> What? Both culturally and geographically this is false. Russia is in Asia, not Europe. And Russian culture is quite different from Western European culture (

> What? Both culturally and geographically this is false. Russia is in Asia, not Europe. And Russian culture is quite different from Western European culture (although obviously the further East you go in Europe, and the closer to Russia, the more it becomes similar). > And the modern Herzl version of Zionism The "Herzl Zionism" is not different from the ancient Zionism. Not sure what you are talking about with altars and red cows. Zionism means Jews want to live in Israel, which has been their homeland for over 3,000 years. For some reason this bothers people, perhaps because Israel has been invaded so many times people try to forget that Israel is the homeland of the Jews, rather than any of the other invaders to the region. And even if you want to talk about Herzl his idea was not in response to events in Europe, aside from the fact that it started in Russia not Europe, there was no specific event he was responding to. He was just responding to Antisemitism in general. Some people think Israel was founded in response to the Holocaust, and while the Holocaust accelerated the matter, the return of Jews to their homeland in Israel was a movement that long predated the Holocaust. If not for Arabs and their frequent massacres of Jews, there would have been a LOT more Jews in Israel even before the Holocaust.