What Is Zionism?

Now that Joe Biden has referred to himself as a Zionist and not to be outdone, the House GOP has passed a resolution saying that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, perhaps we might devote a story to explaining what Zionism is, and what Zionism is not. Because even though the word has been bandied all over the place following the Hamas attack on its Zionist ‘enemy,’ it’s not like the word is often found in discussions about current events.

In fact, the word ‘zionism’ has both historic and organizational connotations, but not legal or political substance of any kind. The word was first used by Theodore Herzl, an Austrian journalist, who put together a meeting in 1897 out of which came a message to the Ottoman Emperor asking for land to create a Jewish ‘state’ in Palestine.

The request was denied but ultimately became a reality when Britain, which took over Palestine after the Ottoman Empire collapsed, issued what became known as the Balfour Declaration in 1917. This edict promised a Jewish homeland, even though Britain then blocked every effort of Jews in England and elsewhere to migrate to the Near East.

After World War II, thanks to the Nazi holocaust and the refusal of liberal democracies like the United States to resettle Jews whose homelands had been destroyed during the War, a surviving Jewish population was allowed to form a government and take control of a…