Zionism, simply a political movement at its inception, has today become more of an ideology than anything else. Zionism is an international movement for the return of the Jewish people to Zion, the land of Israel, while exercising the right to retain authority of government over the state of Israel, which was promised to them in the Hebrew Scriptures. The roots for Zionism lie in Genesis 12:7 and 15:8, in which God makes a covenant with Abraham promising him that his descendants would inherit the land between Egypt and the Euphrates River.