. . . as something evil. It is, from the beginning, and the beginning was very long ago, the desire of the Jewish people to have their indigenous homeland back. As the Oxford Dictionary says:
Zi·on·ism
/ˈzīəˌnizəm/
noun
noun: Zionism
a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.
Long before it was a political ideology, it was deep inside of the Jewish soul. It had it's origin in the Babylonian exile which began March 16, 597 BCE,
Psalm 137 speaks to this so eloquently across time and space:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive required of us words of song, and our tormentors [required of us] mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [her cunning].
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase [it], rase [it], even to the foundation thereof.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Simply, anyone who is anti-zionist is against the very idea of Jews having a homeland. Since Zion (Jerusalem) is an inherent longing of the Jewish soul, anti-zionism is antisemitism, for it speaks against that deep longing of the very soul of the Jewish people.
So yes. Color me a proud Jew and a proud Zionist.
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