Types of Zionism

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The common definition of Zionism was principally the endorsement of the Jewish people to return to their homeland,^[1] secondarily the claim that due to a lack of self-determination, this territory must be re-established as a Jewish state. Zionism was produced by various philosophers representing different approaches concerning the objective and path that Zionism should follow.

Political Zionism

Political Zionism was led by Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau in Russia. This Zionist Organization approach espoused at the First Zionist Congress aimed at establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine which, among other items, included initial steps to obtain governmental grants from the established powers that controlled the area. Nathan Birnbaum, a Jew from Vienna was the original father of Political Zionism, yet ever since he defected away from his own movement Theodor Herzl has become known as the face of modern Zionism. In 1890, Birnbaum coined the term "Zionism" and the phrase "Political Zionism" two years later. Birnbaum published a periodical titled Selbstemanzination (Self Emancipation) which espoused "the idea of a Jewish renaissance and the resettlement of Palestine." In this idea, Birnbaum was most influenced by Leon Pinsker.

Practical Zionism

Known in Hebrew as Tzionut Ma'asit (

Led by Chaim Weizmann, Leo Motzkin and Nahum Sokolow, an approach that advocated a combination of the preceding two approaches.

Labor Zionism

Led by Nachman Syrkin, Ber Borochov, Haim Arlosoroff, and Berl Katznelson. As socialists, Labor or socialist Zionists desired to establish an agriculturist society not on the basis of a bourgeois capitalists society, but rather on the basis of equality. Although there were socialist Zionists in the nineteenth century (such as Moses Hess), as a movement, labor Zionism became a mass movement in the early twentieth. Its main organisational form was the Poale Zion ("Workers of Zion") movement, which was affiliated to the Socialist International and often a formed a part of the mainstream socialist parties in the different countries in which it organised.

Socialist Zionism had a

General Zionism (or Liberal Zionism) was initially the dominant trend within the Zionist movement from the First Zionist Congress in 1897 until after the First World War. General Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class to which many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and Chaim Weizmann aspired. Liberal Zionism, although not associated with any single party in modern Israel, remains a strong trend in Israeli politics advocating free market principles, democracy and adherence to human rights. Their political arm was one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud. Kadima, the main centrist party during the 2000s that split from Likud and is now defunct, however, did identify with many of the fundamental policies of Liberal Zionist ideology, advocating among other things the need for Palestinian statehood in order to form a more democratic society in Israel, affirming the free market, and calling for equal rights for Arab citizens of Israel. In 2013, Ari Shavit suggested that the success of the then-new Yesh Atid party (representing secular, middle-class interests) embodied the success of "the new General Zionists."^[4]

Dror Zeigerman writes that the traditional positions of the General Zionists—"liberal positions based on social justice, on law and order, on pluralism in matters of State and Religion, and on moderation and flexibility in the domain of foreign policy and security"—are still favored by important circles and currents within certain active political parties.^[5]

Philosopher Carlo Strenger describes a modern-day version of Liberal Zionism (supporting his vision of "Knowledge-Nation Israel"), rooted in the original ideology of Herzl and Ahad Ha'am, that stands in contrast to both the romantic nationalism of the right and the Netzah Yisrael of the ultra-Orthodox. It is marked by a concern for democratic values and human rights, freedom to criticize government policies without accusations of disloyalty, and rejection of excessive religious influence in public life. "Liberal Zionism celebrates the most authentic traits of the Jewish tradition: the willingness for incisive debate; the contrarian spirit of davka; the refusal to bow to authoritarianism."^[6][7] Liberal Zionists see that "Jewish history shows that Jews need and are entitled to a nation-state of their own. But they also think that this state must be a liberal democracy, which means that there must be strict equality before the law independent of religion, ethnicity or gender."^[8]

Revisionist Zionism

Revisionist Zionism was initially led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and later by his successor Menachem Begin (later Prime Minister of Israel), and emphasized the romantic elements of Jewish nationality, and the historical heritage of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel as the constituent basis for the Zionist national idea and the establishment of the Jewish State. They supported liberalism, particularly economic liberalism, and opposed Labor Zionism and the establishing of a communist society in the Land of Israel. Revisionist Zionism opposed any restraint in relation to Arab violence and supported firm military action against the Arabs that had attacked the Jewish Community in Mandatory Palestine. Due to that position, a faction of the Revisionist leadership split from that movement in order to establish the underground Irgun. This stream is also categorized as supporters of Greater Israel.

Religious Zionism

Led by

Led by

Revolutionary Zionism

Led by

Reform Zionism, also known as Progressive Zionism, is the ideology of the

See also

• Anti-Zionism
• Christian Zionism
• Neo-Zionism
• Non-Zionism
• Post-Zionism

References