From 1903 to 1914, the next wave of Jewish European immigrants came to Palestine. These settlers, known as the "Second Aliyah," were filled with socialist idealism and were horrified to see their fellow Jews serving exclusively as the owning class. They had come to Palestine to create a socialist Jewish state – though they disagreed on how that would eventually come to be (some sought to create a socialist state outright, others planned to create a society of Jews at every level of the class system and then instigate a revolution of the working class). These new immigrants tried to gain employment as workers in the farms, but could not compete with the Arab Palestinians for jobs – mostly because they couldn't bring their desired quality of life down from European standards to Arab Palestinian standards – and also because they didn't have additional forms of supplementary income that most Arab Palestinian families had.

So what did these new Jewish immigrants do? They forged a different ideology. Instead of the "conquest of land" that their predecessors had followed, they introduced the "conquest of labor," with the goal of creating an entirely-Jewish labor force. They wanted to cut Palestinian Arabs – their competitors – out of the equation. This was the start of Jewish exclusivism in Palestine – and the beginning of a "pure settlement colony." Some suggest that these settlers were functioning under their perceived necessity to produce as Jews. They had internalized the anti-Semitic idea of "Jews as parasites on society," and wanted, in response, to demonstrate their productivity. Their movement for "Hebrew Labor" connected their ideology, economic need, and emotional desires. It also reinforced racism against Palestinian Arabs and produced new arenas of conflict.

Since the market could not support this system, it required subsidies from the outside. So it didn't really take off until after the Balfour Declaration. Why? Well, European Zionist institutions were having a hard time raising money for a settlement project on land that wasn't politically secure. Remember - from 1892 to 1917 the European Zionists had failed to win any diplomatic successes. Jews kept donating money to the Zionist project, but year after year, a Jewish state looked further and further away. For most people, including members of the World Zionist Organization, it was starting to feel like they were just throwing away their money. But once the Zionists had secured British backing through the Balfour Declaration, a Jewish state seemed possible again. The World Zionist Organization was more successful in raising money, and committed itself to financial support for the settlements.

A constant tension emerged between "conquest of land" and "conquest of labor." The Jewish landowners wanted to expand settlements as much as was financially possible – which necessitated a large number of laborers and meant hiring Arab Palestinians along with European Jews. The Jewish workers wanted to keep Jewish-owned land limited – to limit the number of Palestinian Arab workers needed, ensuring the place of European Jewish workers in the labor force. This tension of land vs. demography continues to play out today . . .