what is zionism?

On an otherwise quiet day, I was doing a search on Hilter for one of my kids projects (Causes of WW11) and I found this article. Not being one that willingly enters religious debates and naturally skeptical of material found on the net, one statement did attract my attention as I have never really known what zionism is as I've normally ignored it due to the adverse connotations it attracts. Can anyone expand on this in an objective way?

Please - no rock throwing just a simple answer

"Zionism is in fact SIONism, Sion = the Sun, hence the name of the elite secret society behind the Merovingian bloodline, the Priory of Sion. Contrary to most people's understanding, Zionism is not the Jewish people. Many Jews are not Zionists and many non-Jews are. Zionism is a political movement, not a race. To say Zionism is the Jewish people is like saying the Democratic Party is the American people. Jewish people who oppose Zionism, however, have been given a very hard time."

http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles/hitler.html