In an interview in last week's Musaf Shabbos Kodesh, HaRav Dov Lando, rosh yeshiva of Slobodka Yeshiva, said:
Know that in outlook, we are more extreme than the Neturei Karta! As far as we are concerned, the State does not even exist. How are we supposed to conduct ourselves regarding all the challenges which it presents before us? This is a different story. We follow the guidelines of the Chazon Ish, but theoretically we do not recognize the government at all. [In practice we interact with the institutions of government, but we do not recognize them as having any special meaning.]
Allow us to explain these words: While Rightists and religious Zionist parties on the one hand grace the State with a halo of imaginary sanctity purporting that this is the `heralding of the Geula,' those dreams keep on crashing in face of the waves of gloomy reality which is revealed through its leaders, ministers and advisors. Some maintain that the way to contend with them is by battling against the very title of `A Jewish state' and the militant declarations which see the State as the very essence and root of all the problems.
As far as we are concerned, the state as a Jewish state does not exist at all. Therefore, the declaration of Degel HaTorah stated through our Torah leaders, the `eyes of the community', along the lines of the guardians of tradition, say that we have no plan or prospect of establishing a state run by Halacha concurrently with the State of Israel. Therefore in our view, the title of the State of Israel signifies nothing more than just another state or government like all others in the world in which there happens to be a large and significant concentration of Jews who are still living in exile, so to speak.
Our problem is not with the state, which we regard as no different from other states in the world like Uganda of Somalia. Our problem is with the leaders and governors of this state, especially with those who, in the laws of court and in the media, seek to uproot all vestige of Jewishness from the people.
"May You, Hashem, rule alone over all of Your works, on Har Zion, the sanctuary of Your honor, and in Yerushalayim, the city of Your holiness."
