Rav Henkin opposed to anti-Zionists

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosef_Eliyahu_Henkin

Henkin vigorously opposed Zionism, but once the State of Israel was established he declared the need to support its continued existence, and denounced those who tried to undermine it. In 1959 he wrote:

I was shocked to read in Chomoteinu (Cheshvan 5719) the slanderous notion that we are required to give our lives to frustrate and resist the efforts of the State of Israel in its struggle against those who would rise up against them. This was stated as a psak din based on "Israel is restricted from rebelling against the nations." (Ketubot 111a) [...] but once done, though the admonition was ignored, we are required to support them with mesirut nefesh. [...] Once the state was declared, anyone who plays into the hands of the nations of the world even where there is no imminent danger, is clearly an informer and pursuer (rodef). All the more when there is danger to destruction of life in so doing. [...] Those essays I wrote before the advent of the state (many of which have been reprinted in my book Leiv Ivra) will testify to the fact that I am not a supporter of the government, and I objected to the entire idea of a state. (It is for this reason I am not a member of Agudah so that I not be judged incorrectly as one who agreed with their position in the founding of the state.) But now it is our obligation that we all support the state in the face of its external enemies and then go on to guide it in the ways of Torah.^[8]

 

 ^{https://web.archive.org/web/20050829193646/http://www.youngisrael.org/Divrei_Torah/Rabbi_s_Letter/#Rav%20Henkin%20ztz%E2%80%9Dl%20on%20Eretz%20Israel%20and%20Medinat%20Yisrael}

 

Rav Henkin openly challenged the anti-Zionist position of Neturei Karta and the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, ztz”l. He wrote (1959 / 5719):

I was shocked to read in Chomoteinu of Cheshvan 5719 the slanderous notion that we are required to give our lives (limsor nefesh) to frustrate and resist the efforts of the State of Israel in its struggle against those who would rise up against them. This was stated as a p'sak din based on what we learn that Israel is restricted from rebelling against the nations (Ketubot 111a).

This opinion is clearly not in keeping with halacha [and which can result] in imminent dangers for millions of Jews. True, Chazal admonished subsequent generations about such a rebellion because it would entail danger to Jewish life, but once done, though the admonition was ignored, we are required to support them with our mesirat nefesh.

In fact this is precisely what occurred before the destruction of the second Beit haMikdash when Chazal warned the populace not to revolt against the Romans. Even the king (sic.) of Israel did not favor a rebellion. However, once the rebellion broke out and the war endured, the Sages of Israel assisted the rebels in their war. This is as the Midrash states that Yaakov and his sons did not want to go to war against Shechem. Once the deed was done (by Shimon and Levi) he reasoned: Shall I allow my sons to fall into the hands of the enemy? And so, he took sword into hand and went against them.

Now all the rabbis who were opposed to Zionism and the establishment of a state took up that position until the time that it was officially founded. Once the state was declared, anyone who plays into the hands of the nations of the world even where there is no imminent danger, is clearly a moseir and rodeif. All the more when there is danger to destruction of life in so doing... Surely, those who recently emigrated must be very weary of the state's efforts to strip them of their Torah way of life, but to proclaim that anyone who aids the state is a rodeif, well such talk is the severest form of redifa.

Such a sin derives from yet another transgression that they pre-judge all Zionists, Mizrachi and Agudah members and their rabbis, as heretics and apikorsim...

I call upon all the sagacious leaders who identify with this position to repudiate this stand immediately because the Arabs and their cohorts are using this material to strengthen their propaganda against Israel…
I have already written elsewhere that with vulgar protests we will not succeed with the powers that be. Such tactics make things worse. What has to be done is to get into the government and the Knesset to internally save what can be saved and to strengthen Torah and its adherents.

Those essays I wrote before the advent of the state (many of which have been reprinted in my book Leiv Ivra) will testify to the fact that I am not a chassid of the government, I objected to the entire idea of a state. (It is for this reason I am not a member of Agudah so that I not be judged incorrectly as one who agreed with their position in the founding of the state.) But now it is our obligation that we all support the state in the face of its external enemies and then go on to guide it in the ways of Torah.

And for the one who hears such vilification as was published in Chomoteinu and does not protest it is nearly certain that he will be ensnared in the foul invective....