I believe that Zionism is a racist political ideology and which is the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Zionism is an ideology supporting a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel/Palestine. During the first half of the 19th century it served Jews well by offering them a refuge from persecution in Europe. Especially in Eastern Europe, Zionism offered Jews hope of escape from their shrinking economic possibilities, escalating physical insecurity, and stultification by their own regressive and narrow-minded religious leaders. Before the second-world war Zionism was well-received by the dominant European power of the time (Britain) for several reasons: (i) it conformed to the standard imperialist strategy of colonize, divide and rule; (ii) the risks of colonizing the heart of the Arabic-speaking world would be born by the Jews, while most benefits would hopefully accrue to Britain; (iii) the Zionist enterprise reduced pressure on the UK government to allow increased immigration of largely destitute Jews from Europe into the UK; (iv) some prominent figures in the UK government (especially the highly influential Lord Shaftesbury) suscribed to a bizarre theological doctrine in which the "ingathering" of Jews in the "holy land" would hasten the second coming of Christ (the same doctrine is now associated mainly with highly influential Christian groups in the USA, which are also major supporters of Zionism).
Immediately after the Holocaust, the Second World War, and the demise of the British Empire, Zionism was again well-received by the Western powers, in part because it again reduced the pressure on Western governments to accommodate Jewish refugees. Bizarrely, Zionism was also supported for a time by the Soviet Union, possibly because of the (entirely superficial) socialist credentials of many early Zionist leaders.
However, the relatively positive aspects of Zionism only applied to the Jews, and only for a limited historical period, which has now passed. The negative aspects of Zionism are inherent, and are revealed by asking the following two questions:
1. What about the other people who live in the land of Israel/Palestine? How will a "Jewish homeland" be established, if the other people do not want the country they live in to become a "Jewish homeland"?
2. Who is a Jew?
The answer to question 1 has now become plain. The aim of Zionism cannot and never could be implemented without ethnic cleansing. The first wave of ethnic cleansing happened in 1948 and the second wave in 1967. As thoroughly documented (for example by Ilan Pappe), the 1948 ethnic cleansing was entirely premeditated and planned in detail on a government level. Israel is waiting for the moment to implement a third wave of ethnic cleansing, which would impose an approximation to a racially pure Jewish population. In the meantime, Israel is making sure that life is as intolerable as possible for the non-Jewish population, in the hope that many will leave. So far, this policy is not working, although it is constantly being escalated.
The answer to question 2 is very important. Judaism is not a missionary religion in the sense of Christianity and Islam. Despite its monotheism, Judaism belongs to an older class of religions which are racial or tribal in nature. In this respect Judaism resembles Hinduism more than Christianity or Islam. With very few exceptions, which are highly discouraged, you are only a Jew if your mother is a Jew. This means that a Jewish state is a very different thing from a Christian state, or an Islamic state. I do not think it is a pleasant thing to live in an Islamic state - but if I did have to, I could at least in principle convert to Islam to become an accepted member of the society (as many Jews did). This option is simply not available for the non-Jewish members of the Jewish state. A Jewish state is inherently a racist state, in a way that a Christian or Islamic state is not.
For these reasons, I reject Zionism and I also reject Israel as a Jewish, racist state. I do not think that a long-term solution of the Israel/Palestine conflict will be found until Israel ceases to be a Jewish state.
We must therefore recognize that a two-state solution of the conflict is not, and never was, feasible. The only feasible long-term solution must involve a multiracial, multiethnic state which guarantees equal rights for all of its inhabitants, independent of their ethnicity or religion.
Given the demography of the region, the best available outcome of the conflict is that Israel/Palestine eventually becomes a secular state of predominantly Arab ethnicity, with a substantial Jewish minority. The "law of return", which is currently racist, since it involves only Jews, must be broadened to include Palestinian refugees and their descendants as well.