Divine right or historical fact? Understanding the basis of Zionism in modern Israel - opinion

"The Jews believe that an imaginary God gave the Holy Land to the Hebrews... There once was Palestine, and now there is Israel. That is colonialism.” 

This is an example of a frequent comment made by anti-Zionists on social media in response to pro-Israel posts. Their criticism of Zionism stems from the mistaken belief that the only basis Zionists have for the Jewish people’s right to their historic homeland is a command from God. 

Many anti-Zionists maintain there is no God and, therefore, there is no basis for a Jewish state on the Land of Israel.

Nevertheless, the Jewish people were promised the land by God, and that is sufficient reason to claim the land as their own. They have never needed the approval of the other nations of the world to claim their land, and they don’t need it now. And even if they didn’t have this promise, the Jewish people have historical, legal, and moral rights to the land of Israel.

Explaining the connection

THE HISTORICAL connection is seen through archaeological discoveries that demonstrate Jewish presence on the land for 3,000 years. The international community, through various treaties and United Nations votes, established the Jewish people’s legal right to govern their own state on the Land of Israel. Their moral right to the land was unfortunately magnified when the nations of the world closed their borders to Jews fleeing the Nazis during World War II.

While many atheists and secularists might consider extremist and irrational the belief that God gave the land to the Jewish people, those Jews who incorporate God into their Zionism are proud to have been promised the land by the Creator. 

Jewish tradition doesn’t consider belief in the existence of God as a blind belief, but a position based on knowledge. Maimonides (the Rambam) wrote, “The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence.”

The great Jewish scholar, Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, wrote, “If the nations of the world should say to the nation of Israel, ‘You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan,’ the Jews will reply, ‘The entire earth belongs to God. God was the one who created the world and gave it to whomever God deemed proper. He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to the Jewish people.’”

God and Zionism

For those who incorporate God into their Zionism, God’s promise of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people has always been, and will always be, sufficient cause for the Jewish people to settle and develop the land. 

The Jewish sense of morality has always come from God’s word and Jews have always considered it their moral imperative to govern the land. 

Even today’s secular Israelis who don’t look at God as their reason for the establishment of the State of Israel agree that the earliest Zionists looked to traditional considerations that God gave the Land of Israel specifically to the Jewish people as the reason that the Jewish people chose to return to Israel specifically and not to any other land.

TODAY’S ZIONISTS look to God in three different capacities within the existence of the State of Israel. The first role that Zionists see God playing in modern Israel is a national role. 

It was God who promised the Jewish people the Land of Israel, first to Abraham, then to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and then to his grandson, Jacob. God repeated the promise to their descendants through Moses, Joshua, and throughout the generations over thousands of years. An integral of Judaism is a national identity centered around Israel. 

The Individual 

The second role Zionists see God playing in the state and Zionism is a role for each individual Jew. 

God commanded the Jewish people, “You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their temples, destroy their molten idols, and demolish their high places. You shall clear out the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to occupy it. You shall give the land as an inheritance to your families by lot; to the large, you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the small, you shall give a smaller inheritance; wherever the lot falls shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers, you shall inherit.”

Maimonides wrote, “God commanded the Jews to dwell in the land and inherit it because God has given it to them.” Many Zionists consider their living in Israel a fulfillment of a Divine command. 

Some Zionists, especially religious Zionists, understand that today’s modern State of Israel is the first stage in the ultimate messianic redemption. They see God as playing a philosophical role in Israel today. Israel isn’t just a national achievement, but a theological triumph of a miraculous nature. To move to Israel, to live in Israel, and to build Israel, are all steps in the messianic process. 

Religious Zionist scholar Rabbi Alan Haber went as far as to write, “To me, it is clear that we are in (stages of) the messianic times already nowadays. I think this way whenever I see or experience exciting new developments like bridges and tunnels that have been built (already at the southern and western approaches to the city, and now another one on the east) to enable us to enter Jerusalem more quickly and smoothly, not only by reducing traffic but also by turning mountains and valleys into ‘flat ground.’” 

The third way Zionists see God in Israel is in a theological role. 

Zionists should never be embarrassed to proudly declare that God gave the Jewish people their land and it is their Divine right to build and develop the land. 

Even though many across the world are skeptical about religious tradition playing a role in international affairs, the Jewish people should not shy away from discussing God as the reason they worked so hard to establish their own Jewish state in the Land of Israel. 

The writer is a Zionist educator at institutions around the world and recently published his book, Zionism Today.