The Origins of the National and the Statist Traditions in Zionist Foreign Policy

The dilemma of choosing between goals that emanate from the ethnonational setting of Israel as opposed to those serving the state is rooted in Zionist thought and international behavior. The origins go back to the founding fathers of Zionism in the nineteenth century who responded to different challenges of their environment. Two case studies in which the Zionist movement had to choose between its loyalty to the Land of Israel and the idea of an immediate materialization of a Jewish state are examined. One case is the Uganda controversy and the second is the partition debate of 1937.