disgrace from awarding him the
Order of Lenin. In Iraq, the Communists were crushed by the Baath Party. Such secularism
was certainly opposed to Moslem fundamentalism, but it equally certainly did nothing for
united struggle against imperialism.
Arafat and the PLO
Let us consider the role of Arafat and the PLO. For years, they were considered Israels main
enemy, with some justification They refused to recognise Israels right to exist as a state on
the basis of Israeli seizure of Palestinian land and forcible expulsion or enslavement of its
inhabitants. The PLO carried on guerrilla warfare, invariably called terrorism by the West, for
the restoration of Palestinian sovereignty. Most Arabs agreed with this stand, and the PLO
was recognised by them as their spokesman. However, the increase in development by the
Arab states of their own national interests and economic concerns steadily weakened
support for the Palestinian cause, despite periodical upsurges. Nonetheless, the Arabs of
Gaza Strip and the West Bank of Jerusalem have courageously fought against Israels
concentration camp treatment. In 1987 they began the Intifada or uprising, despite being
without weapons other than stones. This was met under both the Shamir and Rabin regimes
by ruthless brutality which sickened many who watched it on television screens round the
world.81
81
Ibid.
In 1917 Zionism was to be awarded international recognition by British foreign secretary,

Lord Balfour. The Balfour Declaration was submitted to Lord Rothschild in which the British
Empire committed itself to the Zionist objectives. In this declaration the British Government
advocated the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine however
the declaration also outlined the need to uphold the civil and religious rights of the
indigenous people, namely the Palestinian Arabs. The significance of this declaration was
substantial since it was the first time the Zionist movement had been given principle backing
by one of the major world powers at the time.
International recognition of Zionism was an important feature for the flourishing ideology. If
Zionists could present their case to the worlds leading powers and recruit their support it
would stabilise the foundations required against its critics to the eventuality of a nation
Jewish home. This recognition was initially founded by way of the Balfour Declaration and
manifested itself in its entirety in the establishment of the State of Israel thirty years later,
British policy would vastly influence the shaping of the Middle East and the futures of both
Arab and Jew.82
Refernces
Babak Mayamey. Zionism: A Critical Account 1897-1948. The Development of Israel and the
Exodus of Palestine from A New Historian Perspective. University of Leeds. Retrieved May
27, 2013 from http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/students/student-journal/ma-winter10/mayamey-e.pdf
Zionism and the Creation of Israel. [Reproduced from the October 8, 2000 issue of the
fortnightly The Spark Organ of the Workers Party of New Zealand]. Retrieved May 27,
2013
from
http://www.bannedthought.net/India/PeoplesMarch/PM1999-
2006/archives/2000/dec2k/zionism.htm
82
Babak Mayamey. Zionism: A Critical Account 1897-1948. The Development of Israel and the Exodus of
Palestine from A New Historian Perspective. University of Leeds. Retrieved May 27, 2013 from
http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/students/student-journal/ma-winter-10/mayamey-e.pdf

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ZIONISM:

First Edition, 2014

Zionism and Israel

Zionism Is Seen As A Racist Ideology Like All Nationalism

Zionism and the creation of Israel

Zionism and the Conflict With Britain

Coclusion: Zionism And Nationalism of Jews

A so-called Jewish State

Herzl began to energetically promote his ideas, continually attracting supporters,

"Time Line". Herzl.org. 1949-08-16. Retrieved 2011-10-26.

Death and burial

Catholicism, France and Zionism: 1895-1904.

"Jewishvirtuallibrary.org". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2011-10-26.

"European Jewish Congress Serbia". Eurojewcong.org. 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2011-10-26.

Herzl Statue in Dimona.

Hans left a death note explaining his reasons.

Hans was 39.

Fulfilling Historical Justice: Herzl's Children Come Home, jewishagency.org

He never did return to Palestine.

Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, August, 1946,

1. Kompagniearbeit, comedy in one act, Vienna 1880

4. Muttershnchen, in four acts, Vienna 1885 (Later: "Austoben" by H. Jungmann)

Theodor (Binyamin Zeev) Herzl

The Dreyfus Affair

Uganda Isnt Zion

Theodore Herzl - Founder of the Zionist movement

Mobs shouted Death to the Jews in

Altneuland (Old New Land) published in 1902,

pictured a Jewish social utopia in Palestine. It would be a pluralist, technologically advanced,

picture dominates offices of the Israeli

Herzl met Kaiser Wilhelm in Palestine

religious Zionists such as rabbis Kook and Reines,

Introduction - What is Zionism?. . Retrieved May 26, 2013 from http://www.zionismisrael.com/zionism_history.htm

Israel, even in the farthest frozen

Emancipation and Zionism

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh

During this period, after the French Revolution

Rabbi Judah ben

an anti-Semitic blood-libel in Damascus.

Religion and Zionism

Early Jewish Settlers

Cultural Zionism and to a lesser extent

was study of the bible and de-emphasis of Jewish Diaspora writings,

Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, was

The Second Aliyah and Socialist Zionism

The British Mandate - The first achievement of Political Zionism

Meanwhile, the British were having second thoughts about

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, Knopf 1999 Page 91)

Zionism, the Arab Revolt and the Conflict With Britain

Grand Mufti Hajj Amin Al

Following World War II, Britain continued to limit

The Exodus - 1947

Map of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine, 1947

Map of Israel showing the 1949 armistice lines.

Map of the Israel "Green Line" Borders

Zionism after the Six Day War

repealed in 1991, but similar sentiments were repeated at a conference of non-government

These phrases are taken from different Web sites:

Nationalism and racism

The catechism of nationalism

from: Nation Planet

closest to the biological ideologies first described by the term 'racism'.

would be considered a crime against humanity.

Why Zionism Is Racism?