It is perhaps a shame that the jewish people / zionists have not taken on board the issues associated with a chosen people, a superior race and religion, a divine right to destroy their enemies etc.
It’s a minor point of your post but I think you are overestimating the religious element of the Zionist project – or perhaps it would be be better to say that you are glossing over the importance of Zionist strands in which a divine purpose is not preeminent in the establishment of the state of Israel.
Neither Herzl (nor even Jabotinsky) were particularly religious, and the central thesis of Der Judenstaat (the founding text of modern Zionism) is not that god promised Jews any particular land but that Jews will be persecuted and killed wherever they are, and safety will only come when the Jews have their own state in which they can protect themselves. Herzl himself canvassed the possibility of founding a Jewish state in South America (see also the nachtasyl proposal). Remember that that phase of Zionism was in reaction to the Dreyfus Affair – if Jews were not safe in France, in which integration was possible and which was relatively developed, then where would they be safe?
Arguably 1967 was the real kickstarter for religious Zionism.
