ZIONISM / ANTI-----voting & participating in gov't

And yet many of today's Roshei Yeshiva tell their students to vote in Israeli elections thus granting legitimacy to the idea of a state? Aguda has even sat in the ruling government several times. How is this not Zionism?

There are those - the Satmar Rav and Brisker Rav mostly - who agree with you and therefore their followers do not vote in the Israeli elections. Rav Aharon Kotler ZTL held differently - that voting accomplishes more than it damages. Namely, that even though the State of Israel should never have existed, at the very least, we have it within our power to make sure that it does not do more damage than it already has, by controlling its policies and making it as non-anti-religious as possible. This is damage control, not an endorsement.

Rav Shach ZTL, who was the head of a party himself (Degel HaTorah) used to pray every day, his Talmidim report, for the State to be abolished without one Jew being harmed. In his seforim he clearly writes how the State of Israel serves only to cause anti-semitism in the world and endangers Jews through Where the Satmar Rav held that voting in the Israeli elections is a sin, since it makes you an accomplice to the crime after the fact, Rav Aharon Kotler ZTL held it was a mitzvah because by doing so you can help ensure that at least the worst people will not be controlling the State.

This was a legitimate machlokes l'shem shamayim, with other opinions involved as well (such as the Brisker Rav, who held like neither of the above).

And above all, the Satmar Rav never, ever joined with Arabs in any of his anti-Zionist activities, nor were Arab interests invited to his anti-Zionist rally in Washington, or any of his anti-Zionist activities.

Having political parties and all that is not a de facto approval of anything. It is a de facto manipulation of the government to try to do some damage control by making sure that they don’t crush religion any more than they did already.

The disagreements between Satmar and Rav Moshe / Rav Yakov etc are described in detail elsewhere on the site. They are primarily regarding taking, where possible ex post facto control of things in Israel from a governmental direction. Rav Aharon Kotler and those who followed him held being a member of the Knesset, voting for the most Torah-dik parties, and things like that are a Mitzvah, because they constitute damage control. The Satmar Rav held they are an aveirah because they make you an accessory to the crime after the fact.

One of the things they all agreed on was that there should not be a State of Israel altogether.