Editing Zionism (section)

== Types of Zionism ==
{{main|Types of Zionism}}
{{see also|Post-Zionism}}
From the turn of the century until the Arab revolt of 1936, there was room for political flexibility within the Zionist movement, many scholars argue that different currents of Zionism have had a shared core framework.{{sfn|Gorny|1987}}<ref>{{harvnb|Dubnov|2011|p=}}:{{pn|date=March 2025}} "Relatively recent examples of the search for this "core" idea in Zionism (which tends to label ideological diversity as "heresy" or "deviation") can be found in Gorny and Netzer, "'Avodat ha-hoveh ha-murhevet'"; Halpern and Reinharz, ''Zionism and the Creation of a New Society''; and Shimoni, ''The Zionist Ideology''. Older studies that are based on a similar presupposition include Heller, ''The Zionist Idea'', and most famously Hertzberg, ''The Zionist Idea''."</ref> Most mainstream histories of the movement delineate a few key strains, many following a taxonomy introduced during the period starting in the late 19th century and continuing into the 1930s: political, practical, socialist, cultural and revisionist.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|loc="Main Zionist Streams and Jewish Traditions"|pp=119–160}}
| {{harvnb|Stanislawski|2017}}{{page needed|date=January 2025}}
| {{harvnb|Penslar|2023|p=36}}
}}</ref><ref name="Shoham-2013"/> Some scholars emphasise the heterogeneity of these strains of Zionism.<ref>{{harvnb|Seidler|2012|p=176}}: "conflicting founding designs...express the formative ideological background underlying the very idea of the State of Israel."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Boyarin|2025|pp=137–160}}}: "What we call Zionism, despite the existence of a World Zionist Organization and then a Zionist state, is in fact a catchall for numerous, often contradictory currents of thought."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shindler|2015|p=}}:{{page needed|date=January 2025}} "Zionism was never a monolithic movement. It would be more correct to speak of a range of different varieties of Zionism. Herzl's General Zionism immediately began to flow into different ideological streams."</ref>

=== Early Zionist Strains: Political and practical Zionism ===
Political Zionism was led by [[Theodor Herzl]] and [[Max Nordau]]. This approach was espoused at the [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]]'s [[First Zionist Congress]]. It focused on a Jewish home as a solution to the "[[Jewish question]]" and antisemitism in Europe, centred on gaining Jewish sovereignty (probably within the Ottoman or later British or French empire), and was opposed to mass migration until after sovereignty was granted. It initially considered locations other than Palestine (e.g. in Africa) and did not foresee migration by many Western Jews to the new homeland.{{sfn|Berent|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}<ref name="Shoham-2013"/>

Known in Hebrew as {{lang|he-latn|Tzionut Ma'asit}}, Practical Zionism was led by [[Moshe Leib Lilienblum]] and [[Leon Pinsker]] and molded by the [[Hovevei Zion]] organization.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} It became dominant after Herzl's death, and differed from Political Zionism in not seeing Zionism as justified primarily by the Jewish Question but rather as an end in itself; it "aspired to the establishment of an elite utopian community in Palestine" through [[Aliyah]].{{sfn|Berent|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} It also differed from Political Zionism in "distrust[ing] grand political actions" and preferring "an evolutionary incremental process toward the establishment of the national home".{{sfn|Berent|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}<ref name="Shoham-2013">{{harvnb|Shoham|2013|p=31}}: "practical Zionism. This designation referred to those who supported the redemption of Palestine by small-sized, but ideologically-driven, aliya and settlement, which would progress gradually and steadily, if slowly. Political Zionism, its ideological rival, disagreed. Its most prominent spokesman, Theodor Herzl, feared that this unorganized colonization of Palestine would jeopardize his diplomatic negotiations with the great powers; and in his address to the first Zionist congress in 1897 he defined this method as "infiltration"."</ref>

These initially dominant strains faded after the First World War and Balfour Declaration.{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=36–39}}

=== Labor Zionism ===
{{Main|Labor Zionism}}
[[File:Ber Borochov.jpg|120px|thumb|right|[[Ber Borochov|Dov Ber Borochov]], one of the leaders of Labor Zionism]]Led by socialists [[Nachman Syrkin]], [[Haim Arlosoroff]], [[Berl Katznelson]], and Marxist [[Ber Borochov]],<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Schulman|1998}}
| {{harvnb|Sternhell|1999|p=35}}
| {{harvnb|Cohen|1984}}{{page needed|date=January 2025}}
}}</ref>{{sfn|Shafir|1996}} Labor or Socialist Zionism was a form of Zionism that combined messianic tendencies and [[socialism|socialist]] or [[social democracy|social democratic]] politics.<ref name="Perlmutter-1969">{{harvnb|Perlmutter|1969|p=}}:{{pn|date=March 2025}} "The Socialist-Zionist movement played a key role in Zionist colonization of Palestine. Its ideology became the most influential and persistent in the Jewish community in Palestine (the Yishuv) before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Socialist-Zionism has been associated with most of the pioneer and colonizing efforts, institutions and procedures since the second Zionist immigration wave (hadAliya ha-Shnia) to Palestine in 1904-05, and became the chief force in the nation-building of Israel. It dominated Zionist immigration, consolidated the nationalist movement, and diffused the principles of an egalitarian social system into the Yishuv in Palestine... Socialist-Zionist ideology was not a unitary, totalitarian, and single ideology. It was iconoclastic-as all ideologies are. It blended messianic with programmist tendencies and integrated a variety of trends, doctrines and formulations of socialism and Zionism. It contained elements of the Russian Social Democratic variety of Marxism, Bundism, the Austrian and German Social Democracy, Russian Anarchism, Bolshevism and even of utopian pre-Marxian socialism."</ref>{{sfn|Shafir|1996}} The labor Zionists promoted immigration and settlement, establishing "facts on the ground" as the main path towards statebuilding.<ref>{{harvnb|Kimmerling|2006}}: "The tactics that Labor Zionists used to build the Jewish community in Palestine were completely different. They believed less in "rights" and more in incrementally established facts on the ground".</ref> 

Labor Zionism became a mass movement with the founding of [[Poale Zion]] ("Workers of Zion") groups in Eastern and Western Europe and North America in the 1900s.{{sfn|Keßler|2019}} Poale Zion split between Left and Right after 1917. In 1919, the Right Poale Zion in Palestine disbanded to form the nationalist socialist [[Ahdut HaAvoda]], led by [[David Ben Gurion]];{{sfn|Teveth|1985|pp=66–70}}{{sfn|Getzoff|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}<ref>{{harvnb|Sternhell|1999}}: "The formal decision to found Ahdut Ha'avoda was made at the Convention of Agricultural Workers, held in February 1919. This was the first country-wide gathering of all regional agricultural workers' organizations. The elections took place according to the system of proportional representation, with 1 representative for every 25 people; small settlements were allowed to send 1 representative for every 12 people. Altogether, 58 representatives were elected to the convention, 28 of whom were nonparty, 11 from Hapo'el Hatza'ir, and 19 from Po'alei Tzion. Thus, a clear majority supported non-socialist, if not antisocialist, principles. Prior to this agricultural gathering, the two political parties also held conventions, and at the Po'alei Tzion convention in Jaffa on 21–23 February, the party disbanded in order to clear the way for the founding of Ahdut Ha'avoda."</ref> in 1930, it merged with [[Hapoel Hatzair]], founded by [[A. D. Gordon]], to form Mapai.<ref>{{harvnb|Laqueur|2009}}: "The two largest of them, Ahdut Ha'avoda and Hapoel Hatzair, merged in January 1930 to form Mapai."</ref>{{sfn|Getzoff|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} Labor Zionism, represented by Mapai, became the dominant force in the political and economic life of the [[Yishuv]] during the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]]. It was the dominant ideology of the political establishment in Israel until the [[1977 Israeli legislative election|1977 election]], when the [[Israeli Labor Party]] was defeated.<ref name="Perlmutter-1969"/> During the early twentieth century, the left wing of this tradition was represented by [[Hashomer Hatzair]], followed by [[Mapam]] in the late twentieth century, and [[Meretz]] until 2022.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

[[File:Mishmar HaEmek.JPG|thumb|Kibbutznikiyot (female Kibbutz members) in [[Mishmar HaEmek]], during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]]. The [[Kibbutz]] is the historical heartland of Labor Zionism.]] In Labor Zionist thought, a revolution of the Jewish soul and society was believed necessary and achievable in part by Jews moving to [[Israel]] and becoming farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country of their own. Labor Zionists established rural communes in Israel called "[[kibbutz]]im",{{sfn|Near|1986|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} a form of [[collective farming|cooperative agriculture]] in which the [[Jewish National Fund]] hired Jewish workers under trained supervision. The kibbutzim were a symbol of the [[Second Aliyah]] in that they put great emphasis on communalism and egalitarianism, representing [[Utopian socialism]] to a certain extent. Furthermore, they stressed self-sufficiency, which became an essential aspect of Labor Zionism.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sternhell |first1=Zeev |title=The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State |last2=Maisel |first2=David |date=1998 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |jstor=j.ctt7sdts |isbn=978-0-691-00967-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Israel – Labor Zionism |url=https://countrystudies.us/israel/11.htm |access-date=November 23, 2023 |website=countrystudies.us |archive-date=November 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231123184510/https://countrystudies.us/israel/11.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Synthetic and General Zionism ===
{{Main|General Zionists}}
Synthetic Zionism, led by [[Chaim Weizmann]], [[Leo Motzkin]] and [[Nahum Sokolow]], was an approach that advocated a combination of practical and political Zionism<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Evyatar |last=Friesel |entry=Weizmann, Chaim |title=The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe |url=https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/2150 |access-date=January 3, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122044638/https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/2150 |archive-date=January 22, 2025}}</ref> and distanced themselves from the growing Labour, Religious and Revisionist Zionist groups as the movement became polarised between those.{{sfn|Goldstein|2018|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}{{sfn|Divine|1993|pp=316–318}} General Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class to which many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and [[Chaim Weizmann]] aspired. As head of the World Zionist Organization, Weizmann's policies had a sustained impact on the Zionist movement, with Abba Eban describing him as a dominant figure in Jewish life during the interwar period.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

=== Revisionist Zionism ===
[[File:Zeev Jabotinsky.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]], founder of Revisionist Zionism]]
{{Main|Revisionist Zionism}}

Revisionist Zionism, developed by [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] in the 1920s, was a right-wing strain of Zionism. It initially believed that a Jewish state must expand to both sides of the [[Jordan River]], i.e. taking [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]] in addition to all of Palestine.{{sfn|Zouplna|2008|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}{{sfn|Shlaim|1996|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} It broke with the WZO in 1935 because of the latter's refusal to declare the establishment of a Jewish state as its immediate aim,{{sfn|Shlaim|1996|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} and had its own paramilitary organisation, [[Irgun]], from 1931 to 1948.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

Followers of Revisionist Zionism developed the [[Likud]] Party in Israel, which has dominated most governments since 1977. It advocates Israel's maintaining control of the [[West Bank]], including [[East Jerusalem]], and takes a hard-line approach in the Arab–Israeli conflict.{{sfn|Vause|Raz|Medding|2005}}

=== Religious Zionism ===
{{Main|Religious Zionism}}
{{Conservatism in Israel}}
Initially led by [[Yitzchak Yaacov Reines]] and by [[Abraham Isaac Kook]], Religious Zionism is a variant of Zionist ideology that combines religious conservatism and secular nationalism into a theology with patriotism as its basis.{{sfn|Yadgar|2017|loc=Main Zionist Streams and Jewish Traditions}} One of the core ideas in Religious Zionism is the belief that the ingathering of exiles in the Land of Israel and the establishment of Israel is [[Atchalta De'Geulah|the beginning of the redemption]], the initial stage of the ''[[Jewish eschatology|geula]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Asscher|2021|p=}}:{{pn|date=March 2025}} "Highlighting and infusing the unsolved tension between religion and nationality rooted in Israeli Jewish identity, the father of religious Zionism Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935), and his son and most influential interpreter Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891–1982), assigned primary religious significance to settling the (Greater) Land of Israel, sacralising Israel's national symbols, and, more generally, perceiving the contemporary historical period of statehood as Atchalta De'Geulah [the beginning of the redemption]"</ref> 

After the [[Six-Day War]] and the capture of the [[West Bank]], a territory referred to by the movement as [[Judea and Samaria]], the movement turned right as it integrated revanchist and irredentist forms of nationalism; this right-wing form of religious Zionism, powerful within the settlement movement, is represented today by [[Gush Emunim]] (founded by students of Abraham Kook's son [[Zvi Yehuda Kook]] in 1974), [[Jewish Home]] (HaBayit HaYehudi, formed in 2009), [[Tkuma (political party)|Tkuma]], and [[Meimad]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

[[Kahanism]], a radical branch of religious Zionism, was founded by Rabbi [[Meir Kahane]], whose party, [[Kach and Kahane Chai|Kach]], was eventually banned from the Knesset, but has been increasingly influential on Israeli politics.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

=== Liberal Zionism ===
Today, the liberal Zionist perspective criticizes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967 while also promoting the idea of a Jewish state as a necessity. In this vein, liberal Zionism sees Zionist and Israeli activity before 1967, such as the military conquest of Palestine and the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948, as a necessity.<ref>{{harvnb|Slater|2020}}: "'liberal Zionist,' widely defined to mean someone who is a strong critic of Israel's policies and treatment of the Palestinians since 1967 but who accepts the need for a Jewish state and regards Israel's early policies as a tragic necessity."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Masalha|2012}}: "Sternhell — like other liberal Zionist intellectuals and authors, Martin Buber, Amos Oz, Amos Elon, S. Yizhar and A.B. Yehoshua included — embodies the liberal coloniser who promotes the myth of 'the clash of two rights and two justices', of (Buber's idea) the 'land of two people',37 and of the fallacy of balance and false symmetry between the colonised and the coloniser, between the indigenous and the European settler, between the ethnically cleansed and the ethnic cleanser. The conscientious liberal Zionist, represented in S. Yizhar's Khirbet Khiz'ah (1949) and A.B. Yehoshua's 'Facing the Forests' (1968) and Between Right and Right (Bein Zechut Le-Zechut) (1980, 1981) — whose narrative found strong echoes in the enthusiastic reception accorded in the West to the 'heroic new historians' — is always torn by the demands of Zionist patriotism and the need for human decency. At the Paris conference, expressing a view that is typical of the Israeli liberal narrative, Sternhell acknowledged the colonising aspects of Zionism and recognised the great injustice done to Palestinians. But he insisted that, in view of the European Jewish catastrophe, the Zionist military conquest of Palestine and the expulsion of the Palestinians was dictated by necessity."</ref>

Liberal Zionism, although not associated with any single party in modern Israel, remains a strong trend in Israeli politics advocating free market principles, democracy and adherence to human rights.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Philosopher [[Carlo Strenger]] describes a modern-day version of Liberal Zionism, rooted in the original ideology of Herzl and [[Ahad Ha'am]]. It is marked by a concern for democratic values and human rights, freedom to criticize government policies without accusations of disloyalty, and rejection of excessive religious influence in public life.{{sfn|Strenger|2010}}{{sfn|Strenger|2010b|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} Liberal Zionists see that "Jewish history shows that Jews need and are entitled to a nation-state of their own. But they also think that this state must be a [[liberal democracy]], which means that there must be strict equality before the law independent of religion, ethnicity or gender."{{sfn|Strenger|2014}}

=== Cultural Zionism ===
{{Main|Cultural Zionism}}
Cultural Zionism or Spiritual Zionism is a strain of Zionism that focused on creating a center in historic Palestine with its own secular{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} [[Jewish culture]] and national history, including language and historical roots, rather than on mass migration or state-building. The founder of Cultural Zionism was Asher Ginsberg, better known as [[Ahad Ha'am]]. Like Hibbat Zion and unlike Herzl, Ha'am saw Palestine as the spiritual centre of Jewish life. Ha'am inaugurated the movement in his 1880 essay "This is not the way", which called for the cultivation of a qualitative Jewish presence in the land over [the] quantitative one" pursued by Hibbat Zion.{{sfn|Katz|2024|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} Ha'am was also a sharp critic of Herzl; spiritual Zionism believed that the [[realpolitik]] engaged in by Political Zionism corrupted Jewry, and opposed any political solutions that victimised non-Jewish people in the land.{{sfn|Berent|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}

[[Brit Shalom (political organization)|Brit Shalom]], which promoted Arab-Jewish cooperation, was established in 1925 by supporters of Ahad Ha'am's Spiritual Zionism, including [[Martin Buber]], [[Gershom Scholem]], [[Hans Kohn]], "and other important figures of the intellectual elite of the pre-independence ''yishuv'',{{sfn|Berent|2019|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} Gorny describes it as an ultimately marginal group.{{sfn|Gorny|1987|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}