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This fourth article explores the origins of the Zionist movement and how Theodor Herzl succeeded where his predecessors failed, skillfully exploiting international politics and European colonialism to transform an ancient Jewish dream into a political reality.
The Formidable Zionist Movement
Welcome, dear brothers and sisters, to this fourth article in “The Palestine Story” series, in which we concisely narrate the history of Palestine from the emergence of the idea of Jewish return to Palestine until the outbreak of the flood in October 2023. Through this, we aim to understand the roots of this story: why does it remain, even after more than a hundred years, a burning and inflammatory issue? How did Herzl succeed where his predecessors failed for three thousand years? And what is the future of this story as mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, and as indicated by events?
Once again, for those who wish to verify: these articles are extracted from my book “The Summary of the Palestine Story“1. I will provide a link to download it, where those interested can review the information and know the source of each piece of information with edition and page numbers.
In the previous article, we stopped at the Ottoman Empire’s resistance to the Zionist movement and this movement’s attempt to establish a Jewish state. An important question arose: Who is this Zionist movement that seemed like a legendary enemy capable of defeating the great power that was the Ottoman Empire? Why did the will of the Zionist movement overcome the will of the Ottoman sultans?
Jewish Persecution in Europe
Let’s begin here with the story of the Zionist movement. We can start this story from a distant chapter: the situation of Jews in Europe. We mentioned at the beginning of this series that Christians believe that Jews caused the killing of Christ Jesus, son of Mary (peace be upon him), when they informed on him to the Roman authority, which led to Christ’s crucifixion. Of course, the Christian narrative says that Christ suffered torment and pain in the crucifixion and crown of thorns—many details abound in their books and even their artistic works.
Therefore, Christian persecution of Jews was a recurring pattern throughout history, especially in the Levant region. That is, after the Roman Caesar embraced Christianity, they began persecuting Jews.
This situation caused Jews to frequently serve as allies to the enemies of Christians against them. For example, Jews in the Levant were allies to the Persians when Persians attacked the Levant, working with Persian armies, destroying churches, killing Christians, informing on Christians, and extracting treasures.
Of course, this increased the enmity toward Jews, and at other times, it would explode into sweeping revenge against them. If the Romans regained the Levant again, they—the Christians—would inflict other massacres on Jews. The Roman emperors or their military leaders who ruled the Levant were responsible for the strongest sweeping blows that fell upon Jews, scattering and tearing them apart.
These are many details we cannot dwell on, but for those who would like to see a summary of the conditions of Jews and their persecution, they can refer to the book by Jewish historian Shaheen Macarius, titled “History of the Israelites”. The reader will see in this book how Jews narrate their history in Europe and their persecution.
The Rise of Secular States and Jewish Emancipation
During the European Middle Ages, persecution of Jews was also a constant and customary thing. Therefore, almost every country practiced stages and chapters of persecuting Jews and expelling them from the country.
The motives that led to the persecution of Jews were more than one: First, religious reasons—which we mentioned—related to Jewish enmity toward Christ. But there were also other reasons: political, economic, and social. Jews have an isolationist nature, and this isolationist nature is acknowledged by their Jewish historians, so this is not our own words. Shaheen Macarius, as we mentioned, notes this isolationist nature among Jews. They would gather in areas that represented neighborhoods or “ghettos”—Jewish quarters, special communities, almost closed areas. Sometimes they would monopolize specific professions, such as trade, for example, gold trade, and dealing in usury was known about them.
This increased their isolation on one hand and increased the reasons for enmity toward them on another. Add to that the fact that every society has a sensitivity—sensitivity toward strangers, aversion toward strangers. Sometimes the ruler tries to rely on minorities, especially when he is despotic, tyrannical, trying to rely on minorities to strike with them and to use them in his plots and intrigues. Of course, this empowerment of minorities preserves his position, because the minority clings to the ruler, as he sees in them his soldiers and they see in him their protection.
Sometimes this situation might turn against him and against the minorities. If this despotic ruler is overthrown or if they revolt against him, he pays the price and the minorities he relied on also pay the price. Sometimes the ruler might sacrifice them, so to get closer to the majority, he sacrifices the minority.
Therefore, hostility toward Jews was repeated. Anyone familiar with European history will see that Christians themselves destroyed themselves in religious wars between Catholics and Orthodox and between Catholics and Protestants. Wars in the Middle Ages were colored with religious wars. Therefore, you can imagine what the situation would be like when it came to Jews, as they were a religious minority on one hand, and a social protrusion and isolated group on another hand, as well as a group—from the perspective of economists and from the material perspective—an economic parasite living on usury and on the trade of some matters and works that cause aversion.
An important change occurred in Europe since the seventeenth century. The conditions of Jews in Europe began to improve when Europe, in its development, began to shed Christianity and the control of the church and entered into secularism. The idea of the nation-state, the idea of the modern state, the idea of laws, the idea of citizenship, and positive legislation began. What concerns us from all this now is that the view of Jews changed.
Jews were now viewed as citizens, not as Jews. This opened the way for them to work as officials in state departments; some rose to become members of parliament, and later became ministers in the government. This rise was also accompanied by the financial rise that was made available to them, because he became a citizen, so the citizen became protected and preserved by secular laws. Secular laws issued by elected parliaments represented the interests of power networks and networks of influence within the state. Thus, the situation of Jews improved.
The Jewish Question and European Politics
For example, you may all know from the famous novels that express Christians’ confusion in dealing with the new situation of Jews, Shakespeare’s famous novel “The Merchant of Venice.” This novel describes how in a city like Venice (Italian Venice)—a city where law prevailed—the Jewish merchant, the usurious merchant, was able to exploit this law to the extent that he wanted to shed the blood of the Christian who borrowed from him. Meaning he told him: “I will lend you, but if you don’t return it on time, I will cut from your flesh,” and this was the agreement, so the Jew was able to exploit the law in shedding Christian blood.
Here, Christian judiciary fell into confusion between implementing the law—and the law was in favor of the Jew—and the deep religious traditions existing in Europe, traditions that prevent shedding Christian blood because Christian blood is sacred, and how do you shed it at the hand of a Jew? This is the knot of the novel. I won’t solve for you now what Shakespeare did; I’ll leave you to follow the novel. But the point here is that Jews, after these changes in Europe, became owners of banks, financial institutions, and capital, and were often able to finance wars, kings, and princes, and to cover the deficit, for example, in the budget of some countries and some governments.
This Jewish rise—which was an effect of secularism and citizenship—coincided with the Jewish rise due to Protestantism and what it carried within it of a Christian Zionist current, which we talked about before. This situation—meaning Protestantism—made Jews the object of sympathy and care [because] Christ was born Jewish, and Jews should return to the Holy Land, perhaps even the object of respect and reverence, not just sympathy and care. This revived the situation of Jews… so we can say that Jews achieved wide leaps.
All this talk we mentioned applies to Western Europe, but does not include Eastern Europe and Russian areas. In Eastern and Russian areas, Jews remained an outcast sect, suffering persecution and fear. Whoever reads the memoirs of Israel’s founders—in the first migrations—will find how they were in Poland and how they were in Ukraine, and how they felt persecution and fear, and how they lived nights of terror. They were subjected to continuous revenge because they were considered the source of evils.
The Mass Migration from Eastern Europe
These people’s conditions deteriorated completely, and massive massacres began to happen to them, and they began to be placed in pens. After the assassination of Russian Tsar Alexander II—who was assassinated in 1881—because Jews were accused of assassinating him, therefore this was a period dominated by fear and panic, and from it began a wave of Jewish exodus from Russia and Eastern Europe to Western Europe, and of course to the Ottoman Empire.
This wave of exodus, we can say, formed the most important cornerstone of the success of the Zionist project. Jews in Western Europe were not enthusiastic about migrating from Europe, because their conditions had actually improved, and Western Jews even saw in the plans to return them to Palestine a conspiracy against them. They saw it as a conspiracy aimed at expelling them from Europe under the slogan of returning them to the land of their ancestors.
But the Jews of Russia and Eastern Europe, with the massacres and persecutions, were fleeing from hell, were looking for any refuge. Therefore, these Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia provided the human material that met with Western European colonial interests in establishing a homeland for Jews in Palestine.
These Jews fleeing from Eastern Europe, we can say, renewed the idea of the Jewish problem among Westerners. Therefore, the various efforts—whether from people who believed in Zionist ideas, or non-believing but secular people, or people who hated Jews—therefore these various efforts from Jewish and non-Jewish Zionism made the closest and best solution to transfer these Jews coming from Russia and Eastern Europe to Palestine, whether those who saw this as religion and belief or those who saw it as politics and colonial interest.
Therefore, some of the most important figures who provided strong services to the Zionist movement despised Jews, most famously Chamberlain, Lloyd George, Balfour, Sykes. These met with the Zionist movement in the purpose of deporting Jews to Palestine, even with different intentions and motives. And I refer you here to the book I mentioned more than once: “Non-Jewish Zionism” by Regina Sharif, because it traces the statements of these people and analyzes their positions.
Palestine: The Price Paid for European Antisemitism
Thus, establishing a homeland for Jews in Palestine was the price that the Muslim nation paid, paid from its blood and its souls, as European compensation to Jews for the persecution they inflicted on them in European history, and a solution to Europe’s problems and its expansionist colonial interests, because these interests invested in Jews to make them a thorn planted in the body of the Islamic East, and the West relies on them as an advanced military base for its armies. Thus, the weak remains the one who pays the price for the conflict of the strong.
These are the roots of the story.
How did the implementation begin? These conditions that Jews were suffering came together to provoke a young Jewish journalist from Austria named Theodor Herzl. This man was also cunning, intelligent, widely active, and with his skill was able to employ the surrounding conditions to pour into the project of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine.
Herzl’s Three Pillars for a Jewish State
We can say that Herzl relied in this project on three main pillars: The first pillar is the realistic possibility that Muhammad Ali’s policy had established sixty years earlier. Jews still had a presence and presence, had commercial activities, and the Ottoman Sultanate was still weak.
By the way, I recommend reading Herzl’s diaries. Of course, Herzl’s diaries are printed in four volumes in English, but the prominent Palestinian historian Dr. Anis Sayegh translated and edited them—that is, gathered their scattered parts and collected their subjects—and published them in Arabic in one volume. These are very important memoirs.
We said that Herzl relied on three main pillars: First: The possibility produced by Muhammad Ali’s policies and still continuing. The second pillar: The prevalence of the nationalist idea in Europe. Meaning the nationalist idea made a state for every people: English, French, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, so it made for every people a state with political borders and independent sovereignty. Therefore, the Zionist idea says that Jews are a people without a state, “a people without a land,” and therefore the moral duty—or one of the natural obvious matters—is that Jews should have a state and a people.
This idea is the summary of Herzl’s book “The Jewish State,” the book he issued in 1896, and is considered the founding book of the Zionist movement. This book—which is the beginning of the Zionist movement project—was issued in 1896 and transformed into a conference in the city of Basel in Switzerland in 1897. That is, the project of work began in this conference on establishing the Jewish state.
The third pillar: that Herzl existed in the age of colonialism and European superiority. We are now talking about the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. Europe at that time was effectively dominating almost the entire world, whether through direct occupation or through great influence in unoccupied areas. Therefore, establishing a state for Jews somewhere was a possible matter. That is, if he could convince Western politicians of it, it was a possible matter. Therefore, he went to make the Jewish state project part of the Western colonial interest.
Therefore, he tried to make the Jewish state project compatible with the Western colonial interest, because the Jewish state would address more than one problem at once. For example, the problem of Jewish influx from Eastern Europe, this is a problem that harms Western countries.
Herzl’s Strategic Decisions
While Herzl was working, he discovered that Jews do not react or are affected or sympathize or respond to the idea of establishing a state other than in Palestine. Herzl was secular and not religious, so he found that Jews would not react or respond to a state project unless the land of this state was Palestine and Jerusalem. So after he had been thinking of establishing a state in South America or Africa or anywhere else, he saw that this project would not succeed except by exploiting the energy of Jews and the dreams of Jews and the spiritual yearnings of Jews. So he modified his project to be a state for Jews in Palestine.
Thus began his feverish pursuit to convince Western politicians of the project of establishing a state for Jews in Palestine. He traversed Europe east and west. He had tours in: Austria, Germany, Italy, France, England, the Ottoman Empire. Everywhere he used the utmost of his intelligence and persuasive skills, and tried to enter the lines of each country and the interests of each country and the conflicts of each country to find himself a foothold, making the Jewish state project pour into the interest of the country to which he presented this project.
Herzl’s Appeal to Competing Powers
Therefore, focus with me here, I want you to focus with me and contemplate how Herzl would make the Jewish state project beneficial to each party in the international conflict, even though these parties are contradictory?
We start with the Germans. He went to the Germans and told them the following: A Jewish state in Palestine would save them from the influx of Jews fleeing from Russian persecution to Germany, and thus this Jewish state would attract the surplus labor and surplus Jewish farmers. And this Jewish state would be an eastern state relying on cheap Jewish labor, on available raw materials, and thus would attract investment opportunities and European capital instead of attracting them to a country like China. Thus, a Jewish state would spare Germany from receiving persecuted Jewish workers who could cause trouble if they joined revolutionary parties—of course, Germany was imperial at that time.
He also told them, instead of them coming from these areas where there might be a revolutionary spirit and discontent, causing problems and causing a revolution in Germany, let’s send them to Palestine.
Also, this Jewish state would be a barrier against French and Russian ambitions, and of course, these are Germany’s enemies. That is, when Turkey is torn apart—of course the Ottoman Empire is in the phase of weakness—he tells them: If Turkey is torn apart, having a Jewish state with German capital would be a barrier against French and Russian ambitions, because persecuted Jews would fight against any Russian influence. Imagine that we brought persecuted Russians and established a state for them in Palestine, so they would prevent Russian influence.
Thus, the state would be a foothold for Western policies, and would be like Juha’s nail or a new foothold for Western influence, because the West at that time was extending its protection to Christians in the East.
And also when there is a Jewish state subordinate to Germany, or Germany is the one that sponsored it and contributed to its establishment, this would prevent a country like Britain—which is Germany’s enemy—from monopolizing control over the routes between East and West, because Britain controlled the Suez Canal, and this is the link between it and its occupation of the Gulf countries and India. Therefore, as long as Britain controls the canal, let Germany also control Palestine, and thus Britain would not be in sole control of transportation routes between East and West.
This is the scene for the Germans. What did he say to the English when he went to them? He said to the English: You control a sea route, so what do you think of also controlling the land route, which is the route that passes through Palestine and the Levant? Thus, Britain would become uniquely in control of the sea route—which is the Suez Canal—and the land route, and thus Britain would have exclusive and complete control over the network of routes between East and West.
And when there is a Jewish state here subordinate to Britain, it would guarantee its colonial interests. It would establish railways between the Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea, including, for example, a branch of railways extending to Afghanistan—which Britain was occupying at that time—and thus Britain would benefit more than others if it followed and sponsored the establishment of a state for Jews in Palestine. And also it wouldn’t pay much for it, because the Jews who want to return to Palestine are the ones who will bear the expenses, so Jews are the ones who will pay the cost of establishing a state.
Therefore, the existence of a Jewish state under British patronage would ensure Britain’s exclusive control over routes and control over projects. And even if any problems occurred in the Suez Canal—which is the sea route—Britain would still have a land route. And the existence of a Jewish state in this region would tear apart Turkey—the enemy of the English—and prevent Russia from expanding in the East, because most persecuted Jews were coming from Russia.
And if the Jews’ plan to win over the Ottoman Sultan with money succeeded, then in this way he would dispense with borrowing from France and Russia—and these are Britain’s enemies—thus preventing the inflation of their influence—France and Russia—in the Ottoman Empire.
Of course, religious English Protestants had another reason, which is the religious reason to support the Jewish state, because it is the one that would pave the way for the return of Christ.
Appealing to Russian Interests
These are the Germans and these are the English. What does he say to the Russians? He went to the Russians in this way: He presented to them the Jewish state project as an excellent opportunity for them to get rid of the Jewish problem, so they would expel Jews to it. And of course, this expulsion would be easy and smooth; in all cases, Jews want to flee from this hell and Jews would welcome it.
And since many Jews are Russian Jews and carry Russian culture, therefore the Jewish state would naturally be a place of Russian influence and Russian culture. And this Russian culture and this Russian influence would cut off the way for Western expansion—which is English, French, and German expansion.
Also, Jews would pay money to the Ottoman Sultan to buy the piece of land from him or the country from him, and this money the Sultan would have to spend on making the reforms that Christian countries want from him to improve the conditions of Christians. It’s as if Jews are the ones who spent on improving the conditions of Christians, many of whom follow Russian influence, because Russia was extending its protection to Orthodox Christians.
And Herzl was keen to reassure the Russians regarding Jerusalem, as Jerusalem would be far from commercial deals or far from the state. Thus, he portrayed the idea of the Jewish state as how it would be in the interest of the Russians.
Herzl’s Universal Appeal
Even the Catholic Pope, Herzl also presented the project to him, presented it to the Pope’s representative, and of course, when presenting it to the Pope, he gave up the holy places. He said that the Christian holy places would not be within the borders of the state, meaning Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, we are away from these areas.
Herzl was meeting with everyone, to the extent that you might be surprised and shocked that Herzl met with the young Egyptian leader Mustafa Kamel, the well-known national leader Mustafa Kamel. Mustafa Kamel at that time was only twenty-three years old.
Herzl admired Mustafa Kamel’s enthusiasm for confronting the British occupation and expelling the English from Egypt, so Herzl thought that perhaps expelling the English from Egypt would be in the interest of the Zionist movement. Because if the English were expelled from Egypt and abandoned the Suez Canal—this would make them cling to the Levant region to be an alternative route between East and West to the Suez Canal. And of course, all this is the vision that Herzl presented as a political and colonial interest.
And of course, for those who believed in the Protestant faith, Herzl also worked on addressing this belief among religious officials.
Jewish Resistance to Zionism
But another strange and unexpected problem appeared for Herzl; the problem was that Jews doubted the seriousness of this project and the possibility of its success. If you put yourself in the place of a Jew, a Jew has a heritage of three thousand years of failure and persecution, a heavy and difficult heritage, many Jews interpreted Herzl’s movement—especially the rabbis and the religious sect—interpreted this project as a conspiracy against them, and that it is part of a persecution process that wants to get them out of Europe—after their conditions had improved in it—because this is the goal that anti-Semitic movements in Europe have always worked on.
And what increased the doubts of these Jews was that the Zionist movement is a secular movement and its symbols are not religious, so it was like a project to displace them from their safe havens, for when you want to return Jews to Palestine, there is no safety and there is no guarantee of success.
Herzl and the Zionist movement later dealt with these Jews by all means, means of persuasion and temptation, if they didn’t work, they dealt with them by means of coercion and even killing. You can say that Herzl was not expressing the dreams of Jews, was not representing the dreams of Jews, but he and the Zionist movement were mobilizing Jews within the Zionist state project by mobilization, by choice if possible or by compulsion and coercion.
Many will be surprised that Herzl himself used to say: “Anti-Semites will be the most trusted friends, and that countries where anti-Semitism spreads are allies of the Zionist movement.” Later, we will see how the Zionist movement cooperated with German Nazism on the goal of deporting Jews from Germany.
The Secret of Herzl’s Success
If we return to Herzl now, Herzl’s philosophy in establishing the Jewish state relied entirely on the power of colonialism and the tools of colonialism. Of course, he benefited in this from previous experiments that failed, because previous experiments tried to make the Jewish presence a fait accompli, and these experiments failed, a lot of money and a lot of efforts were spent on them, and therefore Herzl’s philosophy was different, and it was an effective and truly successful philosophy.
He understood that it was not possible for a state for Jews to be established in Palestine except by the hand of colonialism and by means of colonialism and by the armies of colonialism and by the fleets of colonialism. No matter what Herzl’s capabilities and skills were and no matter what the capabilities of Jews were, they would not be able to, and this is the secret of his success in what his predecessors failed at for 3,000 years.
Of course, this philosophy has another side, because in this other side, Herzl sacrificed millions of Jews in savage massacres in order to compel Jews and tempt them to leave their countries and migrate to Palestine.
From the beginning, Herzl categorically refused to move in the Jewish state project through the infiltration of Jews into Palestine, or for example, after there are Jews, there becomes a Jewish problem so Jews have to appeal to the major powers to protect them. Herzl refused by all means for Jews to appear as rebels against the Ottoman Sultan, because all this was exposing the project to the adventure of failure and extermination.
What did he do? He took his path for the Jewish state to be a decision from the major capitals, either the Sultan responds to it willingly and by temptation, or is carried on it and forced on it under the pressure of the major powers. This is what guarantees the implementation of the Jewish state and this is what will encourage Jews to migrate to it and this is what will encourage wealthy Jews to support it and finance it, and this is what will make the establishment of the Jewish state with the least amount of losses, and from here was his famous and bitter experience with Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
How was this experience? And how did it end? This is what we will see, ALLAH willing, in the next article.
We ask ALLAH Almighty to teach us what benefits us, to benefit us with what HE has taught us, and to increase us in knowledge, and peace be upon you and ALLAH ‘s mercy and blessings.
Sources:
- Mohamed Elhamy. قصة فلسطين | 4. تأسيس الحركة الصهيونية وقائدها الخطير. YouTube Video.
