Zionism is not a bad word

Zionism is not a bad word. Zionism is the national revival movement of the Jewish people. It holds that the Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Historically, Zionism strove to create a legally recognized national home for the Jews in their historical homeland. This goal was implemented by the creation of the State of Israel. Today, Zionism supports the existence of the state of Israel and helps to inspire a revival of Jewish national life, culture and language.
The modern Zionist movement is accredited to Theodore Herzl in 1897. He was a secular or nationalist Zionist. He wanted a place for Jews to call their own, a place where we as Jews could go and be safe, without free of a pogrom, or a holocaust. The treatment of the Jews since the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. (Common Era) has been one of persecution and hardship. Throughout the middle ages the Jew had been thrown out of every nation in the West and merely tolerated in the Arab world. Yes, Jews were allowed to live in the Arab world but they had to pay a tax to be Jewish. The desire of the Jews was to obtain a little piece of the earth to call their own. Like every national group in the world even the Palestinian. They want a place to call home. They want a place where they could worship their G-d, in their tradition. Herzl did not care where this place was to be created. There was talk of putting it on the northern coast of Africa. There was talk of putting Zion, Israel anywhere. Hertzl did not care. He was not a religious Jew. Again Zionism did not start with Herzl.
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.
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.
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.
The religious Zionists focused their sites on the traditional land of Israel. This dream was realized in 1917 with the establishment of the Balfour Declaration which promised a two state solution. A nation for the Jews that would comprise of all of Israel today and the land that was across the Jordan; the biblical territory controlled by King Solomon.
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.”
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. 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. 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.
This war has continued since 1919. The end goal of the Arabs is the destruction of the Jews and Israel. The end goal of Israel is to ensure that the Jewish people are safe. Most Jews I know just want to live in peace in Israel with Jerusalem as their capital.

Zionism is not a bad word

Zionism is not a bad word. Zionism is the national revival movement of the Jewish people. It holds that the Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Historically, Zionism strove to create a legally recognized national home for the Jews in their historical homeland. This goal was implemented by the creation of the State of Israel. Today, Zionism supports the existence of the state of Israel and helps to inspire a revival of Jewish national life, culture and language.
The modern Zionist movement is accredited to Theodore Herzl in 1897. He was a secular or nationalist Zionist. He wanted a place for Jews to call their own, a place where we as Jews could go and be safe, without free of a pogrom, or a holocaust. The treatment of the Jews since the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. (Common Era) has been one of persecution and hardship. Throughout the middle ages the Jew had been thrown out of every nation in the West and merely tolerated in the Arab world. Yes, Jews were allowed to live in the Arab world but they had to pay a tax to be Jewish. The desire of the Jews was to obtain a little piece of the earth to call their own. Like every national group in the world even the Palestinian. They want a place to call home. They want a place where they could worship their G-d, in their tradition. Herzl did not care where this place was to be created. There was talk of putting it on the northern coast of Africa. There was talk of putting Zion, Israel anywhere. Hertzl did not care. He was not a religious Jew. Again Zionism did not start with Herzl.
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.
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.
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.
The religious Zionists focused their sites on the traditional land of Israel. This dream was realized in 1917 with the establishment of the Balfour Declaration which promised a two state solution. A nation for the Jews that would comprise of all of Israel today and the land that was across the Jordan; the biblical territory controlled by King Solomon.
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.”
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. 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. 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.
This war has continued since 1919. The end goal of the Arabs is the destruction of the Jews and Israel. The end goal of Israel is to ensure that the Jewish people are safe. Most Jews I know just want to live in peace in Israel with Jerusalem as their capital.