Rabbi Shneur Kotler said, “People call the Satmar Rav’s ideas a shitah, but it is not. He proves in Vayoel Moshe that this is what Shas and poskim, Rishonim and Acharonim all held. What he holds is what all gedolei Yisroel once held. On the contrary, our Agudah shitah is a new shitah: that in today’s environment, we have to do an aveirah lishmah and salvage whatever we can, choose the lesser of two evils and so on. But the Satmar Rav’s shitah is the shitah of Shas and poskim, the age-old Jewish way. (Reported by Yaakov Leib Markovitch, a student in Beis Medrash Govoha)
Reb Shneur was probably referring to the concept, first articulated by Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky in Bayos Hazman, that joining the Zionist government and voting in their elections is a sin committed under duress, to save the Jewish people.
Here is a brief excerpt from Bayos Hazman:
Some say that there is no difference between the Jewish State and the Zionist movement, and we have the power not to join them in any manner, not to recognize any law passed by a majority of the atheists, and thus we will be free to live our lives as we please. According to this view, all the reasons for the prohibition to join the Zionist movement apply equally to the Jewish State, including their elections. And although there were Gedolei Yisroel who participated in the elections for parliaments in gentile countries, and in some cases even participated in their governments, proponents of this view draw a distinction between non-Jewish heretics and Jewish heretics.
Others evaluate our situation differently and draw a distinction between a state and a movement. If we live in a state, we are automatically participants in it, and the government is ruling over us whether we like it or not. It is impossible to completely ignore their laws. And the battle to remove or mitigate their evil decrees against us is impossible except through the democratic process. Therefore, the prohibition on joining the wicked (Avos 1:7). does not apply, since we are in any case automatically joined with them. And on the contrary, if we do not exercise the rights that they allow us in their laws in order to fight against them, such as by abstaining from voting in the elections, we are in effect giving our votes to them, and helping them to wield even more power over us, to lead us, our sons and daughters to idolatry, immorality and murder. For every vote and every representative in parliament is a part of the government’s power, and every time we pass up the opportunity to be represented, we are benefiting our enemies by giving them more seats in the parliament. This view holds that voting is not tantamount to agreeing to their government, their laws and beliefs, because an action done under duress, to save one’s life, is not counted as agreement.
The Gemara (Nedarim 22a) tells the story of how Ulla met two men on the road, and one murdered the other. The murderer asked Ulla if he was right for committing the murder, and Ulla said yes. Later Ulla came to Rabbi Yochanan and expressed his guilt that he might have encouraged a criminal. Rabbi Yochanan replied, “You saved your own life.”
Proponents of this view compare the Israeli government to non-Jewish governments, in which Jews historically participated even when the non-Jews were fervently religious idolaters. There as well, there would have been no way to permit it, except for the above reasoning. They also find a precedent in the Kehillos of Poland, where the Gedolim permitted and directed their followers to vote, even in places where the majority were non-believers, and most Torah-observant Jews as well as, it seems, most Torah scholars agreed with this.
Some go a step further and say that the situation demands that we join the governing coalition, for the above reasons. Some compare this to Yosef, Mordechai, Daniel, Nechemiah, Rabbi Shmuel Hanaggid, the Abarbanel, or to Ovadiah in the palace of Achav, and many other Jewish shtadlonim (advocates representing the Jews before the government). Now, one could disagree with these comparisons. But since in this case the participation is done purely for the sake of saving the Jewish people, and under duress, as in the cases of Esther and Yael, which Chazal call “aveirah lishmah,” without any respect in one’s heart for the leaders or agreement to their anti-religious laws, we could say that this is not a disagreement in hashkafah, but rather in how to evaluate the situation. And even if the disagreement is also about halacha and Daas Torah, the disagreement is only about what case to compare this to, not about the fundamentals of our emunah, which are the foundation of Agudas Yisroel.
When powerful leaders rise up against us from all sides and seek to destroy us, and we need to escape like a deer from the trap and fight with all our strength against them, it is not time to carry on internal disputes among believers in Hashem, His Torah and the fundamentals of emunah, for all of us are equally persecuted by the enemies of Hashem – despite our differences over methods of escape, and even if in our view, those of the opposing view are making things worse through their approach. We are like the Jews living under Soviet oppression, where each one searched for what he felt was the best way to keep the Torah, and like those fleeing Nazi persecution, where this one escaped to the forest or hid in a bunker, another devised strategies to save his life in the ghetto or concentration camp, and another joined the Judenrat.
The important thing is to focus all our thoughts and senses, our bodies, abilities and actions to fight the battle of Hashem against His openly declared enemies, and not distract ourselves with thoughts of how to fight our fellow believers.
I Will Await Him 
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