This week, with perfect timing, the primaries of two veteran Israeli political parties took place: the Labor Party chose its representatives to the Knesset on Jan. 13, and HaBayit HaYehudi, which was built on the ruins of the historic Mafdal (National Religious Party), held its primaries on Jan. 14. The timing was coincidental, but it signifies the fierce struggle taking place in Israel between two essentially different strains of Zionism: the old familiar Zionism, represented by the Labor Party, against the new Zionism, which is creating itself before our eyes, in the likeness of the HaBayit HaYehudi people. One is secular and pragmatic, the other religious, bordering on messianic. These two versions of Zionism are now vying for the hearts of Israeli voters. Beyond politics, this is also a fascinating historic, social and diplomatic event.

The evolution of Zionism has been bubbling under the surface since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, and from a tiny, narrow nation — surrounded by more powerful enemies scheming to throw its citizens to the sea — it turned into a confident regional empire. The root of evil (or the beginning of salvation, in the minds of the new Zionists) was the agreement of Israel's government (backed by former President Shimon Peres) to start the settlement enterprise in the territories (breaking ground at Sebastia in Samaria in 1975).

It started small; no one believed it could grow to such dimensions. Slowly, settlements popped up across the length and breadth of the West Bank. The Zionist majority still maintained the belief that the territories conquered in 1967 are held as a trust that is meant to enable Israel to reach peace with its neighbors, but the stubborn religious-ideological minority started to establish facts on the ground.

Thus, things proceeded ever since. Official, pragmatic Israel continued to strive for peace, reached agreements with Egypt and Jordan and even signed the Oslo Accord, which clearly hinted that at least a significant portion of the West Bank would return to Palestinian hands. Underground Israel, settling Zionist-religious Israel, continued to take over hilltops, in one way or another, sometimes against the law, while diverting more and more resources and energy to the cultivation, enlargement and prosperity of the settlement enterprise.