Zionism: Good or Bad? Part 1

Is Zionism good, or bad? Many think Zionism is terrorism and a threat. Others find Zionism to be a good thing, something the whole world should indulge in. First, the definition of Zionism, from the American Heritage Dictionary:

A Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in response to growing anti-Semitism and sought to reestablish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Modern Zionism is concerned with the support and development of the state of Israel.

Does that honestly sound like terrorism to you? Let me take you back in history, way back to the beginning of Zionism.

Zionism first started in the time of Moshe and the giving of G-d's Torah. For four thousand years G-d's people, the Israelites, were bound in Egyptian chains. G-d had promised them a Deliverer, one who would rescue them from their Egyptian bondage. When that Deliverer, Moshe, came, the Israelites were freed from Egypt. Now, G-d gave them a new promise. They would now travel to the Promised Land, which G-d would give to them. So now, their sole desire was to get to the Land and keep it, establishing it as their home: a Jewish state. Thus, we have the birth of Zionism.

From that time to the present, this little Jewish state has seen it's hardships. There was the final expulsion of all Jews from Israel in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Later came the Crusades and other such conquests all the way up until the age of the British Empire. In the early-mid 1900s, there was a fairly large Jewish population in Israel, now called Palestine. The first Jewish defenders were known as Ha-Shomer, established in 1907. Ha-Shomer, which means "The Guild of Watchmen", guarded Jewish settlements in the Land for an annual fee. The number of Ha-Shomer's members never exceeded one-hundred.

After Ha-Shomer came the Haganah, which means "the Defense". Later, the Haganah would become Israel's military, the Israel Defense Force (IDF). The Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization. Another organization rose up in defense of Israel in the Haganah's time. It was known as the Irgun, which is short for Ha'Irgun Ha'Tsvai Ha'Leumi B'Eretz Yisrael, "National Military Organization in the Land of Israel". They resorted more toward violence, while the Haganah took the ideas of Ghandi by trying peaceful resistance. Eventually, when the British declared Palestine as the Jewish state and withdrew, both the Haganah (founded by Israel's Jewish leadership) and the Irgun (founded by Abraham Tehomi) allied together to fight the Arabs that were trying to run them out.

Now, Israel was the Jewish state once again. But, the conflict was not over yet. Later in it's history would come the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Oslo Accords, the loss of both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the recent Annapolis Conference. Since its founding on May 14, 1948, Israel has been fought over and divided. But through it all, it still remains the Jewish state and will forever remain the Jewish state.