Editor’s Note: Israel’s parliamentary system and its “vibrant democracy” facilitate a broad representation of views and parties. With 10-15 political parties gaining seats in elections, some would view this variety as excessive. The Jewish-Zionist parties are split up into a very nuanced spectrum of views (not to mention Arab Israeli parties and the far-left Jewish party of Meretz). The Zionist parties, while agreeing on the need for and legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish homeland, agree on very little else. This article demonstrates the differences of Zionist opinion which have existed since the beginning of modern Zionism in the late 1800s.
Zionism was never a uniform, homogenous movement. Its history was always shaped by ideological differences, and the current “landscape” of multiple political parties developed against the backdrop of these different Zionist camps.
Over 125 years ago, on August 29, 1897, Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress. On that day the World Zionist Organization was founded in Basel, Switzerland. It became the nucleus of the organizational structures that ultimately made possible the founding of a...
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