Very interesting and some Jewish history I didn’t know. I think the point still stands, though. This is a very small group as a percent of world jewry and there wasn’t a worldwide call, no?
Is the Yishuv considered the remnant that returned per Isaiah or the remnant that stayed?
“Remnants” enter in to it less than one might think. It is a mitzvah to live in the Land of Israel regardless of the political arrangements in the region. Jews have always talked about doing so and actually done so when the opportunity presented itself. The popular secular Zionist Movement was not as widely embraced as we seem to see it in retrospect
The development of steam engines made all sorts of travel easier, the rise of secularism with Napoleon, and the declining Muslim zealotry of the Turks, undoubtedly made it easier for Jews to return to the Holy Land, so it’s not really surprising that mass movements sprung up with real possibilities.