"Zionism" is the name of the much maligned national liberation movement of the Jewish people. Zionism is not an evil conspiracy or a racist plot hatched by sly swarthy evil Jews in dark alleys and secret meeting places, but rather a movement of dedicated idealists who wrought an impossible miracle, which every expert insisted was impossible, against huge odds. The story of Zionism challenges the imagination. A tiny, impoverished group of intellectuals and dreamers took it upon themselves to transform the ancient prophetic vision of the restoration of Israel into flesh and blood reality. Zionism faced the opposition of other Jews and the indifference or hatred of most of the world. Zionism took on the Turkish Empire and the British Empire and defeated both. From a people stigmatized as the cowards of the earth, Zionism fashioned a mighty military machine that defeated huge armies. From a tiny strip of desert sunk in the decay of the dying Turkish empire, Zionism created a world class economy and a thriving democracy. 

New Image of Jews:
Poster: "To A New Life"
1930s Zionist film

Zionism remade the image and the reality of the Jewish people. The psychological transformation preceded the reality and made the reality possible. A people almost dead willed itself back to life at what could have been the last moments in its history.

Reality of Jewish life in Israel:
Pioneers returning from work

Zionism transformed the intellectuals and merchants of the ghettos of Europe into workers and engineers who built great industries and made deserts bloom. The scurrying frightened figures of ghetto lore gave way to bronzed workers and proud soldiers. In those who hate Jews, contempt was transformed into fear. The lying stereotype of the Jew who could not fight gave way to the equally pernicious lie of the Zionist warmonger. Better to be feared than despised.

Zionism declared that it would redeem the land. Land that had lain fallow for 2,000 years was made to feed a nation of seven million people. Zionism revived the ancient language of the Bible. Hebrew became the language of a modern nation: a language for rock singers and stevedores, comics, poets, pilots, engineers scientists and young lovers.