Phoenall,
et al,
While this is really an Israeli domestic question, I've noticed in this forum a kind of misunderstanding as to what is meant, in contemporary terms, by Zionist and Zionism.
You will no doubt note that the most organized opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party
(normally considered right-wing) is a coalition of smaller center-left parties known as the Zionist Union. Zionism is not exclusively either Right Wing or a Liberal Political philosophy.
Where does it say in your cut and paste that the Zionists stated goal was the takeover of the country ?
(COMMENT)
I think, after talking to both members of the American Jewish Community --- and to a lesser extend --- the Middle Eastern Jewish Community
(ie mostly one-sided listening), one might think that Zionism is a liberal-democratic ideological. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also considers himself --- a Zionist of sorts.
The one bare fact that we must understand is that Zionism has evolved. While there still are a number of Jews that want to follow the original path of Theodor Herzl with the constituency that encourages the reestablishment of the historic homeland of the Jews
(more of a 19th century sought to conjure a national identity). There are those that in the Labor Party
(Isaac Herzog) and the Hatnuah Party
(Tzipi Livni) who are supporting
a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians. And still Zionism is NOT consistent with liberalism. To consider Israel in terms of a "Jewish State" is more the form of a Zionist concept. And while it was not immediately obvious to me as a youngster and new to the Middle East --- many Israeli Jews deductively conclude that Jewish State and Zionism virtually implies a binding declaration to protect, preserve and defend the Jewish National Home in perpetuity; --- against the Jihadist made a solemn declaration (1948) before the United Nations, before God and history, that they will never submit or yield to any power going to Palestine to enforce partition. The Zionists, among other things, is the counter force to the Hostile Arab Palestinian concept that believes any attempt by the Jews to establish a Jewish State, pursuant to the Steps Preparatory to Independence
(outlined by the UN General Assembly in the 1947 Resolution) in the territory
(formerly under mandate) is an act of aggression which will be resisted though Jihad and belligerence.
(I think this better defines the "Zionists stated goal" much better than Post #97 by our friend "montelatici." You simply cannot just "cut'n'paste" an 1896 quote from Theodor Herzl and say that is it; --- ignoring the intervening century (plus) of development.)
I'm not sure that there is one consistent definition
(etched in stone) of the Zionist of today --- or --- what everyone would agree is Zionism. I'm not sure that the term has not outlived its usefulness.
But I would be willing to bet that a vast majority of Israelis today would agree that the objective of the Jewish State is to protect, preserve and defend the Jewish National Home from now to the end of time. And I believe that is the common threat to Zionism; whether you are Right Wing Conservative, Centrix, or a Left-Wing Liberal. It is a concept that has survived intact form the 19th Century to present.
Just My Opinion
Most Respectfully,
R