Stopping in Jaffa on their way to the Pacific, they find Palestine a backward, destitute and sparsely populated land, as it appeared to Herzl on his visit in 1898.

A Jewish organization officially named the "New Society" has since risen as European Jews have rediscovered and re-inhabited their Altneuland, reclaiming their own destiny in the Land of Israel.

The country, whose leaders include some old acquaintances from Vienna, is now prosperous and well-populated, boasts a thriving cooperative industry based on state-of-the-art technology, and is home to a free, just, and cosmopolitan modern society.

They visit various cities and settlements, including a kibbutz and a moshav, where they witness the social and economic transformation of the Jewish community.

The duo arrives at the time of a general election campaign, during which a fanatical rabbi establishes a political platform arguing that the country belongs exclusively to Jews and demands non-Jewish citizens be stripped of their voting rights, but is ultimately defeated.

[3] Herzl called his model "Mutualism" and it is based on a mixed economy, with public ownership of the land and natural resources, agricultural cooperatives, welfare, while at the same time encouraging private entrepreneurship.

A true modernist, Herzl rejected the European class system, yet remained loyal to Europe's cultural heritage.

While Jerusalem is the capital, with the seat of parliament ("Congress") and the Jewish Academy, the country's industrial center is the modern city of Haifa.

Kuneitra - actually at the extreme end of the Golan Heights which Israel captured in 1967, and handed back to Syria in 1973 - was in Herzl's vision a prosperous way station on a railway extending much further eastwards, evidently controlled by "The New Society".

The lost tribe of Dan appears towards the end of Theodore Herzl's Altneuland, where the protagonist, Friedrich Löwenberg, and his friend Reschid Bey, discover a group of people who are descendants of the ancient tribe of Dan, living in isolation on a remote island in the Red Sea.

The significance of this episode lies in its metaphorical representation of the renewal of the Jewish people, emphasizing the importance of preserving and building upon their rich historical legacy.

[4][page needed][5] Additionally, Altneuland also highlights Herzl's commitment to social equality and the idea of a multicultural Jewish society.

The novel portrays a Jewish state where Jews and Arabs live together in harmony, reflecting Herzl's belief in the importance of coexistence and mutual respect between different communities.

The Zionist movement was fueled by a range of factors: the aggressive rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, the unifying sense of Jewish identity and solidarity that followed, and the desire for a homeland where Jews could live free from persecution and not be a minority in their society inspired a new wave of Zionism led by individuals like Theodore Hertzl.

Additionally, the first Hebrew edition of the Herzl biography that was written after 1948, and published by Alex Bein in 1960, reflected historical viewpoint changes based on the summary of The Old New Land.