I am writing this post because I am Jewish and I think Zionism is bad for Jewish people. I am Chareidi and before some wise guy says why are you using the Internet, well I have filtered Internet. Since Zionists like to split hairs about the word Zionism and don't like it being defined, I will define in a way that Zionist themselves would define, Jewish nationalism the logical implication being that Jews are just regular nation like any others. The logical implication of Jews being a regular nation being that they should pursue statehood by worldly means. This post won't be dealing with who is right or better or moral in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but it why it makes sense for Jews to not want to have a state. I believe my arguments hold whether or not Muslims are all Jew haters or they all love Jews and think they are awesome. My own view is that sometimes relations with Muslims have been good and other times they haven't been. Some people overly glorify pre zionist Jews in Muslim lands and others greatly exaggerate how bad it was, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
- Theological reasons - Rabbis were overwhelmingly against the creation of the State of Israel. Most rabbis believed that the Three Oaths, had weight and weren't nullified by nations breaking their oaths and that the Zionist movement was a violation of these oaths. You can read Igeres Teimani, where the Rambam tells people not to break the oaths, despite him referring to Yemeni government as the most oppressive that Jews ever lived under. Even if we accepted the Zionist argument that the oaths just Midrashim or Aggadata, such writings contain the teaching of Chazal and shouldn't be tossed aside. The oaths themselves are based on Biblical teachings, that when God sends the Jews into exile, God is the one who brings them back. You can read about the Mapilim who disobeyed God and entered Eretz Yisroel pre-maturely and were punished. in Jeremiah the prophet tells people they will be in exile for 70 years and then be brought home by God and he told people not to rebel against the Babylonians. The Torah and our prayers tell us that our inheriting of the land of Israel is conditioned on observing mitzvot, and Zionism denies this by believing in ideas like a 'right to self determination' and a 'right to exist'. Throughout history there have been Jewish rebellions like the Bar Kochba and Zealot Rebellions, which rabbis were also overwhelmingly against. This isn't a fringe Neturei Karta position, this is the position of Chareidim. Neturei Karta are just an extreme version of what Chareidi Jews believe. Some Chareidim will participate in Israeli Elections, but this isn't because they support the state, but rather as a tactic to minimize the damage of it. You can read Bayos Hazman where Rabbi Refael Reuvain Grozovsky says that Agudah is only slightly different than Neturei Karta. Rav Avigdor Miller says that all Chareidim agree with Neturei Karta on the main points. Rabbi Dov Landau, a leading Chareidi rabbi of the modern era says that Arab rule would be better and Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch says his teachings only differ slightly with Satmar. What makes Neturei Karta extreme is their activism, not being against the Zionist state and under it's original leadership, Amram Blau, they didn't engage in such extreme activism. Gedolim don't oppose Israel's existence due to it being secular, but because it was created by wordly means. You can read more about this in Yirmiyahu Cohen's book, I will await him and he has a blog by the same name.
- There will probably never be peace with the Arabs - This brings me to my next point, not all Jews are religious and not all Jews are Chareidi, so not everyone will be convinced by religious arguments which is fair. The other reason Jews should reject Zionism is that it doesn't actually accomplish what it is supposed to accomplish, make Jews safer. The idea of the Zionist state is to be safe haven, but it isn't all that safe. The Zionist state is constantly at war and dealing with rocket attacks, suicide bombings, intifadas, and most recently October 7th. It's unlikely there will ever be any sort of lasting peace. Whether these wars are the fault of Arabs or the Zionist state, doesn't really make much of difference, they are the practical reality and make life there difficult. This is why the prediction of a mass Aliyah never materializes. Even if the Palestinian issue were somehow 'solved', which it probably won't be, the other neighboring Arab states aren't naturally inclined to like Israelis. The Palestinian issue can't be easily solved due to demographic reasons. Relocation of Palestinians probably wouldn't work due to countries either not wanting them or relocation to nearby countries like say Jordan, Egypt or Syria would just cause them to launch terror attacks from there. Anti-Israeli sentiment is universally held belief of basically all arabs and it isn't acted upon more because of a lack of democracy in the middle east, including Christian and Secular Arabs. The current governments of Egypt and Jordan are pacified by American diplomacy and foreign aid, were those governments to collapse you would almost certainly have terror attacks or possibly wars from there. On top of this Arabs have a massive demographic advantage, Egypt alone has 125 million people, Syria 25 Million, Jordan 11 million, Lebanon 5 million and the Gaza Strip and west bank roughly 5 million. Compare this 8 million Jews in the middle east and roughly 16.5 million globally. This is combined with the fact that Israel is on its way to becoming a Pariah country with favorability dropping like a rock. Being a Pariah country wouldn't end the state of Israel, but it will make things more difficult than they already are. Neither a two state solution or military victories will bring peace, because there never will be peace. A two state solution will just be used for more military attacks and military victories will be temporary as the Arabs will just come back later to attack. IF the Palestinian issue is solved another group of Arabs will just replace them in fighting against Israel, see Hezbollah. If Arabs were to all give up Islam tomorrow they would still be Anti-Israeli as the conflict is at least partially generated by ethnic reasons such as Pan-Arabism and Arab Nationalism, which was/is supported by Secular and Christian Arabs alike, hence why most Palestinian Christians are anti-zionist.
- This point build on point 2, it generates antisemitism - This really is an extension of point 2, but should have its own section. Zionists get defensive and offended if you blame the state of Israel for antisemitism, but it is to blame for it on some level. I am not claiming there was no antisemitism pre-zionism, obviously it always has and always will exist, only that is results in more existing than there would otherwise be. The whole Palestinian movement would not exist if not for Zionism, it only exists to negate the state of Israel. To the extent that the Palestinian movement either is antisemitic or generates antisemitism, it is the result of zionism. The state of Israel existing also causes Jews to have constant 24/7 media attention that they wouldn't have otherwise. Saying that anti-semitism always exists to argue that the Israeli government doesn't somehow contribute is like saying you should start fires yourself because fires are a natural phenomenon. The fact of antisemitism always existing isn't argument for asserting yourself, but for asserting yourself less. To be clear causing anti-semitism isn't the same as blame for it, whether all anti-Israeli sentiment is unjustified or baseless or whether its entirely justified, Zionism is the cause of it in either case. The idea that absolutely nothing Jews do contributes to how people view them is an irrational thing that many Jews believe and logic tells us is false. Logic tells us if you do certain things you will get certain reactions, and this is case whether those reactions are 100% justified or 100% baseless. You can see the blog nonzionism.com where he talks about the ways in which Zionism doesn't make Jews safer and why on purely practical level creating a country in the middle east wasn't a good idea.
In summary I believe that the Zionist movement and state of Israel are against what our religion teaches, is untenable long term due to the Arab attitudes and demographic advantage and eventual diplomatic isolation, and makes Jews worse off by creating antisemitism. It would be better for Jews to leave Israel and let the Arabs have it rather than fighting them forever. You can say I have a Golus mindset, I would say what you refer to as a Golus mindset is a practical mindset. You can say it's impractical to wait for God to redeem Jews, but it's what Jews have done for most of their history and it's more practical than having rockets launched at you or having a bus explode on you or being mowed down at a concert by religious extremists. My own view is the state should be gradually and peacefully dismantled, we maintain it's existence until there are practical ways to relocate Jews to other places outside of the middle east.
"I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah, and although he may tarry, nevertheless, I wait every day for him to come"