Zionism, in its truest sense, is also NOT an ideology (nor is it racism or extremist as many like to to claim) but based on a people with literally nowhere else to go. In other words, refugees. That's not part of any people's ideology. It's also not a colonial project because there's no mother nation that colonised (and there was also a constant indigenous Jewish presence there), and the majority of Israelis came from countries that would never allow a Jew to return to. It's also not an imperialist project because it is not and was never an empire. I mean, people parrot these things without knowing what they mean.

My great-great uncle was one of the UK founders of Choveve Zion, an ideological, socialist Zionist movement, which butted heads with Herzl. They were very opposed to his project simply because his was about establishing a politically recognised state (rather than a quiet return to the land). But Herzl knew that there was no place for romantic ideology when there was a very real need, and coming catastrophe that he predicted, at hand.