https://www.quora.com/What-is-good-about-ZionismAlexandra Markus, Israeli, living and working in Jerusalem
Updated Apr 14, 2017
Jews are the most oppressed people in history. We are fifteen million of us in a world that has many bones to pick with us for theological reasons or otherwise. We need a sanctuary where we are the majority and allowed to live our lives as we choose. We need a way to escape persecution - it's a social justice imperative.
The diaspora has always been fickle. Jews are massacred by virtually every host country every hundred years or so. The holocaust. The pogroms. The farhud (which happened before Israel's founding), and of course the 850,000 middle eastern Jews who were expelled forcibly with all their wealth confiscated. And of course all over the world throughout the centuries where hundreds or thousands of us are burned at the stake as the scapegoats for the latest national problem because cultures can't take responsibility themselves.
Arabs have 23 states. Muslims have 57. Christians have over 100. Jews have one: Israel. Let us have our tiny dot the size of New Jersey.
Opposing Zionism is hypocritical and antisemitic. Those who think only the Jews have no right to a state but everyone else does are antisemites, they might not realize it but they are. Even the Jews who are antizionist are so because they have an inferiority complex and are subconsciously worried about what would happen if Jews take up more space than many would like. Post-holocaust PTSD. They think we should lay low and continue to be subjugated minorities as long as we are alive, and they think Israel's existence pokes the bear.
People who claim to oppose all nationalism strike me as suspicious when I don't see them also opposing France and Italy’s existence but opposing Israel's. Yes, Jews are to Israel - and Judea - as Italians are to Italy. We are an ethnoreligious group, not just a religion. You can be a Jew and not believe in the religion at all if you are Jewish by blood. The religion is basically just a portable form of our culture that originated in Israel, and learning the religion means learning our history, folklore, and cultural norms.
Israel was where the genesis of our culture and religion took place. Anyone who knows anything about orthodox aka traditional Judaism knows it's basically a love affair between a people and a land. Jewish rituals are based on living in Israel, and there has been a yearning to return for all those in exile. Next year in Jerusalem has been said for centuries if not millennia by all Jews in exile.
Zionism is the first indigenous movement that resulted in the return to our native land. It's a huge empowerment for a constantly persecuted minority. We are indigenous to the land. There have only ever been Jewish states on this land - when there wasn't a Jewish state it was always a colony of some far off mother country (Babylon, Rome, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Great Britain) who don't have the connection we have. The only time Israel was a mother country and not a colony was when it was ruled by the Jews. It is our only mother country, the only land that's ever been ours. And our ties to the land are ingrained in every aspect of our religion and tradition. Our language that we've kept for all these centuries is even a Semitic language that fits in well with the region, and proves at the very least linguistic indigenousness. Meanwhile, archaeological evidence abounds of our ties to the land that run deeper and more consistently than many people think.
Zionism allows us to practice Judaism fully, Jerusalem for Jews is like Mecca is for Muslims. All our holy sites are here in Israel. Many mitzvot - commandments - can only be done in Israel. The religion is deeply tied to the land. Zionism allows Jews to practice Judaism fully and live Jewish lives, never being disadvantaged for being observant as we are everywhere else.
Jews are very happy to be here. Let us have our happy place where we can be ourselves without fear. Please. It's a tiny piece of land but it means the world to us.
As a Jew who made Aliyah - or chose to move here (Aliyah means elevation, or moving up) - there is no better feeling than being among my own, in a culture that feels like a giant family and looks after one another. I also feel like my soul has found its source, a feeling that is so special and incredible for me that I won't get anywhere else because of the special connection we have to this land. It's hard to explain but it's so saturated with meaning for me.
