ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the contest for Palestine up to the creation of Israel as the Jewish state. Political Zionism is the belief that the Jews should form and maintain a state for themselves there. Although Jews and Arabs have claims to Palestine dating back centuries, the real contest was just starting when World War I broke out. At that time, few foresaw how strong it would become. If most Jews had resided in Germany, England, or America and actively assimilated then, Zionism might never have arisen. But the majority lived in czarist Russia and in the declining multinational empires of the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. Like most revolutionary doctrines, political Zionism started with very few supporters. Most rabbis said the Jews could not be restored to the land of Israel until after God had sent the Messiah. Zionism based solely on Russian resources—mainly youthful enthusiasm—probably would not have lasted.
