Mostly? I don’t know. Before Israel was founded as a state, many Orthodox complaints were about Jews seen as “less than” being allowed to live in the holy land, or people of any other religion for that matter. They also were incensed at the proposal of Hebrew becoming the official language because that’s the language of the Torah and the language of God, therefore it is sacrilegious for people who aren’t Jewish enough to sully the language by speaking it.

From the numerous conversations I’ve had with members of the Orthodox community, I’ve found such vast social distances that I can’t find enough political common ground to begin understanding their perspective. From my POV, they believe in such a tangled web of hypocrisy that I’m not even sure what their core belief is, beyond “I’m right.” And as best as I can tell, their perspective of me is that I’m an idiot with no credibility.

Orthodox members of the Texas community have been more approachable but less open about their beliefs on all Jews expressing ownership of Israel. Orthodox Jews in the American northeast would spit on me when I’d try to talk to them, so I stopped trying. And Orthodox Jews in Israel would throw rocks at me before I could even speak to them.

Without knowing what their definition of Zionism is, I couldn’t tell you what they believe.