Ironically, the screenplay for Exodus was written by the unrepentant Communist and member of the "Hollywood Ten," Dalton Trumbo
It's not really that ironic.
The early zionists (Herzl for example) were socialists. The kibbutz movement was a socialist movement. Conservative Jews like Adolph Ochs were strongly against Zionism.
Theodor Herzl was not a socialist. He was secular, and his Zionism was a purely secular nationalism (much like Irish Republicanism). But he was not a socialist, and Adolph Ochs was no conservative.
The socialist Zionists came after Herzl, primarily from the "Second Aliyah" that followed the failed Russian revolution of 1905. It was these Zionists who started the qibbutzim, not Herzl.
The socialist mindset behind the movment is why Trumbo was championing it (and why Paul Newman took on the project I might add). Also, it was why a Democratic President (Truman) and not a Republican who moved to make Israel a nation.
The Bolsheviks outlawed Zionism as soon as they came to power. The only time this position was reversed was for a few years in the late 1940's when the Russians decided their number one enemy in the world was the British Empire. They supported both Zionism and Arab nationalism against the British. But after a few years they changed back to their original anti-Zionist position which never changed. They did maintain diplomatic relations with Israel until 1967 (Cuba did so until 1973), but they were never pro-Zionist apart from that brief period in the later Forties.
Preminger and Newman were indeed liberals who considered Israel a liberal cause, and Trumbo undoubtedly had Party permission (or maybe even orders) to write the screenplay. But that has nothing to do with the origins of Zionism, which were indeed secular but not socialist or left wing.
However, as we know positions and beliefs are relative on the left. Once Israel started getting rich they turned against her and now it is the conservatives who have to defend a prosperous nation.
As stated above, the Communists were always anti-Zionist apart from one brief period. The Bolsheviks outlawed it in Russia (even as they supported Irish nationalism) and even the early "Palestine Communist Party" (the Jewish Communist party in the pre-state Yishuv) was officially anti-Zionist. And even David Ben Gurion, while no tzaddiq and a socialist himself, was on the "right wing" of the socialist movement in Israel, even "de-politicizing" the Palmach (which was largely led by Stalinists) after independence, removing the old radical leadership.
As to Truman, Truman wasn't pro-Jewish or pro-Zionist. He recognized Israel only because of political pressure and for no other reason. Moreover, after doing this he maintained the arms embargo which favored the Arabs. He never lifted a finger for Israel.
Please check your history.
Another interesting post.
Hertzl's novel which inspired so many zionists depicted Israel as a socialist utopia.
Hertzl leaned socialist (he talked about a "third way" but we know from Blair and Clinton that that's just code for liberal-socialism)...those who came after him were more hard-core.
Always interesting.
Hope all’s well....