I’ve learned that our generations do not have ability to determine what is happening in the world, except maybe through midah kneged midah. So, that is what I am trying to use.
Zionists proposed to have a Jewish state in EY and that happened, and they saved millions from death and assimilation in process, and established a place where Jews can keep mitzvos and learn Torah. I am not suggesting voting for mapai, but we should acknowledge the facts.
I think a lot of tensions come from projecting old political arguments onto current events. For example, R Berl Wein traces anti-religious sentiment of Israeli lefties back to the time of cantonists where Russians required (religious) kahal to provide army recruits, leading to corruption, poor and orphans being drafted … we see same when blaming zionists for things they did hundred years ago. We discussed this and seemed to agree that (a) facts are different now and (b) arguments at that time were imperfect from our knowledge of history. For example, did it really matter what school was built or who was elected into Polish Sejm in 1939 …
To see effect of this history – look at Sephardim, where Shas combines multiple groups and there is less inter-group enmity. They did not go through haskalah and reform and socilaism – but right now, they are stam Israelis, but they are less affected by the political outrage. Maybe, we should use a Sephardi Beit Din to resolve all these tricky questions (and I know Ashkenazi rabbis who go to R Ovadia Yosef’ teshuvot on Israel-related issues).