From the outset of Zionism as a political movement it was clear
that the subject on the agenda was a Jewish state. Herzl called
his famous pamphlet of 1896, which formed the basis for his
entire activity and hence the establishment of the Zionist
movement, The Jewish State. There were those in the movement who
chose, mainly for tactical reasons, to downplay the political
side of the program; they talked more in terms of a Jewish
society than a state. Nevertheless, it was clear to everyone
that the goal was to attain an autonomic entity in which Jews
would completely control their own lives. Soon enough, it became
clear to all in the movement that such an entity was only
conceivable in Eretz Israel. That much was agreed upon. It was
much less clear, however, what exactly was meant by the term
‘Jewish state.’ The problem was that, as we have already seen,
there was little or no agreement in the Jewish world as to what
being Jewish actually implied. Even more fundamentally, there
was little agreement about how t