Conclusion

This concluding chapter reviews how Zionism as a historical phenomenon is commonly described as having two fundamental characteristics: one temporal and one spatial. Temporally, Zionism is usually characterized as a revolution. The Zionist movement is described as seeking to fundamentally change the face of the Jewish people so that it would no longer resemble the Jewish collective entity that preceded it. Spatially, it is generally agreed that Zionism wished to normalize the status of the Jewish people and transform it into a national group like all other nations in the modern geopolitical space. Combining these temporal and spatial characteristics leads to one of the most widely held arguments about Zionism: that in order to turn the Jews into a nation like all other nations, modern Zionism had to radically change the contemporary Jewish existence.