"Let them give us soveriegntry over a piece of the Earth's surface, just sufficient for the needs of our people, then we will do the rest," Theodor Herzl, the recognized Father of Zionism.

Herzl believed the only way Jews could escape eternal persecution was to become the majority population in a seperate Jewish state. He considered two destinations for colonization. The first was Argentina with its vast and sparsely inhabited territory and temperate weather. Herzl selected Palestine.

Jewish settlement of Argentina became the project of Moritz von Hirsch, a German Jewish financier who created charitable foundations to promote Jewish education. In addition, Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association on September 11, 1891. This organization's chief goal was the mass immigration of Jews from Russia by settling them on agricultural lands in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Ottoman Palestine, and the United States. British Statesman Joseph Chamberlain was another staunch supporter of Jewish resettlement. He proposed Jews relocate to England's East African colonies including Uganda.

The rejection of life in the Jewish Diaspora was the central theme of Zionism. Aliyah, the ascent to the Land of Israel, was another. Zionists preferred to speak the Hebrew language that developed in the West Bank region of Ancient Israel. The capital of which was Jerusalem.

Often, Zionists refused to speak Yiddish, a West Germanic language developed in the 9th Century in Central Europe. Yiddish combined elements of the Mishnoic (Early Rabbinic), Aramaic (Ancient Syrian), and Slavic vernaculars. Their reason was because they felt Yiddish was developed in the context of European persecution. Once Zionists relocated to Israel, many of them refused to speak their mother tongues. They also adopted new Hebrew names.

Major aspects of Zionists are listed in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Two of those tenants are:

-The Land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people.

-The Jewish spiritual, religious, and political identities were shaped in the Land of Israel.

Following the destruction of the Second Temple, and the massacre of the Jews in Jerusalem, 600,000 Tocitus, and one million Josephus Jews, died of starvation, were slaughtered, or sold into slavery.

Located in the Upper Galilee, the Druze/Arab town of Peki'in has maintained a minority of Jews since the Second Temple Period 516BC to 70BC.

The Jews believe God assigned them Canaan (Genesis 15:18-21) as the Promised Land (the Land of Israel), Philistia (with cities in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, Gaza, and Jaffa), and Phoenicia (Modern Day Lebanon). This belief is conserved in the Septurgint, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

After the 2nd Century Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea, fought between 132BC-126BC, the last of three major Jewish-Roman wars, the Roman Empire banned all Jews from Jerusalem.

Next Time: Sea Of Galilee 12: Zionism #4: Previous Attempts At Establishing A Jewish Homeland Before Zionism