re: #487 Obdicut

we’re on the same side. ;)
/sorry for the facepalm earlier - that was out of place. i am after 72 hours of fighting islamo-leftists alliance on some croatian websites/

zionism can not be a political ideology if it belongs only to certain people (there is no french conservatism or english liberalism) - therefore it’s a national movement, just like there were national movements starting within austro-hungary at the time when herzl wrote the book.
also, if you read my links - herzl himself drew inspiration from the works of an rabbi. i agree with what you write, but that is beside the point that jewish yearning for homeland precedes herzl for many centuries.
before the haskala, jews in europe were religious. they started being orthodox or neolog /reform, only after the haskala. before that the term orthodoxy didn’t exist within jewish community. they were jews and all jews were religious.
herzel helped define jews as a nation, just like the rest of european nations at the time, where that notion included both religious and secular jews - who were a novelty in jewish world. a secular jew before haskala would simply assimilate and become a member of a nation of his residence.

as i said - we are on the same side, there is no difference between a religious and a secular jew when it comes to nationhood. the early zionists as you call them were simply products of many centuries of diaspora and the developments around them.