Theodor Herzl’s Political Zionism and Modern Israel. Design and Implementation

Abstract

The paper discusses the fundamental ideas of political Zionism. Many of them were presented in the pamphlet “The Jewish State” (1896) and in a fictionalized form in the utopian novel “The Old New Land” (1902). Their author is the Austrian journalist and writer Theodor Herzl (1860–1904). Some facts and events that influenced the formation of Herzl's views are also named; a number of decisions of the first Zionist congresses are analyzed; the role of Russian Zionists in advancing the movement; the attitude of the government and society in Russia and other countries to Zionism; the perception of Zionism in the ruling and intellectual circles of Israel in our time; the correlation of the ideas of political Zionism with modern internal and external foreign policy and realities of the State of Israel. The article attempts to answer the question: to what extent modern Israel meets the ideals of classical Zionism, to what extent its main provisions were implemented in it.