The Evolvement Of Zionism (and how the world ignores it)

(This article, by Israel Muse Portal, won the Pro-Israel Blog-off of 2011)

Zionism: The Sequel (1998) by Archie Rand
Courtesy: Hebrew Union College Museum

Since living in Israel for some time, I have realized that Zionism has not only maintained its original stance of being "Patriotic to the Jewish State" but that it has also evolved in so many ways...

The definition of Zionism is "the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, advocated, from its inception, tangible as well as spiritual aims. The term 'Zionism' was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum." (source)

This definition, as any, just does not express enough the real meaning of what Zionism actually is today and what it means to me and so many others.

Most of the world has a very distorted impression of what Zionism actually is. This distorted view has sparked off the many anti-Zionist movements that we see today...The problem is that their out-of-context view of factual Zionist events from the past has left a stain on their real understanding of Zionism, its evolvement and what modern Zionism has become today... The categorization of Zionism as a form of Nazism, racism, land theft and Arab-oppression is a clear indication that the anti-Zionist movements of today do not understand the events leading up to the establishment of Israel and the events that followed in a relative manner... They also completely ignore the legality of Israels establishment as noted in UN Resolution 181... I believe they have indulged in too much Palestinian/anti-Israel propaganda...

The current misunderstanding of Zionism is that Zionists today are no different than the Zionists prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and after it. This is a false assumption... Our needs and goals have changed drastically. We have learned the lessons of our ancestral Zionists and the founders of our State... We have had the time to iron out the finer details of what we as Zionists want to bring to the world, not only to ourselves... The Zionists of yesterday focused all of their attention and energy on rescuing and protecting the Jewish people by means of Aliyah, defense and then finally the declaration of our Independence along with the founding of a proper moral defense army to protect its own, the IDF... As modern day Zionists, we share this same common goal but now we are not only fighting for our survival as a Jewish people, we are also fighting for the survival of our Jewish State, its legitimacy, and at the same time we are bringing new concepts, ideas and innovations into the world which benefit everyone.

Let us take a look at what yesterday's Zionism entailed and what it meant to the world...

Israel (2007) by Paula Scher; Courtesy:
Hebrew Union College Museum

-Zionism Of Hope

-National Zionism

-Patriotic Zionism


Please read it all