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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 ghettoesghettos. By 1810 the [[French Revolution]] and [[Napoleon]] liberated most of the Jews of Europe from the ghettoesghettos, 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.<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 ===
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>
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. <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.
Zionism is sharply criticized in the U.S. and Europe by non-Jews who believe that Palestineans Palestinians are poortly 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]].
* [[Reinhold Niebuhr]] (1892—1971) <ref name=Hed/>
* [[John Hagee|John C. Hagee]] (b. 1940)
==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]
*[[Menachem Begin]]
*[[Liberal Christianity#Liberal Christianity's Anti-Zionism]]
*[[Theory of Fundamentalist Antisemitism]]
== External links ==
[[Category:Church and State]]
[[Category:Judaism]]
