HaKatan,
I think that part of the confusion in this debate is that everyone coming into it has a different definition of Zionism. I think we all agree that the idea of putting our trust in the formation and defense of a secular European style nation state as the goal of the Jewish people is A”Z. I think beyond that there is a wide spectrum of what frum people here mean when they refer to Zionism today, and some or most of those concepts are not A”Z (even if you hold all of them to be wrong). Labels change and evolve, and are notoriously imprecise, so it’s possible that when you quote R’ Elchonon and declare Zionism to be A”Z, you may be drawing a much larger circle than he intended.