Shlishi, RSR Hirsch did take a dim view of the Zionists whom he encountered and his vision of medinat ha-yehudim was far from the mimicking of Gentile-style sovereignty. But the Zionists of whom he knew (up to 1888) had no grand political concept or goal at all, let alone modern statehood. They focused on getting away from the goyim, which to R. Hirsch’s thinking (if I understood it) is a repudiation of our ohr la-goyim mission in the world. Therefore, I don’t think it’s valid to project R. Hirsch’s view of this embryonic Zionism onto the later political Zionism, let alone the medina once it was established.
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