Random thoughts on Zionism (ok not random they were points missing in someone else’s overview of Zionism but they will be random to you):
– traditionally Jewish politics put God in the position of sovereign and the nation of Israel in the position of contingent steward/tenant; Zionism is about autonomy, not sovereignty (and for many supporters of Israel, the real fear is a loss of that autonomy)
– Zionist branding worked because the national aspiration for a holy and just society, and the cultural meaning of Zion, already existed in the biblical literature and liturgy for thousands of years
– modern political Zionism starts with Doña Gracia Nasi’s organized purchases of land in the 16th century for the express purpose of re-establishing Jewish settlement in Israel and points to the direct connection between Jewish disenfranchisement as a diasporic minority and the need for Jewish landed autonomy
– religious Zionism may be redundant but insofar as it’s a valid label it can be used to describe many Zionist groups in the 19th and 20th century, and such Zionist leaders as R Abraham Isaac Kook z”l without mention of whom no discussion of religious Zionism can be complete