I recall at least two rabbis explaining in a confidential undertone it was important to present this front of “our condition remains same-old Divine disfavor, these events portend nothing, etc.” so as to prevent Jews from getting emotionally entangled with the state of Israel, and, as a result, joining the bandwagon when it came to “nationalistic” sins, like joining the army, etc.
Nor is this the only Torah area we find rabbis, eh, “dissembling“.
If anonymous third-hand stories are to be believed (?!), Rabbi Yisrael Elya Weintraub felt the same way.
לסיום, ברצוני רק לספר מעשה ששמעתי מכלי שני, שחברותא של הגרי”א ויינטרוב זצ”ל שאלו פעם: “ילמדנו רבינו, מה ההסתכלות שצריכה להיות על העובדה שעם ישראל חזר לארץ ישראל?” שתק הרב וחשב, ולבסוף אמר: “אפשר שזה קיבוץ גלויות”… חזר השואל ושאל: “ולמה לא אומרים את זה בקול”? ענה הרב: “מחשש היסחפות אחרי המדינה”.
If this oral saying can be confirmed in any way, this is highly significant, since Rabbi Weintraub has the strong persona of opposing Zionism, and his words are often quoted in anti-Zionist pamphlets!
Here are two important excerpts from his Wikipedia biography:
In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Weintraub penned – at the behest of Rabbi Shach – a pamphlet to explain to perplexed Jews the spiritual meaning of the Israeli victory. (ספר מקוה ישראל: ביאורים והערות בדברי רבותינו הראשונים במסכת מקואות ובהוספה אליו קונטרס והמשכילים יבינו … דעת תורתינו לבעיות זמנינו)
In 2009, Weintraub opposed an “Adopt a Soldier” program to link Orthodox Jews with soldiers of the Israeli army. (link)
(Some of Rabbi Weintraub’s thoughts and letters were published here and here on HebrewBooks, and I’m pretty sure there is lots more in Hebrew bookstores.)
Of course, this is where glorious anarchism really helps with that fear of becoming fascist/”Mamlachti”/”Mizrachi”: Just disassociate the Jewish settlement in the land of Israel and its sworn enemy, the state!