Zionism is not about building an ethno-state.
Bené Yisrael include all ethnicities from all continents except Antarctica.
What ties us all together is a covenant of justice, solidarity, and holiness.
This covenant is the foundation of Zionism and provides it with a concrete goal: building the city, the state, of Zion.
A society in awe of, and in love with, truth.
A society in which the poor, the migrants, the indigent are included and cared for by their fellow human beings.
A society in which the divine image is cultivated rather than suppressed, erased, defaced by prejudice and exploitation.
A society in which land belongs to its Creator and is respected and cherished by the people it supports and shapes.
A society in which justice is pursued. As a social ideal and as a matter of wide-ranging policy.
Naturally, in such a society, Jewish people expect to find a freedom we have never known, never even tasted save in the brief legendary golden ages of bygone days – a freedom to worship the Creator of all worlds and all beings and all nations of the family of humankind, in truth and with clarity, according to the precepts of the covenant we have faithfully kept for thousands of years, without the danger of pogroms, expulsions, and death-camps. Go figure.
Anyway, this is what Zionism is about.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.