Reclaiming Zionism

November 7, 2024

by: Kate Norman, BFP Staff Writer

 

Israel and the Jewish people were thrust into the international spotlight more than one year ago in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre by the Hamas terrorist organization. For the first few days, as the world watched Israel weep over her 1,200 victims and the 251 hostages swept away to Gaza, the Jewish state had global sympathy. But when Israel fought back, launching a ground operation in Gaza to eradicate the threat of Hamas and return the hostages, the tides turned against her.

Antisemitism rose to a fever pitch, with pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas, anti-Israel rallies and riots in major cities and university campuses across the Western world. Violence and aggression against Jewish people spiked, while Jewish shops and synagogues were vandalized. However, neither the perpetrators of these reprehensible acts nor those who rally against Israel cop to the label of antisemitism. No, instead they identify as anti-Zionist. “Zionist,” in fact, has become a dirty word spat out of the mouths of those who hate Israel and/or the Jewish people. But like with so many perfectly innocent terms and phrases, the word Zionism was hijacked and its original meaning distorted into something that seems distasteful. The time has come to reclaim Zionism and restore it to its original, biblical meaning.

But what Is Zionism?  

Zionism is essentially the belief that the Jewish people have the right to their own Jewish state in the biblical Land of Israel. It is the belief that the Jewish people, like any other people, can live in sovereignty and self-determination in their own nation state. Swedes have the right to live in Sweden. Brazilians have the right to live in Brazil. Don’t Jewish people have the right to live in Judea?

Perhaps the best way to understand what Zionism is, is to summarize what it is not. Zionism is not a colonialist movement. It is merely the Jewish people seeking to return to the land God promised to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob millennia ago. Zionism is also not a racist movement. Jewish people have returned from exile in the four corners of the Earth. The Jewish state is a beautifully diverse nation, including thriving populations of non-Jews like Arab Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Druze and so forth. Support for a Jewish state does not mean supporting a Jewish people-only state. Zionism is also not a conspiracy by the Jewish people to take over the world. Frankly, if that were the case, they would be doing a terrible job, given the rampant antisemitism in the mainstream and social media.

History of Zionism

Zionism is inherently embedded within Jewish religion, culture and prayers—ever since the Jewish people were first exiled from their homeland and taken into Babylonian captivity in 597 BC. Psalm 137 tells of their lament in a foreign land: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion…If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill” (v. 1, 5).

Since that exile and the second major exile of Jewish people under the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, the Jewish people have held a connection with and a longing for their ancient homeland. Religious Jews who recite the Amidah prayer three times a day say the following words morning, afternoon and evening: “Raise a banner to gather our exiles, and bring us together from the four corners of the earth into our land. Blessed are you L-rd, who gathers the dispersed of His people Israel.” Every year, Jewish people in the Diaspora (the Jewish community outside Israel) end their Passover dinner with the words: “Next year in Jerusalem.”

Modern Zionism came about in the late 19th century amid yet another rise in antisemitism, ostracism and persecution of the Jewish people, particularly in Europe. Enter Austrian playwright and journalist Theodor Herzl, known as the “father” of modern Zionism. Herzl looked around him at the global persecution of his fellow Jews and began a push for the Jewish return to their ancient homeland, where they could live out their Jewish identity in peace and freedom.

Herzl was a political Zionist and sought to draft influential people of the time into joining his efforts to establish a Jewish state in Israel. He published his famous pamphlet entitled “The Jewish State” in 1886, with the subtitle “Proposal of a modern solution for the Jewish Question.” His efforts continued over the years, culminating in the First Zionist Congress of 1897 in Basel, attended by some 200 Jewish influencers from all over the world, but particularly Europe. In its aftermath, Herzl wrote in his diary: “If I had to sum up the Basel Congress in one word—which I shall not do openly—it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish state. If I were to say this today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years, perhaps, and certainly in 50, everyone will see it.”

Herzl was right. Fifty years later, the modern state of Israel was reborn.

Zionism in the Bible

The word “Zion” in the Bible refers to Jerusalem, later expanding to mean all of Israel. This is the Land that God promised to Abraham—and God also promised to “bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Gen. 12:1–3). God later repeats this promise to Isaac in Gen. 26:3: “Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father” and to Jacob in Gen. 28:13: “…the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.”

God’s purposes and plans for Israel and her people are woven throughout the Scriptures, all the way through to the New Testament. In fact, Jesus was Himself a Jew, born in Judea under Roman rule.

Do you believe that the Jewish people have a right to live in the ancestral homeland that was promised to them by the God of Israel, the God of their forefathers? Do you believe they, like any other people, have the right to exist and live in self-determination? Congratulations, whether you are Christian, Jewish, atheist or any other religion, you are a Zionist.

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