Jewish "colonization" that existed since the earliest days of the Diaspora, adapted to local circumstances. That is to say, Jewish householders banded together to establish pioneering societies to accomplish specific or general tasks, whether construction of new neighborhoods outside the walls of Jerusalem, establishment of agricultural settlements, or the organization of cooperative enterprises. In doing so, the householders compacted together by drawing up articles of agreement reminiscent of those establishing medieval communities or societies were organized abroad on the same basis, as pioneering nuclei, as fund-raising instrumentalities, or political action groups, finally coming together as the World Zionist Organization which began as a federation of Zionist societies and rapidly became a federation of ideological movements. The Zionist experience is a classic example of the Jewish use of federative arrangements. Zionism as a whole quickly came to represent the common messianic movement at the cutting edge of modern Jewry. However, in the Jewish fashion, agreement as to general messianic goals was accompanied by sharp disagreement as to the precise character of the goals to be achieved, which led in turn to the development of movements within the Zionist framework that were not only highly competitive on one level, but essentially hostile to one another, since they represented sharply different approaches to solving the Jewish and human problems to which Zionism was directed. Nevertheless, the movements quickly came to recognize the necessity for common action in order to advance both the common and specific elements in their respective goals. The solution was