 Hello friends and subscribers, a warm welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosal here, bringing you this video today from Jerusalem in Israel. This YouTube channel is Jerusalem and Israel unpacked, where we are always unpacking stuff related to Israel, living in Israel and living in Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, the capital city of the Jewish people and one of the most ancient, continuously inhabited cities in the world. So a few videos ago, I put up a podcast on this channel entitled anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism by another name. And that video, that podcast was just about as popular as I expected, which is to say not very at all with a lot of people at least. And, you know, I got a few interesting comments back that I thought I would address in another video, which I'm going to call the difference between political and religious Zionism. So basically, there was a few comments, but just kind of to give the thrust to the argument, I put up a video saying that Zionism is an integral part of the religion called Judaism, and I cited as proof for that the fact that there are Judaism began in Israel, a large chunk of the commandments which distinguish Judaism as a religion called Mitzvot in Hebrew can only be fulfilled in the land of Israel, which, as I said, was not exactly the same thing as the state of Israel, but close enough that for the sake of simplicity, let's keep them the same. And therefore that Zionism is integral to Judaism and that if you oppose self-determination for the Jewish people and the existence of the state of Israel, which is the fundamental feature of Zionism as an ideology, you are anti-Jewish. And when people say anti-Semitism, it kind of has this connotation of hatred, and I didn't even mean it that way. I just meant that you're in opposition to the Jewish people. So that was my argument and comments in the video are again to just kind of summarize a few of them together. We're kind of like, well, what about the anti-Zionist Jews? And what about Jews that oppose Zionism? Now, I did mention in the video that there are Jews who oppose Zionism, anti-Zionist Jews, and I did also mention in the video that Jewish opposition to Zionism is very, very small. It's a very niche part of the Jewish world. Sex like Satmar and Nitori Carter, who famously oppose Zionism. And yet a lot of their members do live in Israel, which is really, really you talk about intellectual gymnastics that people have to play. I don't exactly know how these guys can justify living in Israel voluntarily, yet they don't recognize the state as a legitimate state. But believe it or not, there are such people who subscribe to that ideology living in Jerusalem. But in any event, people said, well, what about the early Zionists? Weren't a lot of those guys atheists or at least not religious? And they were, that is correct. And that's why it's important to understand the difference between political Zionism and religious Zionism. So let's start with religious Zionism, religious Zionism. I would summarize as the idea that the revival of the state of Israel or the possibility for Jewish people to be able to establish sovereignty in Israel for the first time in 2000 years after they were kicked out of Israel by the Romans and after the destruction of the Jewish temples. And thereafter spent time in the diaspora. People will see that religious Zionists as a divine occurrence. Right. And this is where, as I said previously, we have to bring religion into it because we can't divorce a religious movement from religion. Needless to say. So these people believe that Israel is given to the Jews by God and that the political events that may have and that returning there is a religious movement and it's a religious there's a religious impetus to do that. The Jews have to return to Israel as soon as possible. Now, the anti-religious Jews, firstly, are not Zionists or the anti-Zionist Jews are not Zionists. Needless to say, this does all get a little bit confusing. And their opposition to Zionism, this small group of Jews who oppose it on religious grounds, that's a little bit technical to get into why. But I would recommend a book for those who are interested in exploring this. It's an excellent book. It's called Aem Habanim Smecha. And it's by Rabbi called Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Techtal. Zichronol Avrakame is memory be for a blessing. And this book spells out the religious Zionist answer to the anti-Zionist answer. Now, the anti-Zionist, why they don't oppose why they oppose Zionism on religious grounds? Key thing is something called the Shalo Shavuot, the three oaths that they believe that the Jewish people are bound by. And that is in itself a Talmudic interpretation of some Torah, saying basically that they believe that Jews are the language that they use is banned by the nations of the world, or they took a vow to not go up as a wall. And they use as a wall to understand the idea of sort of coordinated mass entry to Israel. So that's why you have anti-Zionist Jews. But as I mentioned, and as I again emphasize, this is a small portion of the religious Jewish world. Now, coming back to the point about political Zionism or, you know, secular Zionism. So clearly secular Zionism isn't religious, right? It's in the name. These are Zionists who believe that the Jews should have a state. Zionism, the revival of the Jewish state, but they don't believe either believe in God. They may be, in fact, atheists who just identify as Jewish by virtue being part of the Jewish people. And these people tend to this religious versus political Zionism is the answer to the responses in my comments to people asking, how could I say that opposing Zionism is anti-Jewish when some of the some Jewish people were secular Zionists? OK, and that is the that is the answer to that good question, which is a very reasonable question to ask that Zionism has both religious and political strands. Now, it's more than just kind of fragment, intellectual fragmenting here. There are real differences, important differences in terms of how that manifests. So the religious Zionists, Dati, Naomi is what is called in Hebrew. This is has been associated more with the settler movement. Or I think it's fair to say that the Dati, Naomi movement, the religious Zionist movement tends to be more right wing in that. You know, they see the whole of the land of Israel as being the what the Jews are entitled to when they reestablished Israel versus the political Zionists. You want to see Israel for on non religious grounds, perhaps their grounds are that the Jews, the Holocaust proved that the Jews have to have a state, but they don't necessarily see the connection between that and the Jewish exile and the foregoing events documented in the Jewish Bible, the Torah. So there are differences beyond even though they both come towards the same point, ideological movement of Zionism, they are different camps and how they conceive of Zionism's legitimacy and also different. They conceive differently what they want, the output of Zionism, the state of Israel to be. And yes, they both exist. Even in today's Israel, there are secular and religious Zionists and secular and religious Zionist parties and politicians running on platforms that appeal to different those two different groups. And it is, therefore, an important distinction to underscore. But I maintain in my belief as a religious Zionist, broadly speaking, that I think that opposing Zionism Zionism completely saying the Jews don't have a right to a state is anti Jewish. Because, as he said, from my perspective, the land of Israel is a key integral element of the practice of Judaism. And therefore, if you deny the Jews have the right to exist in a Jewish state, I think you're opposing the Jewish people. But that comes from my perspective of more religiously motivated or oriented or derived Zionism. I hope that that video has perhaps been interesting for folks who are unclear on the differences and whatnot. And if you've got thoughts to offer, feel free to drop them in the comments. Thanks for watching today's video. More videos about Israel and Zionism will be coming soon.