Neville – “it seems like Chabad’s views on Zionism are relatively in-line with the Litvish views”; “On this issue, Chabad sees eye to eye with the Yeshivish world.”
Moving away from theory and philosophy to practical:
There were fierce battles between Chabad and the “Yeshiva Party” representative in the Knesset (taking direction from our Gedolim, in particular, Rav Shach zl but also Rav Ovadia Yosef and other gedolim).
The issue came out in returning Land for Peace. Chabad view of “not one inch” especially since “Hashem gifted the Land in a miraculous way, we must not squander this gift”, which is a Religious Zionist/Nationalist view, while our Gedolim held there is no problem to return Land to avoid pikuach nefesh (and saving one soldier’s life that would be r”l lost in a battle is an olom malleh).
Chabad held that the Peace with Egypt is worthless, just a piece of paper, which the next ruler does not need to recognize, while giving up the Sinai is real and a huge loss (military and financial – oil fields etc). Our Gedolim held it is a worthwhile risk and strongly supported the Peace Treaty
Chabad tried to recruit poskim to strengthen their “daas Torah”, but the prevailing psak of Gedolei Eretz Yisroel was upheld. Isreal returned the Sinai to Egypt and signed a peace treaty with Sadat. We still benefit today from this Peace Treaty (based on Land for Peace).
History proved Chabad wrong on that issue. (Except that their shitah would apply to Gaza, but that was not the Halachic debate at the time).