Modern Jewish Zionism is deeply atheistic in comparison to medieval Judaism (by “medieval” I simply refer to the Judaism that gradually developed after the failed revolutions against Rome, and eventually found its greatest expression in the Talmud — so Judaism loosely after 400 CE). Just like any other major religion, Judaism isn’t monolithic and there has been and is a lot of intense inter-religious conflict and disagreement. But for Jewish history until the 19th century, worship of Yahweh and obedience to the laws of the Torah was a cornerstone of being Jewish. Furthermore the notion of establishing a sovereign Jewish State wasn’t popular among Jews for most of the past 2 millennia. In fact, according to research done by the Israel Prize winner professor Aviezer Ravitzky of Hebrew University, the earliest usage of the phrase “State of Israel” in Hebrew in reference to the Zionist movement was written in 1900 by a Jewish Rabbi, Elyakum Shlomo Shapira. He was very critical of the new budding impious movement:
For I know the devastation they are wrecking upon the Congregation of Israel. My heart sinks within me, my eyes grow dark, and my ears wax heavy at what is being done and said. Their valor in the land is not for the sake of the true faith, nor is it for this that they wave their banners (while we raise the banner of God). What sort of ‘nation’ can they have if they throw over our holy Torah and its precepts (perish the thought). How can I bear that something be called ‘the State of Israel’ without the Torah and the commandments (heaven forbid)?
Indeed, Shapira wasn’t the only Rabbi, he was among the majority of Orthodox rabbis who also condemned it.
Why? Given all we have seen in the Tanakh about Yahweh’s genocidal commands to conquer Canaan (Palestine) to Joshua and others, why didn’t Judaism maintain a zeal to conquer Palestine throughout its lifespan and only within the last 100 or so years did it again pick up the sword of conquest?
After the failed Jewish revolts against Rome in the first and second century, and the devastating effects on the Jewish community — the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, the death or displacement of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Jews — Rabbis became the the primary authorities of Judaism. The Talmud became a centerpiece of Jews, and the Talmud portrays the condition of Jews after the revolts as a punishment from Yahweh for not following the Torah in various ways the Rabbis thought was right:
Rabbi Yehuda said: Jerusalem was destroyed only because they disparaged the Torah scholars in it, as it is stated: “And they mocked the messengers of God and disdained His words and taunted His prophets, until the wrath of God arose against His people, until it could not be healed”
The messianic zeal that drove the rebels in the revolts of 70 C.E. and 132 C.E. against Rome proved to be dangerous. Exile was commonly conceived as the proper state of Jews until some unknown time in the future. It didn’t mean Jews didn’t hope to return or rule “Zion”, but the prospect of trying to reacquire Palestine became commonly perceived as folly and a violation of Yahweh’s punishment. That attitude prevailed for the most part among Rabbis until the rise of modern Zionism. The modern Zionist sect of Judaism has now substantially displaced more medieval attitudes. Although Zionists try to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Judaism, for that to be rational one would have to dismiss the fact that anti-[modern]Zionism was once the standard attitude of pious Jews. Indeed Rabbis, such as Hayyim Soloveichik, suggested that the new sect was an attack on the religion of Judaism:
Regarding the ‘Zionist sect,’ which has now banded and united together by force… Have they not a bad reputation in their places, and is not their purpose to uproot the fundaments of [our] religion—and to this end also take control of all the Jewish communities… The people of Israel [Jews; the state of Israel did not yet exist] should take care not to join a venture that threatens their souls, to destroy religion, and is a stumbling block to the House of Israel.
It’s clear that a significant part of the antipathy toward Zionists was the fact that most were impious Jews, which are held with contempt in the Torah and Talmud. Regardless, medieval anti-Zionist Judaism was soon overshadowed by the “Zionist sect” that would eventually declare all anti-Zionism an expression of racism and anti-Judaism. And it’s that Zionist sect that is currently the foundation of the genocide that is being carried out by Israel. Gradually, the majority of pious Jews viewed the new “State of Israel” and Zionism as ordained by the Torah. Just as Protestantism ushered in a new chapter in the history of Christianity, Zionism ushered in a new chapter in the history of Judaism. Interestingly, a much higher percentage of Jews, a vast majority, have adopted Zionism in the past century than Christians have adopted Protestantism in the past four centuries. Although some anti-Zionists today, both Jewish and non-Jewish, try to claim that Zionism isn’t Jewish, it is as ridiculous as someone saying that Protestantism isn’t Christian.
And while the origin of modern Zionism primarily began with Jews who had abandoned much of the Torah (except core racial and territorial mythology), there were some early Zionists who revered the Torah, such as the Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine Abraham Isaac Kook, who led the theological transformation of much of the “orthodox”. While his ideas were often viewed as heretical by other Rabbis of the time, it is his and his son’s students who formed Gush Emunim, a movement that was largely responsible for “the settlers” who continue to colonize land in Palestine.
Kook’s attitude toward the impious Zionists were that they were useful - in particular, he used a metaphor of “the Messiah’s Donkey” to refer to them. The impious Zionists, often erroneously labeled “secular” Zionists, would be a tool that the Torah zealous Zionists, such as himself, would ride on to conquer and build the “Jewish State” that would ultimately be ruled by the Torah Zionists.
The donkey is the “secular” Zionists and the “Messiah” is the Torah Zionists. At Herzl’s funeral, Kook gave a eulogy comparing Herzl to the shit of the donkey. If you feel that was a bit insulting to atheist Jews, well he had even worse things to say about non-Jews; here is a passage from “Lights”, a book he wrote in 1920 before the formation of the state of Israel:
The difference between the Israeli [Jewish] soul - its essence, its inner desires, its aspirations, its nature and its position - and the soul of all the gentiles, on all their levels, is greater and deeper than the difference between the human soul and the animal soul. Between the latter, only a quantitative difference is found, but between the former, an intrinsic, qualitative difference prevails. - Orot Yisrael (Lights of Israel), Chapter 5, Passage 10
Yup. He wrote that. And guess what, he is still widely celebrated in Israel. Personally, other than being insulting to non-Jews I think that is deeply insulting to lots of animals (ignoring that humans are animals), who I’d argue have a much greater and deeper soul than Rabbi Kooky, like all cats and dogs; a qualitative distinction in fact. I don’t judge a soul only by what religion it claims to identify with. I know a lot of people who are much better than the religions they express loyalty to.
If we look at the relationship between the U.S. and Israel today, it appears that the donkey is not merely the impious Jews, but also U.S. politicians and Christian Zionists. Thousands of people in Israel spend all day studying the Torah and the Talmud and are paid stipends by the state of Israel that ends up costing millions of dollars while the U.S. sends, on average, over 4 billion a year in taxes to subsidize Israel. Although the money is supposed to go to particular causes, any money that a government receives that would go toward stuff it would already need to pay for, like military defense, is going to allow it to offset costs for anything else. Orthodox Jews in Israel can study Rabbi Kooky and learn why Jewish souls are superior to non-Jewish souls on the dime of American tax payers. Careful though, if you find that repulsive, you might be labeled an anti-Semite by some Zionists. After all, if you were to read from the Sefer HaChinuch (the Book of Education), which is today, among the pious, still a fairly popular work of Jewish law and ethics derived from the Torah and Talmud by a Rabbi in 13th century Spain, you would discover that gentiles are naturally meant to be slaves to Jews:
It is from the roots of the commandment [the commandment about owning a Canaanite slave forever] [that] since the people of Israel are the choicest of the human species and they were created to recognize their Creator and to serve in front of Him, it is fitting that they should have slaves to serve them. And if they do not have slaves from the nations, they would nonetheless need to subjugate their brethren, and [those subjugated] would be unable to strive in His service, blessed be He. We were therefore commanded to retain these for our use — after they have been readied and have had idolatry removed from their mouths, lest they be a snare in our homes. And this [is the meaning of] the verse afterwards (Leviticus 25:46), “and as for your brothers, the Children of Israel, a man shall not subjugate his brother.” That is to say that with this, you will not need to subjugate your brethren and you will all be prepared for the service of God. And even though the understanding of the verse is to warn not to subjugate a Hebrew slave with oppressive labor, there are seventy faces to the verses.