tirtsa: i have thought about it. i theorize that NK got its jump start as follows: there were jews who have always maintained the yishuv in E”Y even as their brothers went for greener pastures in Europe and elsewhere. they suffered to live in israel and worked hard to maintain a yishuv in the face of a rabid enemy by working towards a peaceful coexistence all the while emphasizing their religious lifestyles and beliefs.. when the green pastures were converted into killing fields the zionists basically invaded the yishuv, dumped on religion, cared little about the jews who were there and what they were doing, pretended to be the first jews to show up and basically claimed the titled of the “jews of israel” from the jews who were already there. the old religious yishuv then became NK who tried to reclaim its position by aligning itself with all of the palestinians who were displaced by the zionists.
What happened since is a different story. Satmar came along and gave a chassidish, quazi-halachic reason to oppose zionism. NK and satmar started to mesh. those with extremist views rotated towards NK while those with a more moderate approach denounced them. the rest, as they say, is history.