Zionism

Zionism was nationalist political movement by East European Jews dedicated to reestablishing the Jewish state in the land of Israel, starting in the late 19th century. The goal was achieved with the independence of Israel in 1948, and the term term now connotes political support for the continued existence of this Jewish nation.

in front: David Ben Gurian, Golda Maier, Theodor Herzl

History

Although Jews have been returning to their homeland throughout the last two thousand years, the movement in its modern guise was started in the late nineteenth century by Theodor Herzl.

For many centuries there was talk but no action; Jews did not have their own country, and most were restricted to ghettoes. By 1810 the French Revolution and Napoleon liberated most of the Jews of Europe from the ghettoes, allowing a new level of mobility. The Romanticism of the 19th century inspired a modern Jewish identity that led to much talk of their own nation. The movement was inspired by the writings of Moses Hess, David Luzatto, Leo Pinsker, Zvi Kalischer, and Yehudah Alkalai; funding came from philanthropists Moses Montefiore, Edmond de Rothschild, and Maurice de Hirsch. The first small colonies relocated to Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire until it collapsed in 1918. Britain then took control under a mandate from the League of Nations.

In 1897 Herzl formed the World Zionist Congress in Switzerland; it became an effective worldwide political movement. Despite opposition from assimilationist Jews and internal divisions the Zionist organization gathered strength. In 1905 one faction withdrew when the majority rejected a British proposal for establishing a Jewish homeland in Uganda, Africa.

During World War I, the British government sought Jewish support and issued the Balfour Declaration promising a homeland -- but not an independent state--in Palestine. The League of Nations created a British mandate, with full control over Palestine in 1922. Tens of thousands of Jews arrived, mostly from Europe. Under the mandate, increasing violence occurred between the Jewish settlers and the Arabs settlers. Finally, the United Nations voted in November 1947 to partition Palestine, and the State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948.

Conflict as total war

The fighting between the Yishuv and the Palestinians, November 1947-14 May 1948, and the war between Israel and invading Arab armies, 15 May 1948-July 1949, represented a total war, as did the Six Day War pf 1967. The life and death of Israel were at stake and required the mobilization of not only the military but also the civilian population, the economy, and the social and political institutions of the Jewish community--as well as mobilizing support from the diaspora in the United States. These crises are a central part of Zionist memories and identity, in combination with memory of the Holocaust, and permanently shaped the Israeli-Arab situation as well as the evolution of the Israeli and Palestinian societies.

Diaspora

Zionism, and Israel, are based on the connection between the Jewish religion and 'Jewishness,' which gives Israel and Zionism 'extraterritorial' power and rights ranging outside the country. This is similar to the ideologies dominant in Ireland, Tibet, and Armenia, where nationalist movements and nation-states are closely linked to religious heritage, a culture of forced diaspora, and the 'extraterritorial' power of their cultural or ethnic identities.

Opposition to Zionism

File:End of zionism equals peace.jpg

Anti-Zionist Jews

With few exceptions, Muslins around the world are hostile to Zionism and Israel, often to the point of promising the destruction of the state.

In the United States and Europe, until World War II the Reform Jews generally opposed Zionism--often denouncing it because it was the opposite of assimilation and American identity. With the establishment of Israel in 1948 the opposition softened, and when the Six Day War in 1967 showed Israel was vulnerable to attack, most previously negative Jews became supportive. In the U.S. many leftist Jews are hostile to Israel--or, more exactly, very friendly to the Palestinian cause. In Israel a small minority of religious Jews, most prominently the Neturei Karta sect, are anti-Zionist for theological reasons.

The Palestinian Arabs, many of whom fled during the unrest that followed the reestablishment of the Israeli state are among those opposed to its existence, as are many other Arabs who are allied with them.

Zionism is sharply criticized in the U.S. and Europe by non-Jews who believe that Palestineans are poortly treated by Israel. In the U.S. other critics complain that pro-Israeli interest groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have an excessive amount of influence over US policy.

In the often tendentious debates over the Arab-Israeli question many of these so called "anti-Zionists" claim that there is a distinction between opposition to Israel and Anti-Semitism.

Christian Zionists

Since the Reformation an interest in "the Restoration of the Jews to their Land" has been a constant theme in many Protestant denominations. The stressed Genesis 12:3, in which God speaks to Abraham, as the scriptural foundation for their conviction:

“

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

”

This concern did not always translate into support for a specific Return to Zion. Between 1600 and the 1880s, scores of Christians advanced plans for settlement in Palestine. In a striking parallel, Jewish thinkers, beginning in the seventeenth century, advocated similar ideas and some embarked on small-scale settlement in Palestine. Among both Jews and Christians these settlement attempts increased at times of intense messianic speculation, especially around the year 1840. British, Dutch and American protestants were involved. One specific Christian restoration plan was Laurence Oliphant's 1882 "Gilead Plan" for a large Jewish colony under British auspices in eastern Palestine. The Christian proposals seem to have had little coordination with or influence on the Jewish plans.

From the early 1940s to the late 1960s American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was the most eloquent of American Christian Zionists.

Dispensationalism

Zionism is a central element in Dispensationalism, especially the Plymouth Brethren version promoted by John Nelson Darby in the mid 19th century. Darby's ideas were spread by Cyrus Scofield in his Scofield Reference Bible (1909 and many later edition). It was most significant premillennialist book. In recent decades the popular expression of Dispensationalist ideas is to be found in Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) and especially in the ''Left Behind books by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins published in the 1990s and early 2000s. The series sold over sixty-five million copies. In each of the twelve "Left Behind" novels, Israel and Israeli Jews play a pivotal role.

The Dispensationalists argue from the Bible that before the Second Coming Christ is possible, the Antichrist must first set up a one world government and command himself to be worshiped as God in the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem. The Antichrist will persecute Jews but they will recognize Christ as their savior and repent. Believing Christians will be "raptured" before the global strife (Tribulation) begins. After Christ returns he will set up a millennial kingdom in Israel as the Jewish Messiah in literal fulfillment of such prophecies found in Ezekiel and Revelation. Until the 1940s Dispensationalists ignored the Middle East. The founding of Israel and, especially, the Six Day War in 1967 changed them radically, and they focused enormous attention on the region. In the 1970s they became politicized and started voting along foreign policy lines, with a strong preference for Ronald Reagan and his followers. The liberal notion that Palestinians rightfully should own the West Bank and Gaza (Judea and Samaria) is anathema to Christian Zionists.

Falwell

In 1981, the Israeli air force destroyed Osirak, Baathist Iraq's nuclear installation. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin called Reverend Jerry Falwell and asked for political support. Falwell replied, "I support Israel with all my heart." Falwell systematically rounded up evangelical support for Israel's military actions. The evangelicals from that point on increased their pressure on Congress to support Israel. Reverend John Hagee in Dallas was as enthusiastic as Fallwell, and pressured Congressman Tom DeLay to join the cause, which DeLay did with enthusiasm. By 2001, DeLay was the most powerful member of Congress, and his message resonated with the Bush White House.

Christian promoters

• Francis Kett (1547–1589)
• Thomas Brightman (1552-1607)
• Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625)
• Isaac de la Peyrere (1594-1676)
• Lewis Way (1772-1840)
• George Bush (1796-1859)
• John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882)
• Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801 - 1885)
• James H. Brookes (1830 – 1897)
• William Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935)
• Reinhold Niebuhr (1892—1971)
• John C. Hagee (b. 1940)

Further reading

• Brenner, Michael, and Shelley Frisch. Zionism: A Brief History (2003) excerpt and text search
• Laqueuer, Walter. A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel (2003) good history by a leading scholar excerpt and text search
• Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time (2007) excerpt and text search
• Urofsky, Melvin I. American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust (1995)
• Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994); 1521pp

Christian Zionism

• Brog, David. Standing With Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State (2006) 285 pp. excerpt and text search
• Merkley, Paul Charles. Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel (2001) 266 pp. scholarly study by a supporter Christian Zionism
• Merkley, Paul Charles. 'The Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891–1948' (1998)
• Weber, Timothy P. On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend (2004). 336 pp. excerpt and text search, somewhat hostile

See also

• American Jews
• Louis Brandeis, Zionist leader in U.S.
• Menachem Begin
• Liberal Christianity#Liberal Christianity's Anti-Zionism

External links

• Zionism and Israel Information Center
• Zionism and the Creation of Israel

=references

• Laqueur, Walter and Rubin, Barry, eds. The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict (7th ed. 2008) 626p.