1. THE VARIETIES OF ZIONISM

2. (1)The “hidden language of the Jew” (2)Jews speak European languages only as foreigners. (3) They are not members of a linguistic community (Volk). (4)Hence, lacking an immediate relation to language, the Jew cannot express himself naturally and idiomatically. (5)The true language of the Jews is Hebrew, though it only survives as a dead language. (6)The Jews thus cannot be creative; they can only mimic the authentic linguistic creation of others. Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) 19 TH CENTURY NATIONALISM: A REVIEW

3. (1) Am Yisrael (2) The Covenant (3) Galut (4) The Messianic Idea FROM THEOLOGY TO POLITICAL IDEOLOGY: ZIONISM AS NATIONALISM

4. “Rather than a tragic yet divinely ordained dispensation, or as a source of religious pride, as it was for Liberal Jews, Zionists viewed the exile as an abnormal and perilous condition that needed to be ‘negated,’ overturned by their own agency in order to normalize the Jewish nation and to be able to determine its destiny. Zionism thus represented a breach in Jewish existence and a revolutionary break with Jewish history. Yet, modern and anti-religious though it was, Zionism was never entirely free of the religious heritage of Judaism. Many Zionist thinkers and activists were influenced and nourished by religious sources: by the ideals, myths, symbols, and hopes of traditional Judaism, and especially its messianic hope for the ingathering of the exiles, the restoration of a Jewish polity, and the establishment of an ideal society.” ZIONISM: A CONTRADICTION?

5. (1)Anti-Semitism is a psychological disorder. (2)Jews were viewed as a “ghost people.” (3)Judeophobia is a curable disease. Leon Pinsker (1821- 1891) SOLUTIONS TO THE JEWISH PROBLEM

6. (1)“If I could be whatever I liked, I should be a Prussian nobleman of ancient lineage.” (2)“…the Jews would bring an element of German culture into the Orient.” (3)Zionism “will enable the Jews to once more love Germany, to which our heart belongs despite everything.” (4)“Crossing the western races with the so-called Oriental ones on the basis of a shared state religion – that is the great desirable solution.” THEODOR HERZL (1860-1904)

7. “The Jewish Question still exists. It would be foolish to deny it. It exists wherever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not yet exist, it will be brought by Jews in the course of their migrations… we are one people – our enemies have made us one in our despite, as repeatedly happens in history. Distress binds us together, and thus united, we suddenly discover our strength.” DER JUDENSTAAT

8. “We who live abroad are accustomed to believe that almost all Eretz Yisrael is now uninhabited desert and whoever wishes can buy land there as he pleases. But this is not true. It is very difficult to find in the land [ha'aretz] cultivated fields that are not used for planting. Only those sand fields or stone mountains that would require the investment of hard labor and great expense to make them good for planting remain uncultivated and that's because the Arabs do not like working too much in the present for a distant future. Therefore, it is very difficult to find good land for cattle. And not only peasants, but also rich landowners, are not selling good land so easily... We who live abroad are accustomed to believing that the Arabs are all wild desert people who, like donkeys, neither see nor understand what is happening around them. But this is a grave mistake. The Arab, like all the Semites, is sharp minded and shrewd. All the townships of Syria and Eretz Yisrael are full of Arab merchants who know how to exploit the masses and keep track of everyone with whom they deal – the same as in Europe. The Arabs, especially the urban elite, see and understand what we are doing and what we wish to do on the land, but they keep quiet and pretend not to notice anything. For now, they do not consider our actions as presenting a future danger to them. … But, if the time comes that our people's life in Eretz Yisrael will develop to a point where we are taking their place, either slightly or significantly, the natives are not going to just step aside so easily.” AHAD HA’AM (1856-1927)

9.  For Herzl, Zionism = solution to the “problem of the Jews”  For Ha’Am, Zionism = solution to the “problem of Judaism”  Herzl confused Zionism with the “need of the Jews” rather than the “need of Judaism.”  The debate featured around the concepts of the East- European v. West European (die Luftmenschen, or the Malboiyshim against the Amcha) THE HA’AM/ HERZL DEBATE The First Zionist Congress (Basle, 1897)

10. “A powerful tension thus lay at the heart of Zionism: Was the rebirth of the Jewish nation, its stepping onto the stage of history, going to take the form of modern, secular politics? Or, would it amount to the releasing of ancient spiritual forces, the activation of deep religious hopes? Would the Jewish state be a state like all the states, assimilating, so to speak, into the family of modern nations, or would it be a light unto the peoples endowed with a universal mission? Even in militantly secular Zionist ideologies, religious imagery was often deployed and the mission of the Jews ‘as a light unto the gentiles’ proclaimed.” WHAT IS A JEWISH STATE?