Difference between revisions of "Zionism"

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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]].
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For many centuries there was talk but no action; Jews did not have their own country, and most were restricted to ghettos. By 1810 the [[French Revolution]] and [[Napoleon]] liberated most of the Jews of Europe from the ghettos, 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.   
 
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.   
 +
 +
Zionists idealized the muscular young Jews tilling the soil of the Holy Land; the heroic self image of the brave pioneer stood in stark contrast to Gentile stereotypes of the feminized Jewish weakling or the avaricious Jew-as-money changer.
  
 
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.
 
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.
 +
===United States===
 +
see [[American Jews]]
 +
 +
ZIonism grew rapidly in the U.S. after 1900, based largely among Yiddish-speaking recent immigrants from Russia. The Reform Jews, of German background, largely opposed the movement with the main exception of [[Louis Brandeis]], the Supreme Court justice who became a key leader.  There were three main groups in 1918: the Zionist Organization of America had 149,000 members, the Mizrachi religious Zionists had 18,000 and the Labor Zionists ( Poalei Zion) had 7,000.  The Labor Zionists, although originally founded in Europe on the basis of socialism, had Americanized and largely abandoned socialism in the 1920s.  Membership of all three plummeted during the early 1920s, but soared the after Arab massacres of Jews in Palestine in 1929 and the coming to power of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany in 1933.
 +
 +
The American Jewish Conference, in August 1943, was a decisive turning point. It gave voice to the collective anguish of American Jewry over the full-scale annihilation of the Jews of Europe by the Nazis. The horror of the [[Holocaust]] shaped and galvanized American Zionism. It convinced many previously hostile or neutral American Jews that statehood was the best answer to the plight of the Jews of Europe.  It catapulted [[Abba Hillel Silver]] and his fellow-activists to power and enabled them to transform the Zionist movement into a powerful force not only in the Jewish community but in the wider arena of American politics.  For example, the new sensibility was embraced by President [[Harry S. Truman]], who overrode his vehemently anti-Zionist State Department.<ref>The State Department wanted good relations with the Arabs of the Middle East; the plight of the Jews was not a priority in Foggy Bottom.</ref>
 +
 
===Conflict as total war ===
 
===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.<ref> Moshe Naor, "Israel's 1948 War of Independence as a Total War," ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 2008 43(2): 241-257</ref>
 
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.<ref> Moshe Naor, "Israel's 1948 War of Independence as a Total War," ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 2008 43(2): 241-257</ref>
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With few exceptions, Muslins around the world are hostile to Zionism and Israel, often to the point of promising the destruction of the state.
 
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-zionism|anti-Zionist]] for theological reasons.  
+
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. In the U.S. opposition was centered in the American Council for Judaism. <ref> Thomas A. Kolsky, ''Jews Against Zionism: The American Council for Judaism, 1942-1948'' (1990). </ref> 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.<ref>Ilan Kaisar, "Mobilizing American Jewish Liberals to Support American Zionism," ''The Journal of Israeli History'' (1994) 15:231-256; </ref>
 +
 
 +
 
 +
  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-zionism|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.  
 
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.
+
Zionism is sharply criticized in the U.S. and Europe by non-Jews who believe that Palestinians are poorly 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]].
 
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]].
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* [[Reinhold Niebuhr]] (1892—1971) <ref name=Hed/>  
 
* [[Reinhold Niebuhr]] (1892—1971) <ref name=Hed/>  
 
* [[John Hagee|John C. Hagee]] (b. 1940)
 
* [[John Hagee|John C. Hagee]] (b. 1940)
 +
 
==Further reading==
 
==Further reading==
 
* Brenner, Michael, and Shelley Frisch. ''Zionism: A Brief History'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Zionism-Brief-History-Michael-Brenner/dp/1558763015/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261732615&sr=1-26 excerpt and text search]
 
* Brenner, Michael, and Shelley Frisch. ''Zionism: A Brief History'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Zionism-Brief-History-Michael-Brenner/dp/1558763015/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261732615&sr=1-26 excerpt and text search]
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*[[Menachem Begin]]
 
*[[Menachem Begin]]
 
*[[Liberal Christianity#Liberal Christianity's Anti-Zionism]]
 
*[[Liberal Christianity#Liberal Christianity's Anti-Zionism]]
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*[[Theory of Fundamentalist Antisemitism]]
  
 
== External links ==
 
== External links ==
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[[Category:Church and State]]
 
[[Category:Church and State]]
 
[[Category:Judaism]]
 
[[Category:Judaism]]
 
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[[Category:Zionism]]
* Laqueur, Walter and Rubin, Barry, eds. ''The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict'' (7th ed. 2008) 626p.
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Revision as of 07:07, December 26, 2009

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 ghettos. By 1810 the French Revolution and Napoleon liberated most of the Jews of Europe from the ghettos, 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.

Zionists idealized the muscular young Jews tilling the soil of the Holy Land; the heroic self image of the brave pioneer stood in stark contrast to Gentile stereotypes of the feminized Jewish weakling or the avaricious Jew-as-money changer.

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.

United States

see American Jews

ZIonism grew rapidly in the U.S. after 1900, based largely among Yiddish-speaking recent immigrants from Russia. The Reform Jews, of German background, largely opposed the movement with the main exception of Louis Brandeis, the Supreme Court justice who became a key leader. There were three main groups in 1918: the Zionist Organization of America had 149,000 members, the Mizrachi religious Zionists had 18,000 and the Labor Zionists ( Poalei Zion) had 7,000. The Labor Zionists, although originally founded in Europe on the basis of socialism, had Americanized and largely abandoned socialism in the 1920s. Membership of all three plummeted during the early 1920s, but soared the after Arab massacres of Jews in Palestine in 1929 and the coming to power of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany in 1933.

The American Jewish Conference, in August 1943, was a decisive turning point. It gave voice to the collective anguish of American Jewry over the full-scale annihilation of the Jews of Europe by the Nazis. The horror of the Holocaust shaped and galvanized American Zionism. It convinced many previously hostile or neutral American Jews that statehood was the best answer to the plight of the Jews of Europe. It catapulted Abba Hillel Silver and his fellow-activists to power and enabled them to transform the Zionist movement into a powerful force not only in the Jewish community but in the wider arena of American politics. For example, the new sensibility was embraced by President Harry S. Truman, who overrode his vehemently anti-Zionist State Department.[1]

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.[2]

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

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. In the U.S. opposition was centered in the American Council for Judaism. [3] 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.[4]


 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 Palestinians are poorly 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) [5]
  • Thomas Brightman (1552-1607) [5]
  • Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625) [6]
  • Isaac de la Peyrere (1594-1676) [5]
  • Lewis Way (1772-1840) [7]
  • George Bush (1796-1859) [8]
  • John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882)
  • Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801 - 1885) [9]
  • James H. Brookes (1830 – 1897)[10]
  • William Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935)[11]
  • Reinhold Niebuhr (1892—1971) [5]
  • 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

External links

=references

  1. The State Department wanted good relations with the Arabs of the Middle East; the plight of the Jews was not a priority in Foggy Bottom.
  2. Moshe Naor, "Israel's 1948 War of Independence as a Total War," Journal of Contemporary History 2008 43(2): 241-257
  3. Thomas A. Kolsky, Jews Against Zionism: The American Council for Judaism, 1942-1948 (1990).
  4. Ilan Kaisar, "Mobilizing American Jewish Liberals to Support American Zionism," The Journal of Israeli History (1994) 15:231-256;
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "History of Christian Zionism by Rev. Malcolm Hedding"
  6. RHS Bibliography
  7. Jewish Enclyclopedia.com
  8. "Bush 43 and Bush 1844"
  9. answers.com
  10. James H. Brookes: A Memoir
  11. "Dr. William Eugene Blackstone (Oct. 6, 1841 – Nov. 7, 1935)"