Evalimoshavlo said – “As was written in different thread, the name Zionists was hijacked, true identity theft!
The word zionist needs to be redefined and brought back home into the fold.
A zionist is someone who loves Tzion, someone who cares about what happens in EY and tries to improve whatever needs to be improved.”
I understand what you are trying to say, but I don’t think you need to use the word ‘Zionist’ in order to say it. Love of Tziyon goes back way before ‘Zionism’, like back to Avraham Avinu… Herzl שר״י was not a lover of Tziyon. He famously was in favor of building a (Goyish) Jewish State in Uganda. Some good people explained to him that the Jewish people already have a homeland they yearn to return to, and that only by hijacking that yearning would his (אפיקורסות) idea gain any traction with traditional Jews, who were still the majority at that time. On the other hand, there were and are many opponents of ‘Zionism’ who were/are ardent lovers of Tziyon, care very much about what happens here, and do things to improve whatever needs to be improved. All of us can agree to disagree on WHAT exactly needs to be done, but we can also agree that the term ‘Zionism’ isn’t necessarily part of the equation.
I saw written years ago that Reb Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik (of RIETS), in his Hesped for his uncle Reb Velvel Soloveitchik (of Brisk/Yerushalayim), pointed out that Reb Velvel’s strong and unwavering opposition to Zionism was never a סתירה to his great love of ארץ ישראל and it’s people… He also noted the irony that the ‘Zionist’ branch of the family resided in חוץ לארץ, and the ‘anti-Zionist’ branch all ended up living in Israel…