Moreover, Jewish opinion in Europe was divided between Zionism and other streams of Jewish identity during the whole of the 20th century.

ECONOMIST: On the diaspora

The visionary Austrian-Jewish journalist, Theodore Herzl, clarified and gave political weight to the concept of Jewish nationalism - or Zionism - and a national home for the Jews in Palestine at the first Zionist Congress at Basle, in Switzerland, in 1897.

BBC: The return of the Jews to the promised land

Zionism has been a central feature of Jewish identity for 3, 500 years.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Gingrich's fresh hope

President Obama began the third day of his historic visit to the Middle East with a visit to Mount Herzl, Israel's national cemetery, where he honored the significant contributions of two Jewish heroes, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

WHITEHOUSE: Our Top Stories

Theodore Herzl, the founding visionary of the Jewish state, would not have anticipated the co-option of Zionism by a right-wing religious movement.

NEWYORKER: The Party Faithful

For the haredim, the ultra-Orthodox, who believe that the Jews should return to their Biblical homeland only after the appearance of the mashiach, the Messiah, Zionism was a threat, even an apostasy, which ran counter to the traditional attachment to Jewish law.

NEWYORKER: The Party Faithful

It was not religious Zionism, like that of the Lovers of Zion movement which formed the core of the initial modern Jewish settlement drive in the Land of Israel.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Professor Netanyahu��s lessons