Fyi. Steipler writes clearly, black on white, in karyane de’igreta vol 1 , that
it is assur to say lashon hara about dati leumi yehudim even if they [mistakenly] believe that the state is the forerunner of our ge’oula.
they are not ‘begeder yatsa miklal amitecha’
and are to be considered our brother in all halachik respects .
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obviously they are not jews for j
obviously they are not OTD when fully observant
obviously they are not ‘geshmad’
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they are only ‘mistaken’ in one aspect , but still our brothers with
a hiyuv de’oyraytah of ve’ahavtah leacha kamocha, towards them.
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