Claim: The Zionist movement also had many rabbis to rely on

Claim: The Zionist movement also had many rabbis to rely on, such as Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines and Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal.

Fact: A minority of rabbanim did indeed advocate Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisroel, but all of them explicitly prohibited a war to take over the land such as took place in 1948. None of them lived to see 1948.

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874) was one of the founders of the Chovevei Tzion movement, and in his 1862 book Derishas Tzion he wrote that Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisroel could be the beginning of the redemption. But he made clear that this did not include fighting wars and conquering the land from the gentiles, which would be prohibited under the oaths (Maamar Kadishin p. 35b).

Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Reines (1839-1915) was a leader of Chovevei Tzion and the founder of the Mizrachi movement. In 1902 he published a book called Ohr Chadash Al Tzion calling for settlement in Eretz Yisroel, but cautioning (p. 240) that it must not violate the oaths.

Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, in his book Eim Habonim Smeicha (written in 1943), encourages settlement in Eretz Yisroel but forbids any war before the coming of moshiach, calling it a violation of the oath against going up as a wall (ch. 3, p. 176).

It should be noted that even the movement of peaceful settlement that these rabbanim advocated was opposed by the vast majority of the gedolei hador at that time: Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Chaim Brisker, Rabbi Sholom Ber Schneersohn, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon of Telz, Rabbi Yehoshua of Belz,  Rabbi Yechezkel Halberstam of Shineva, Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin and Rabbi Meir Auerbach. The few gedolim who did initially support Chovevei Tzion, such as the Netziv of Volozhin and Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher of Greiditz, eventually withdrew their support when they saw the direction the movement was going.

But again, peaceful settlement was the only thing these rabbanim ever advocated. And even Rav Kook, who was much chastised by many of the gedolim of his time for his Zionist views, upheld the Three Oaths and never dreamed of violating them. In his commentary on the Siddur, Olas Re’iyah, on the blessing after fruit from the Seven Species, writes that we must achieve settlement of the land through love and peace, not to ascend as a wall and not to rebel against the nations of the world. (He passed away in 1936, and thus did not live to see the wars fought by the Zionists.)