Zionism is a dirty word today. At least it is on streets and at university encampments where protests against Israel are happening. “Zionism is Fascism,” “Zionism Is a Cancer,” “Zionists Off Our Campus,” the signs read. But what is Zionism exactly? What are its origins? How did it develop and what are its various offshoots and varieties? What is Zionism today? And, of course, is it a good or bad thing to be a Zionist?
In this video, Yaron Brook answers these questions in about 20 minutes. Here’s an excerpt:
[Theodor] Herzl came to the conclusion, look, the Jews need to leave Europe. The Jews need to get out of here. Antisemitism is everywhere. It was only going to get worse, according to his analysis. I don’t think he really foresaw the Holocaust, but he foresaw something very similar. And he realized that Europe was heading in that direction… and what he said was, in order for Jews to defend themselves they must come together as a nation. Not a religion—he was completely secular—but a nation, in order to defend themselves, in order to stand up against the world. And he foresaw such a nation as being a nation that was liberal in the classical liberal sense, a free nation, a nation that, wherever it was geographically, the native people would be part of this nation. It wouldn’t be just Jews.