The goal cannot be reached at once. It lies in a future more or less
near. It is an ideal, a desire, a hope, as the Messianic Zionism was
and is. The new Zionism, which has been called the political one,
differs, however, from the old, the religious, the Messianic one, in
this,--that it disavows all mysticism, no longer identifies itself
with Messianism, and does not expect the return to Palestine to be
brought about by a miracle, but desires to prepare the way by its own
efforts.
The new Zionism has grown in part only out of the internal impulsions
of Judaism itself, out of the enthusiasm of modern educated Jews for
their history and martyrology, out of the awakened consciousness of
their racial qualities, out of their ambition to save the ancient
blood, in view of the farthest possible future, and to add to the
achievements of their forefathers the achievements of their posterity.
On the other hand, Zionism is the effect of two impulses which came
from without,--first, the principle of nationality, which for half a
century ruled thought and feeling in Europe, and governed the politics
of the world; secondly, Anti-Semitism, from which the Jews of all
countries have more or less to suffer.
The principle of nationality has awakened self-consciousness in all
the peoples; it teaches them to regard their peculiarities as
qualities, and gives them a passionate desire for independence. It
could not, therefore, pass over the educated Jews without leaving a
trace. It induced them to remember who and what they are; to feel
themselves, what they had unlearned, a people apart; and to demand for
themselves a normal national destiny. This slow and painful work of
the recovery of their national individuality was rendered easier by
the attitude of the peoples, who eliminated them from among themselves
as a foreign element, and put stress, without consideration or
courtesy, on the real and imaginary contrasts, or at least
differences, between themselves and the Jews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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