The truth about Zionism
Op-ed: While the Zionist Movement was the political driving force behind the reestablishment of Jewish peoplehood in the Land of Israel, its ideological, emotional and spiritual mainspring was the more ancient Zionist aspiration.
Just recently, in an editorial for the Washington Post about why they support a boycott of Israel, Jewish American Professors Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl wrote that Israel was established as a safe haven in order to protect the Jewish people from future disaster and in order to create a democracy based on humane values.
Does this mean that Israel is a conditional state? In the absence of any threat or in the event that the citizens of Israel decide they do not wish to live under a democratic system of government, do the Jewish people have no right to self-determination?
More surprising was the response to this editorial by Yoaz Hendel, former director of communications and public diplomacy for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and current head of the Institute for Zionist Strategies, in which he wrote that Zionism started in the 19th century as part of a wide-scoped national awakening.
The primary error by both the esteemed professors and Mr. Hendel is the failure to distinguish between Zionism, an ancient Jewish tenet that has permeated Jewish culture, tradition and prayer for over 2,000 years, and the Zionist Movement, a 19th century enterprise aimed at actualizing the aforementioned Zionist ambition.
While the Zionist Movement was the political driving force behind the reestablishment of Jewish peoplehood in the Land of Israel, its ideological, emotional and spiritual mainspring was the more ancient Zionist aspiration.
Let us take a moment to contemplate the importance of this distinction.
After almost 2,000 years, Jews from across the globe, from every continent and almost every country, together made the dream of generations come true.
They came from India, Yemen, Ethiopia, Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Poland, Russia, Germany, France and many other countries, from Jewish communities that had been isolated from one another for centuries.
And yet, they did not require any elaboration on the objectives of the Zionist Movement in order to get on board. The Zionist ideas of a group of Jewish intellectuals from Russia were just as familiar to the Jewish farmer in Yemen as they were to the Jewish merchant in Iraq and to the Jewish businessman in Germany.
Despite their different backgrounds, cultures and languages, these scattered and diverse Jewish communities almost seamlessly consolidated to become one people, unified by a profound common purpose.
While so many other newly founded states of that period still struggle with the challenges of unifying people from varying identities under the framework of a single state, the Jews in Israel somehow eased into a common sense of identity as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Because it was.
For after all, Zionism was a belief that was already deeply rooted within the collective heart and soul of Jews in every generation for over 2,000 years.
From the ancient lamentations in our Psalms, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, there we wept, when we remembered Zion", through hopes in our daily prayers, "May our eyes behold your return to Zion... ", to the yearnings of our poets such as Judah Halevi, "Zion, wilt thou not send a greeting to thy captives..."
Zionism was an integral part of their culture, tradition and liturgy long before 20th century nationalism, long before the Zionist Movement and long before the Holocaust took place.
Only such a deep and age-old conviction could have created such a broad consensus that facilitated the mobilization of world Jewry.
The Zionist Movement was merely the call they had all been waiting for. The modern State of Israel was its ultimate realization.
Avner Warner grew up in London and made aliyah in 1998. An entrepreneur and a marketing and business development expert, he was previously responsible for leading the city of Tel Aviv's global marketing and brand and currently works in the startup world. While a law student at Hebrew University, Avner was a founding member of StandWithUs Israel where he conceived and established the StandWithUs Israel Fellowship.
