The mainly European political movement started by Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) who concluded that the only way to end Jewish suffering was to create a home in Palestine (then with a population of about 500,000).

Lasting from the first Zionist congress in the Swiss city of Basle in 1879 to 1948 with the official creation of the state of Israel.

After covering the Dreyfus affair and witnessing anti-Semitism in France he wrote Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) and then Altneuland (The Old New Land). They outline his philosophy and reasoning behind wanting to create a national home for the Jews. Both of these texts are free to download online.

Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people should have a homeland, in what is now the State of Israel. This has become controversial as the Arab Muslims living in Israel believe that the land should belong to them. To voice their aggression, they conduct terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli citizens almost daily. When they were given a country of their own in the Gaza Strip, they held elections and elected a known terrorist organization called Hamas whose mission is to destroy the Jewish state and kill all Jews. Instead of helping their starving people, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority use their resources to continue a futile war against the Israelis. And despite being given full rights as Israeli citizens, the Arabs continue to whine about their awful treatment. Hamas also kidnaps Israeli citizens and holds them hostage in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians who have been convicted of terrorist attacks.
Zionism is not racism. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people, who have been persecuted needlessly for over 5000 years, should finally be able to govern themselves in the land that has always been rightfully theirs.

Zionism the movement for the rights of the Jewish People to return to their homeland, an eternal desire that has been at the core of Judaism since the expulsion of the Jewish People from Israel by the Romans around the time of Jesus and well before Islam was even thought of.

This movement had in the post WW1 international stage backers amongst the nations that were redrawing the maps of the world - hence the Balfour Declaration was written and signed by the British. In this period or map-drawing there was a fundamental belief in the right of self determination - the right of all peoples to rule themselves. Look at a map Israel is TINY.

It is ironic that only the desire of the Jews to have a State to call their own should be compared to Nazism - how many Muslim countries are there - does this mean that all Muslims are Nazis? Judaism is a religion and not a race and therefore blatantly cannot be compared to Nazism, there are jews of every color and creed.

Many arabs are fanatically against Israel and the State of Israel is a thorn in the side of the Muslim ideal of taking over the world.

There are arabs however who sided with the Jewish State and still do to this day. One example of this is the town of Abu Gosh an arab muslim town that is pro-Israel, to say nothing of the christian arabs.

Israel has extended its hand in peace many times often to be met with blatant aggression and a strange blood lust on the part of the anti-Zionist aggressors.

"An extremely racist belief that Jews deserve to take over the Palestinian's land with the backing of the U.S. military."

Except if you read history, which anti-Zionists enjoying ignoring and distorting to fit their beliefs, you would know that the land actually belongs to the Jews and they were kicked out by the Romans in 70 A.D. Not everything Muslims and corrupt organizations such as the United Nations say is necessarily true.

There has never been a Palestinian people. The name Palestine came from the Romans after the conquered Israel in 70. They wanted to end any association of the land with the Jews. The term "Palestine" came from the Philistines, one of the Jews' biggest enemies in their history. Note they were Aegean people and weren't even Semitic. What's the difference between Palestinians and their Arab brethren? Do the Palestinians have their own unique culture, cuisine, language and other things that separate them from other Arabs? This whole "Palestinian nationalism" is a recent invention by Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian.

I personally oppose having an alliance Israel, just like how I oppose having an alliance with anyone. But what most anti-Zionists don't know is that we actually give three times more aid to Israel's enemies. If we're going to end aid to Israel, we should end aid to the Arabs. I don't even know why we bother using our military on Israel since they have a better military than us.

"Zionists use the history of persecution against Jews to rationalize this blatant breach of human rights, and then Israelis go on to murder thousands of Palestinians each year with the pretext that they have been attacked by terrorists."

No, Zionists use the the history of the fact that the Jews historically owned that land and they were kicked out by the Romans. The difference between this and the Indians is that the Jews were literally exiled and the Indians weren't, not that I'm saying we should belittle what happened to the Indians.

Don't Muslims use their religion to rationalize why they hae their land? How come they get to have all that land that has a lot of oil, but Jews can't have a tiny sliver of land that has zero oil?

How can you charge Israel with human rights violations, but ignore what goes in places like Saudi Arabi? 20% of Israel's population are Muslims and they enjoy full rights and even have their own political parties and representation in government. But what about the Palestinians? They don't want to be Israelis and continue to show why by continuing to attack Israel after the Israelis withdrew from Gaza and even voted for Hamas, an organization even Amnesty International calls terrorist. These guys are really pushing for peace aren't they?

"While it is true that some Palestinians attack Israelis, there are at least 4 fold more Palestinian than Israeli deaths each year."

Probably because most of the Palestinians are terrorists.

The principle that each of the many indigenous cultures across the globe contains beliefs and practices that allow people to live in harmony with the laws of nature in their specific homelands - including but not limited to Jews in Israel. Recognition, respect for, and empowerment of indigenous cultures - their languages, beliefs, and customs - enhances the sustainability and quality of life of human civilization. The Holocaust, pogroms, and many episodes of genocide suffered by Jews and other indigenous peoples have been symptomatic of the loss of a homeland and lack of appreciation for the value of native cultures.

A completely legitimate independence movement, in which a historically oppressed nation of people (the Jews) demanded the right to self-determination in their eternal homeland of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). It is no less legitimate than the Tibetan or American independence movements. In fact, I would argue that modern Israel has more of a right to be under Jewish sovereignty, than California or Texas has to be under American sovereignty.

The idea that Jews should rule the country of Israel.
An idea I don't understand why many people make a bid deal of, since it has already been accomplished long ago (in 1948, with the daclareation for formation of Israel).