The modern Jewish quest for a homeland arose in the nineteenth century in Europe. From the beginning there was tension between a secular nationalism and a more religiously based one. Religious fundamentalism is a political factor today in Israel, as elsewhere in the Middle East. Governments in this region would best avoid their overthrow at the hands of religious fundamentalists by working together.
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References
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1. Karl Marx had argued this in 1843 in an early essay, “On the Jewish Question.”
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2. This role of a Jewish state is asserted in the standard prayer for the state of Israel as enjoined by Israel's Chief Rabbinate.
