Zionism

For other meanings, please see Zionism (disambiguation)

Non-Jewish Zionism

Many non-Jews support the State of Israel, and some of these may choose to define themselves as Zionists. Non-Jewish support for Zionism takes various forms:

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• The traditional support from the political left for the Jews as an oppressed people and for Israel as a semi-socialist state. Since the Six-Day War the first of these has been almost entirely lost as the left has shifted its sympathy to the Palestinians, while the second has been lost since the Israeli Labor Party lost its hold on power in 1977. In the United States, Israel continues to find support from most political liberals. Outside the US, unconditional support for Israel has often given way to a more critical view of Israeli policy. However, some of the strongest critics of Zionism in the US include prominent liberals like Ralph Nader.
• Support from some political conservatives especially neoconservatives. This occurs mainly in the United States and to a lesser extent in other countries such as the United Kingdom. Much of this is really support for Israel as a pro-Western democratic state rather than support for Zionism per se, and is also strongly motivated by domestic politics, particularly in the U.S. However, some of the strongest critics of Zionism have also been political conservatives like Pat Buchanan.
• "Christian Zionism", a movement among evangelical Christians in the United States and other countries, which sees the return of the Jews to the Holy Land as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Lobbying by Christian groups in the United States on behalf of Israel has influenced U.S. policy towards the Middle East.
• Some Muslim scholars point out that "The Qur'an says that Allah gave the Land of Israel to the Jews and will restore them to it at the End of Days" http://www.templemount.org/quranland.html. Shaykh Abdul Hadi Palazzi cites the Quran to support this view:

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"Pharaoh sought to scare them out of the land : but We drowned him together with all who were with him. Then We said to the Israelites: 'Dwell in this land . When the promise of the hereafter comes to be fulfilled, We shall assemble you all together ."

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"And when Moses said to his people: 'O my people, call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.'"

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