ABSTRACT
The Hibbat Zion demonstrated no inclination whatever to work for the elimination of those arbitrary constraints through organized political activity and contributed little to the increasingly vigorous debate concerning nationalism and its alternatives that was taking place within the broader Jewish community. Theodor Herzl was opposed to the efforts being made by Hibbat Zion to infiltrate settlers into Palestine. Moritz Gudemann suggested that Herzl had erred in his assertion that the Jewish problem was fundamentally a national one. The reaction to Herzl's ideas among the activists and supporters of the Hibbat Zion movement was also mixed, although generally far more positive than openly negative. Early in 1897, Herzl took the next step and proposed the convening of an international Zionist Congress to set forth the nationalist agenda. Herzl's fundamental territorialism was to become a contentious issue and would soon threaten the internal cohesion of the emerging Jewish national movement.
