You no nothing about Rav Kook’s understanding of anything. Not how he understood Torah, it’s people, or their destiny.
This is not personal. And it’s not a debate. You just have no clue.
Here is the history. Rav Kook was a giant of giants. Not necessarily the biggest Marbitz Torah, but a man who lived up to every Jewish ideal. He personified every aspect of Torah. Seeing him, was seeing a real yid. The fact of his life led him to reach out ‘ve every segment of Jews. This brought about a lot of bizarre results. He misunderstood a lot of the problems facing the Jews living in Arab lands. His outreach to German Jews missed the target completely. He could not get his message across in America. But these were all minor issues. Basically, the local leaders felt he was unhelpful. It should be noted, that when he was asked to not get involved, he didn’t. Except for one topic. He was right on the mark with the antireligious. He knew what their issues had been in Europe and what really motivated them to invest themselves in Israel. He became the religious leader of the antireligious. Which is the dream of every gadol in kiruv today.
Traditional Jews all over the world were not pleased with this development. They say a struggle for the life of Judaism. Those who personally knew Rav Kook tried to debate with him. He was not that kind of leader. Not a debater. Not a politician. Not a care for his ego. He took all kinds of abuse as if he deserved it. His detractors write, that they would yell at him and he would say “of course your right.” As the new Zionists came in the second wave, he would take the blame for them doing whatever they wanted. Even when they gave him all kinds of guarantees to uphold the yishuv hayashan, he would personally take the blame.
So, nothing happened. The traditional leaders continued in the struggle to uphold their flock. There was nothing they could do. The amount of new oilim was drowning out their clout. Remember, that a large amount of European Jews were no longer Shomer Torah. The struggle was taking over everything. And money sent from Europe and America was crucial for the survival of the people. Yet, the frum leaders in Israel refused to denounce Rav Kook. He was That much of a tzaddik to them. Even though lives were at stake, they carefully worded letters to the diaspora, to only send money through reliable methods.
When the controversy spilled to the other continents, every Rav who knew him personally was very careful with his honor. [One exception.] Those that never really knew him, specifically those who were on the receiving end of his failed outreach were aghast. They completely misunderstood the person and his goals. Rav Kook never responded to the personal attacks. Except to remind those close to him, that these were Rabbonim and their honor is very important for klal yisroel. With regards to the controversy itself, he would say let all the ‘Torah Scholars lead the Torah People. Leave the irreligious to me.’
Rav Kook did not have a concrete vision of a State or any kind of Zionist enterprise. He strived to fit everything he saw as a constructive purpose of Hashem’s World. He had little need for communal struggle. What could be Hashem’s Purpose in that?
In sum, Rav Kook entirely understood a nation as a nation only through Torah. And he understood the depth and breadth of Torah more than all of his very, very, very, great peers. There is nothing in any of his writings about replacing the Torah chas lmaymar. All though he worried about all Jews, especially the few remaining fully observant communities, he found that they all had competent leadership and he was either not needed or unwanted. Only the agricultural communists were completely bereft of a Torah Leader. He was talking to them. His own talmidim were not planting on shemitta. The rest of his following was not keeping anything for themselves anyways.
The main point is, that anyone who really studies Rav Kook’s writings, has no need for Zionism. It’s all about Hashem. The modern day anti Zionist camp is putting together a philosophical world view, and they reverse a few points and put the words in the mouths of the early Religious Zionists. They are the ones who suffer from a lack of identity. They do not identify with the majority of Jews. Not today. And not throughout history. They do not feel their pain or see their losses. They do not realize the dilemma. All they care about is being right in a public demonstration. And the last thing they ever care about, is how the Torah thinks about these issues.