I would disagree that this was ever a question. The assumption of the Zionist movement was that a Jewish state was not possible without land and a concentration

I would disagree that this was ever a question. The assumption of the Zionist movement was that a Jewish state was not possible without land and a concentration of population. Jews hadn't been displaced because their land disappeared, they were displaced because they'd been conquered and divided and driven out by empire after empire over a period of thousands of years. I don't think any Jews would have disagreed that without the land, with the population displaced, that they did not represent a state.