Well, Its more of the your personal contradictory.
However regardless of politics - Judaism (Orthodox, Reforms, Conservatives) all believe Judaism to be encircled about Zion - therefore the term - Zionism, which has stand later for the secular Jews, something very new among Jews to be called "Modern Zionism" - the origins of Zionism started with the promise of God to Abraham, all across the Old Testament.
So you might say today Zionism is differently contradicted than it should, or its association to Judaism is bad for Judaism, or maybe that its all but a bunch of none sense because you are not following Judaism, one way or the other you won't be able to change the very first ideologies of Judaism, the promised land.
If its politics or law we can always debate on that, you can also start up a new religion just like Neturei Karta did and claim you are a follower of Judaism that is against Zionism, fair enough - we can always debate that, but what we cannot change is the simplicity of facts.
Judaism is half about Zionism(Religiously - commandments to God) and half about social commandments(to one another) those are the very basic of ten commandments (out of 613 commandments total) - Open the bible at home and read the sources yourself, not some goofy website, you'll find that the bigger majority of commandments are only valid in Israel.
I Can also tell you more than that, about prophecies, but I guess we should keep it for another day.
I'm confused. Are you saying that there are is a Judaism Light for Jews in Brooklyn,, but Jews who call Israel home are somehow the ONLY ones to interpret or follow the MAJORITY of commandments in the Torah?
That's news to me. And I taught Sunday School for a bit in the 80s...
Not exactly, this is a very complex issue, here is one article that summaries it's best.
The question of whether one should make Aliyah is a complex one and depends to some extent on one’s Hashkafah (perspective) regarding Medinat Yisrael specifically and Jewish nationalism in general. There are special circumstances to be considered, as even the Pitchei Teshuvah and Sedei Chemed cite authorities who rule that one is not obligated to move to Israel if he is able to earn a living outside of Israel but is not able to do so in Israel. They cite the Talmud's rule (Shabbat 118a), “Aseih Shabatecha Chol VeAl Yitztareich LaBeriyot” (it is better to eat weekday food on Shabbat than to be reliant on charity) as support for this assertion.
Nonetheless, we cannot be complacent regarding our decisions concerning the Mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael. Indeed, Chazal (Ketubot 110b-112b) greatly extol the Mitzvah of living in Israel. Moreover, Chazal (Ketubot 110b, codified by the Shulchan Aruch E.H. 75:1) view one spouse’s refusal to perform this Mitzvah as potential grounds for divorce and even permit asking a non-Jew to write on Shabbat to facilitate fulfillment of this Mitzvah (Gittin 8b, quoted by the Rambam Hilchot Shabbat 6:11). Rav Aharon Lichtenstein (in a personal conversation) frames the issue succinctly: Just as a Jew would find it painful to live without Kedushat HaZeman, holiness of time (such as Shabbat and Yom Tov), a Jew should find it painful to live without Kedushat Makom, holiness of space - the land of Israel.
I know it does sound very confusing but in generally many commandments relay on one another including those that can only be practiced in Israel while many sources go by different authorities (local authorities that usually follow one older source)
bottom line is that in our time it is (if there is no real difficulty) a must to settle in Israel by the great majority of Jews, speaking in religious levels, I don't think I'm able to provide you a very decisive answer thou because so far it's a very changing reality, Jews didn't bothered with this question 70 years ago, and what happened in Face this year has driven Jews to leave France(their homeland) and to move to Israel, I hope it helps.
The question of Aliyah is a rapidly changing concept. It is best based on DESIRE to fulfill that obligation rather than a commandment.
Aliyah TODAY could be interpreted as a commitment to PRESERVE Israel -- rather than actually reside there. And Talmudic references are somewhat tainted by the CONDITIONS of the world at the time the opinions are written.
I have no doubt that such discussions exist in Talmud and other opinions. BUT -- I worry that they are based on fulfillment of THEOCRATIC ideals of organizing Jewry. And that is not a mission that the majority of Jews outside of Israel might be interested in.. Even WITHIN Israel for that matter..
Besides -- who would be left to run the day to day nefarious operations of WorldWide Zionism --- if all Jews decided to crowd into the HolyLand? Why TV networks, Hollywood productions, and the US Congress and libraries worldwide would be left unmonitored and uncontrolled..
The Talmud was written around 200-500 CE and is studied until our times, like you said this is a very changing atmosphere regarding our times.
However, regardless of the sources all is bound to the 'D'Oraita' (Aramic term "of Torah") which explains the commands clearly, The Talmud is discussions about the Mishna (The unwritten Torah) and Rabbis up until now (the local authority are bound to that) that have studied those their entire life write the Halacha (law) based on the wisest Rabbi of their generations, answer to certain question are often turn to them regarding the obligations and conditions, that's pretty much of a pyramid.
The Torah, Mishna,and Talmud speaks clearly not only about the need to go and settle in Israel but also about living among non Jews ("Goyim") with dozens of conditions and ties, only those studied and born to can truly understand and still fewer could answer.
This is not about ideology, the Torah is very clear on the commandments where they all split into do and don't - until the end of time.