Zionism actually started much earlier, the idea to offload the Jews has its origins in the 17th century and originated from European anti-Semitic elites. They wanted to get rid of the Jews and have a geopolitical entity there. Zionism was also not a mainstream position of Jews in the 19th century.
This has little to do with ancient history, it’s a colonial project initiated by European anti-semites and some European Jews in the last couple hundred years, but especially since the 1870s.