In 1896, the Hungarian born Jew, Theodor Herzl, published his book Der Judenstaat, or The Jewish State (Sheilds, Sep.26). This book marks the birth of the modern Zionist movement, as it was the first to propose the idea of the creation of a separatist Jewish state. In 1917, the Zionist movement gained currency with the issuance of the Balfor Declaration, a letter written by the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community in England (Cleveland, 242). The declaration stated that the government of Great Britain would support and facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine(Cleveland, 243). Palestine, to justify the wholesale appropriation of Palestine for a Jewish nation, was characterized as a land without a people, which would be enriched by its new Jewish population (Sheilds, Sep. 26). This was in fact erroneous. Palestine was not an under populated waste, but a semi-urbanized country in its own right (Cleveland, 248). The ensuing struggle over Palestine, which claimed thousands of lives and spanned over half a century, is marked by two widely differing historical narratives. The Israeli historical narrative of this conflict is one of intense heroism against impossible odds, of catastrophic loss and tremendous suffering, difficult choices and terrible necessity, desperate hope and unending courage; this narrative is born not only to feed a sense nationalism and solidarity, but also as a means of promoting their cause to the global theater. Since its inception in 1896, the Zionist movement has been a strong support for the Jewish community through anti-Semitism and hate crimes (Cleveland, 240). Zionism did not espouse a doctrine which promoted the idea of societal assimilation as a means of combating anti-Semitism (Sheilds, Sep. 26). Rather, the Zionists held the view, Jews were