ABSTRACT
Many writers and polemicists, Jews and non-Jews alike, expressed doubts from the very beginnings of Zionism as to whether it could qualify as a valid national movement. In the 1880s and 1890s the justification for Zionist nationalism changed, at the very moment at which Zionism became a political force. Under the impact of antisemitism, Zionism was much more concerned with the uniquely troubled relationship between Jews and Gentiles. The assertion that "Zionism is racism" is the newest, and most flagrant, attack. This defamatory slogan is being used by Arabs, who have been joined by anti-Western forces in the Soviet Bloc and in large parts of the Third World. "Zionism is racism" is an unforgivable attack upon a movement that asked special consideration to help a people with unique troubles find a way of righting itself. Most of those who attack Zionism are undermining their own legitimacy, for such are the very claims they have been advancing in their own interest.
