It is said that Chaim Weizmann, who would later become the first president of the State of Israel, was once asked by a member of the House of Lords why Jews were so fixated on one tiny, contested piece of land. Were there not other territories in which a Jewish state could be established? Weizmann responded that this would be like asking why he had driven 20 miles to visit his mother, when there were many other perfectly nice old ladies living on his street. Weizmann’s analogy still strikes a chord with Jews today because it conveys a truth which has, in recent years, become angrily contested, most often by those who are not themselves Jewish.
It is a truth too often distorted, politicised or denied – that the Jewish relationship with Israel is built upon a foundation of historical fact, theological axiom and innate love. It is central to Jewish identity and peoplehood. It is a relationship which existed long before the establishment of the modern-day State of Israel, long before Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist movement at the end of the 19th century, and long before Nathan Birnbaum coined the term “Zionism” in 1890.
The Oxford English Dictionary definition of Zionism is: “a movement (originally) for the re-establishment and (now) the development of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.” Yet, it has become fashionable to unthinkingly repeat the slur that Zionism is racism, colonialism or even fascism; that it is some kind of fringe or extreme expression of Juda.