There is a Jewish story told about Napoleon.  He once travelled through a Jewish small town in Europe and entered a synagogue where he witnessed men and women sitting on the floor weeping.  Napoleon asked what terrible misfortune had occurred, why were these people crying?  He was told that it was Tisha B’Av and the Jews were mourning the destruction of the two ancient Temples that had occurred thousands of years before.

Napoleon responded “A nation that cries and fasts for over 2,000 years for their land and Temple will surely be rewarded with their Temple.”  This may or may not have really happened, but the story is a good one.  It is about the Jewish people’s remembrance of our ancient presence in the Land of Israel, and the desire to return to it.

This was the essence of the Zionist movement at its beginnings.  Zionism as conceived by its........

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