Religious Zionism XI

Frumteens is back from a mid-summer hiatus. On Zionism, the moderator writes this:

The hashkofos are not the main problem at all. All the Gedolim who have discussed that have said that even if the Chofetz Chaim were running the State of Israel it would still be a problem. Although they often teach in Zionist institutions that objextions to the State were based primarily on the irreliosity of its founders or governors, that is patently false and a total misrepresentation of the traditional Torah stance on the matter, which leads to a situation where, when someone like yourself sees articulaed in simple English, in a forum to whic hyou have easy access, an accurate representation of the opponents of Zionism, you are surprised.

Let's dissect this and point out some of the moderator's errors. First, "All the Gedolim who have discussed that have said that even if the Chofetz Chaim were running the State of Israel it would still be a problem." See, this is just incorrect. When R. Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz discussed the newly founded state of Israel, he absolutely did not object to it and very clearly did not believe that if the Hafetz Hayim were running the state it would be a problem. Furthermore, he explicitly taught in public (as is recorded in his Artscroll biography) that there is a positive reason that the non-religious have played such a large role in the establishment of the state. R. Reuven Grozovsky agreed with the uncertain position of R. Avraham Weinfeld, as published in the journal Ha-Ma'or. The Netziv certainly had no objection to returning en masse to the land of Israel. R. Eliezer Silver and R. Pinchas Teitz both publicly supported the state of Israel, as did R. Tzvi Pesah Frank, R. Isser Zalman Meltzer and many others. The very claim that "The Gedolim" oppose the state of Israel is so obviously and demonstrably false that (as people have told me) it is almost redundant to try to prove it.

"Although they often teach in Zionist institutions that objextions to the State were based primarily on the irreliosity of its founders or governors, that is patently false and a total misrepresentation of the traditional Torah stance on the matter..."

I spent four years in a co-ed Modern Orthodox high school and longer than that in Yeshiva University. I can't recall ever hearing that the objections to the state of Israel were due to the irreligiosity of "its founders or governors." It was always couched in terminology of establishing a state in Israel before the arrival of the messiah. The anti-Zionists claim to be privy to the exact order of the Redemption and object to the state of Israel because it does not fit in with their notion of how the Redemption will occur. But please, feel free to create a straw man and then knock it down.