Zionism and Judaism

Zionists maintain that Zionism is the same as Judaism or is part of Judaism. What they mean is that the conception that the Jews form a people, one people, and that they have the right and duty to build a Jewish state in a particular place, which they call "the land of Israel" (a.k.a. "Palestine"), is intrinsic to the religion, Judaism. And, as a matter of fact, Zionists are right. Zionism in its critical propositions stands squarely in the center of normative Judaism. The real question is, why is that the fact? The answer derives from the character of the first Judaic system, which is the one presented by the Pentateuch, produced around 450 B.C.E.