JERUSALEM – Seventy-six years after its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the modern state of Israel in 1948, as Israelis embrace the rebirth of their state, opponents of the Jewish state (anti-Zionists) seek its destruction. ing.
Fanatic anti-Israel activists and anti-Semites, especially on American college campuses, have launched a campaign to strip the Jewish people of their homeland, the state of Israel, and turn the only democracy in the Middle East into a pariah state. It often uses anti-Zionist metaphors in its arguments. Also for chants and banners.
While Zionism may have taken on a negative connotation for many who watch today’s protests against Israel, some say that both biblically and politically, Zionism is a philosophy of action. There is. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, famously wrote about the creation of a new Jewish state more than 100 years ago.: “If you want to, it’s not a dream.”
Fox News Digital spoke to experts about the mix of Bible verses and Zionism, the modern philosophy that laid the religious and intellectual foundations for Israel’s restoration.
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Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, said of the First Zionist Congress held in Switzerland in 1897: “In Basel I founded the Jewish state.If I say this out loud today, it will be met with laughter all over the world.” We’ll have an answer, probably within five years.” And definitely in 50 years everyone will know about it. ”
Herzl’s vision of a Jewish state became a concrete reality.
Ze’ev Orenstein, international director of the City of David Foundation in Jerusalem, explained its religious significance. “Zionism dates back some 3,500 years to the time of the Biblical book of Joshua, and continues to this day to mean not only the return of the Jewish people as sovereigns to their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel.”
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“It is a land where Jews worship the same God, practice the same faith, walk the very same hills and valleys, speak the same language and observe the same traditions and festivals as our ancestors thousands of years ago,” he said. he said.
Orenstein cited the Bible verse from Amos 9:14-15, which is the basis for the creation of the Jewish state in the Holy Land, saying, “I will restore my people Israel from captivity; They will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they will plant vineyards and drink wine. They will make their own wine and eat their fruit; I will make them their own land. Plant them firmly, and they will never be uprooted again from the land that I gave them, says the LORD your God. ”
Orenstein argues that the transition from the Bible to the modern solidification of Israel as a nation “also marks the return of the Jewish people to mastership of our own destiny and destiny, which is only fully possible as sovereign masters of our homeland.” It will be a source of light, inspiration and blessing, not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but for all the peoples of the region and the whole world.”
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He added: “After 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people’s return to Israel as sovereign citizens serves as a permanent reminder to both individuals and nations that they did not have to do so. “Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, and with equal unwavering determination and hard work,” he added. Unyielding faith, good will win in the end. ”
Anti-Zionists continue to denounce both Zionism, Herzl’s founding philosophy for the modern Jewish state, and the Biblical foundations of the state of Israel. Critics say the UN also played a key role in stirring up anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hatred.
In 1975, the majority of United Nations member states, led by Soviet and Arab dictatorships, passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism. After the collapse of the communist Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe, member states overturned anti-Semitic resolutions in 1991.
“Opposition to Zionism means that Jews who have achieved national independence do not have the right to maintain their national independence,” Israeli legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich told Fox News Digital. “There is no similar global opposition to state rights, which makes it difficult to maintain Zionism.” In fact, since a large number of the world’s Jews live in Israel, and almost all remaining Jews are strongly attached to Israel, “anti-Zionism” began thousands of years ago, before the Jews founded their own state. This is different from the anti-Semitism that has continued over the years. Transparent rebranding of anti-Semitism. ”
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Kontorovich pointed out: ”Zionism is a Jewish national independence movement. For two brutal millennia, Jews were homeless and at the mercy of minority states and empires everywhere. ”
He added, “Supporting Zionism means that just as the Irish have an Ireland, the Ukrainians have a Ukraine, and the Japanese have a Japan, Jews should have an independent state in their ancestral homeland.” “This means that many ethnic groups, such as Arabs, are in the majority in many states,” he added. Zionism does not advocate two Jewish states – one for Ashkenazi Jews, for example, and only one for Sephardim. ”
Ashkenazi Jews have modern roots in Eastern and Central Europe, while Sfaradi Jews have roots in Portugal and Spain and later exiled to North Africa and Turkey.
For many Jews, the longing to return to their Biblical homeland is also expressed in the famous Psalm 126.
“Song of the Ascension. We were like dreamers when the Lord restored the captives of Zion. Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy. , said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for you.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. It has been. ”
