msseeker, when someone attacked the Kuzarim were they not allowed to fight them off?
Outside of Satmar, NK and the Eida, the mainstream view is what I wrote earlier from the Steipler, that what was done is done. There is no doubt that the word Zion refers to Eretz Yisroel, or the land that has Zion in it (that’s a whole different thread). To be a Zionist, however, usually means, or should mean, to be a follower of, or subscriber to the ideas of, Zionism.
The Zionists were activists who’s only goal was to get a land, like all other nations, and therefore solve the problem of Galus. They weren’t even particular about Eretz Yisroel, but they focused on it in order to gain the sympathies of religious people. Had it simply been a group of pious, or at least believing, Jews, All Rabbonim would have encouraged it.
The fact is that most Rabbonim did see through it, and what it was trying to accomplish. The fact is that they pulled people off the Derech by the droves. They gave young people an identity other than the Torah.
Obviously, Hashem had plans for it to work out. Of course we are very happy to have it in our hands and to be allowed to Daven at our Mekomos Hakedoshim — oops, the Zionists don’t always let that. If you want to compare it to a Galach it would be more similar to him having found something that is yours while digging for gold. You’ll say thank you perhaps, but you won’t be endebted to him for his great present.
The movement that was, is no more. There are Mizrachi who still follow the ideology of the Frum branch of Zionism. We obviously have different Hashkafos, especially regarding the special high ranks that they consider the state leaders to represent. However they are not doing what the Zionists did. They are keeping Mitzvos and learning Torah. The state is a state like any other state. They aren’t rallying anyone to their cause, because it is a done deal. There is a country not a cause.