The Zionist Debates on Partition (1919-1947).

Between World War I and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, decisions were made by the Zionist Movement that continue to provide lessons for the dilemma facing Israelis and Palestinians today. In these territorial decisions the Zionist movement was willing to consider trading territory for other values, mainly political sovereignty. Jewish attitudes toward territory in these decisions reflect a duality. On one hand, territorial attitudes were emotional and inseparable from a sense of collective identity, fatherland, motherland, and homeland, leading to expressive positions. On the other, territory was seen as a tangible resource, a means for satisfying specific needs—security, economic viability, social development, natural resoutces. The Zionist agreement to partition indicates that the pre-1948 decisions of the Zionist movement fell rather consistently on the side of instrumental pragmatism, and this approach dominated Israeli policy until 1967. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]