Unpacking Zionism after 10/7/2023 ( Below is a limited and incomplete list of sources to invite inquiry and engagement.)

"Judaism is in a quandry: It can no longer tolerate the galut form which it had to take on, in obedience to its will-to-live, when it was exiled from its own country; but, without that form, its life is in danger. So it seeks to return to its historic center...

This Jewish settlement, the growth of which will be gradual, will become in course of time the center of the nation, wherein its spirit will find pure expression.

Then, from this center, the spirit of Judaism will radiate to the great circumference, to all the communities of the Diaspora, to inspire them with new life and preserve the overall unity of our people."

Ahad Ha'am, "Medinat Ha-yehudim v' 'Tzarat Ha-yehudim'" (The Jewish State and the "Jewish Problem'" (1897)

With the ideas, knowledge, and facilities that humanity possesses on this 31st day of December, 1902, it could save itself. No philosopher's stone, no dirigible airship is needed. Everything needful for the making of a better world exists already. And do you know, man, who could show the way? You! You Jews! Just because you're so badly off. You've nothing to lose. You could make the experimental land for humanity. Over yonder, where we were, you could create a new commonwealth. On that ancient soil, Old-New Land!

Theodore Herzl, Old New Land (1902)

^"There is no Zionism except the rescue of Jews."

Quoted in Golda Meir (1969), 1943

And within our Homeland, justice shall be the supreme ruler, the ruler over all rulers. There must be no tyranny. The Ministers and officials must be the servants of the nation and not their masters. There must be no exploitation. There must be no man within our country—be he citizen or foreigner—compelled to go hungry, to want for a roof over his head or to lack elementary education. ‘Remember you were strangers in the land of Egypt’—this supreme rule must continually light our way in our relations with the strangers within our gates. ‘Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue’ will be the guiding principle in our relations amongst ourselves.
Menachem Begin, 6th of Iyar 1948

This right is the natural right of the Jewish people, to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own Sovereign state.
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (1948)

"Within Zionism, I perceive the aspiration for normalization of relations between nation states. Normalization means mutual recognition, as well as the recognition of international regulations that obligate states. Zionism does not articulate itself through adding dunams of land, one by one, but in the reinforcement of our reciprocal recognition by other states, the reinforcement of Israel's political standing among the United Nations – and this is what we should aspire to. Anything that disturbs this reciprocity impairs Zionism."
Interview with Israeli playwright and author, Joshua Sobol (1939-)

Jewish original creativity whether in the realm of ideas or in the arena of daily life in action is impossible except in Eretz Israel.

A Jew cannot be as devoted and true to his own ideas, sentiments and Imagination in the diaspora as he can in Eretz Israel. Revelations of the holy of whatever degree are relatively pure in Eretz Israel, outside it they are mixed with dross and much impurity…

In the Holy Land man's imagination is lucid and clear, clean and pure capable of receiving the revelations of divine truth and of expressing in life the sublime meaning of the ideal of the sovereignty of holiness; there the mind is prepared to understand the light of Prophecy and to be illuminated by the radiance of the Holy Spirit. In gentile lands the imagination is dim clouded with darkness and shadowed with unholiness and it cannot serve as the vessel for the outpouring of the Divine Light.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) cited in Shlomo Avineri, The Making of Modern Zionsim, 1981, p. 190

4. Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh (immigrant)…. An oleh’s visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel, unless the Minister of Immigration is satisfied that the applicant (a) is engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people, or (b) is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State.

Israeli Law of Return, 1950

In my opinion, Zionism is finished. There is no need for it. Everyone is already in Zion and Zion is open. No-one is preventing Jews who wish to come here from doing so, and those who were impelled to come are already here. There is a homeland, but it has changed.
Interview with S. Yizhar (1916-2006) , Israeli author.

We are the People of the Book

We are also a people heavy with memory.

Let us therefore remember,

Nizkor, what Zionism is.

Let us remember that Zionism is about the future,

Not about the past.

Let us remember that Zionism while embedded in history,

Should never be imprisoned by it.

Let us remember the Zionism means listening to the voice of our people,

Not silencing the voice of others.

Let us remember that designism is about national self-consciousness.

Not about real estate.

Let us remember that Zionism is about getting our people back into history.

Not opting out of it.

Let us remember the Zionism is about being Jewish,

But also about being human. Ke chol ha goyim.

But not like the worst of them.

Let us remember the Zionism is about building,

Not about destroying.

Let us remember the Zionism is about liberation,

Not about occupation.

Let us remember that Zionism is about people.

Not about territories.

A Zionist Credo

Shlomo Avineri (1982)

Remarks made a ceremony in New York City on being awarded the Kenneth B. Smilen/PresentTense Award For his book The Making of modern Zionism

“Only a few years ago did it suddenly dawn on me that my existential fear regarding my nation’s future and my moral outrage regarding my nation’s occupation policy are not unconnected. On the one hand, Israel is the only nation in the West that is occupying another people. On the other hand, Israel is the only nation in the West that is existentially threatened. Both occupation and intimidation make the Israeli condition unique. Intimidation and occupation have become the two pillars of our condition.”

Ari Shavit, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel 2013

One way to think about Israel, is by unpacking the word. I can think of at least three Israels:

a) Israel as a Nation State. The Government of Israel. Its democratically elected government and institutions (Knesset, Ministry of Education, IDF etc).

b) The Land of Israel. Its geography and topography. Tel Aviv, Jersusalem, Massada.

c) The People of Israel. This connects to the concept of Le'um ("Am Israel Chai") and the Kaplanian notion of Jewish Peoplehood.

David Leipziger Teva 2023

Additional Resources:

The Making of Modern Zionism: Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State, Shlomo Avineri,

Introduction: Zionism as Revolution p.3-13

(15 min)

https://ismi.emory.edu/documents/Readings/Avineri%20Zionism%20as%20a%20National%20LIberation%20Movement.pdf