Zionism shouldn’t even be seen as something which divides us into left vs. right, and I’ll explain why.
There are a few people out there who are principled Hirschians. Rav Hirsch is inaccurately seen as a pillar of MO, when in fact, Religious Zionism tends to be rooted in the uber-mystical, particularistic views of Rav Kook. Rav Hirsch was not a mystic, and he was a humanist and a universalist who saw the role of Jews as being a people who dwelled among the broader society, incorporating its merits and aesthetics into the ranks of Jewish life (TIDE). Zionism, by definition, is not compatible with Hirschian ideals. Jewish nationalism would raise questions of dual loyalty; Rav Hirsch was very much a patriotic German. He devotes a long section of his book Horeb (pp. 460-461) to the obligation of Jews to seek the welfare of their government (Yirmiyahu 29:7). If this applied under the Babylonians, who exiled the Jews by force, all the more so in our current countries of residence, in which we settled by choice. If this applied in Babylonia, where Jews were sent for a pre-specified period of 70 years, all the more so today, when the length of our exile has not been revealed to us. For hundreds of years, Jews have honored and loved the rulers of the countries in which they took refuge, and followed all their laws faithfully.
The Torah united all the individual Jews and made them a nation, and therefore even after they were distanced from their land and deprived of sovereignty, they are a nation, not primarily because of their past, nor because of their future, when they hope Hashem will return them to their land, but because they are the bearers of an eternal tradition, a people that fulfills its covenant with Hashem. It was thanks to this identity that they have been able to maintain their existence despite the destruction of their land and sovereignty.
When we mourn the destruction of the Holy Land, Jerusalem and the Temple, we are not mourning any physical weakness that led to our defeat, but rather we affirm that the destruction was a punishment for our sins, and it is over those sins that we cry. Whatever tragedies befell us, we accept lovingly, knowing that they are the chastisements of a loving Father to induce us to improve our ways.
But this Torah commands us that as long as Hashem does not call us back to the land He set aside for us, we have to remain living in the countries Hashem has chosen for us, have a love and loyalty to those countries, and dedicate all our powers and money to the welfare of those countries.
The Torah obliges us, further, to allow our longing for the far-off land to express itself only in mourning, in wishing and hoping; and only through the honest fulfillment of all Jewish duties to await the realization of this hope. But it forbids us to strive for the reunion or possession of the land by any but spiritual means.
In 1864, Rav Hirsch wrote to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer, founder of Chovevei Tzion: “My mind is too small to recognize the good and truth that will result, according to you, from your efforts in colonizing Eretz Yisroel. What you consider a mitzvah and a great obligation, does not seem so in my humble opinion. I have no knowledge of secret matters, and I see nothing better than to continue on the road paved by our fathers and predecessors, who made it their goal only to improve our Torah observance, and to look forward to the redemption, which might come any day, if we only listen to G-d’s voice. They never approached redemption through the improvement of the Holy Land, only through the improvement of our hearts and deeds.” (Shemesh Marpei, p. 211)
Likewise, many people who are perceived as on the left end of things are Maimonideans, whose view of Eretz Yisroel is very much in line with that of Rav Hirsch. Rambam believed that the land of Israel has little inherent sanctity on its own merits; rather, he says that a person should live outside of Israel if that would more positively influence his spirituality. He also omits yishuv ha’aretz from his taryag.
I, for one, when saying the prayer for the state of Israel, do not say reshit tzemichat geulateinu. None of us living are prophets and we have no way of knowing that the modern state of Israel is the beginning of our redemption. After 60+ years of violence, immorality, and the other problems that other states deal with, I think my point is especially salient. We’re still a long way’s off from geulah.