"[T]here is no stricter prohibition in the Torah than [than the one
forbidding] participating in the elections. The ideas of Zionism include
all the heresy and apostasy.…The Zionists came from the seed of Amalek. There has never been such a sect that caused so much damage to the Jewish people…The Zionists are real Amaleks, and therefore every Jew must engage in an all-out war against them.”
Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum the Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe
The Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum spoke to more than 10,000 haredim in Jerusalem Sunday night. He ordered then not to vote in today's elections and vehemently attacked the State of Israel and Zionism.
Here are some excerpts as translated by Ynet:
"[T]here is no stricter prohibition in the Torah than [than the one forbidding] participating in the elections. The ideas of Zionism include all the heresy and apostasy. Refuting the decree of the Diaspora, Providence and the coming of the Messiah…The government is apostasy and heresy, and a revolt against God's divinity," he added, "and those who help enter the government are part of it, accessories. This must not be done under any circumstances."…
"One mustn't ask for money from the State," he ruled. "Yeshiva students should go to jail rather than agree to compromises. The real fighters are those who give up on the state budgets and are willing to live in poverty."
"How can a Jew who stood on Mount Sinai violate the oath he committed to there? What the haredi representatives are doing at the Knesset is a great defamation of God. A great destruction. There is no greater defamation of God… It leads to the hatred of Jews in the entire world."
The rebbe also slammed the government seeking to draft yeshiva students, saying that "the draft decree aims to make us forget all the other troubles Zionism has inflicted on us. We must fight it uncompromisingly so that such ideas won't even cross their minds."
He referred to the State of Israel and its Zionist residents as "the generation's Amalek" [the biblical arch enemy of the Jewish people and the rabbinic paradigm for all future enemies of the Jewish people] and likened haredi Knesset members to "Pharaoh's parliament."
"The Zionists came from the seed of Amalek. There has never been such a sect that caused so much damage to the Jewish people… Seclusion saved Jerusalem from being the remote city, like all other cities swept away by the impure state…
"We did not see in the entire Torah a greater offense than voting in the elections, which cancels the entire Torah," he added. "I am certain that all the rabbis who permitted (voting for Knesset) in the past, would admit today that they made a fatal mistake."We see the activity of the haredi representatives, which is against the Torah. The Israeli parliament is like Pharaoh's parliament. Whoever votes in the elections sends representatives to this Amalek parliament…This is a riffraff government. The Zionists are real Amaleks, and therefore every Jew must engage in an all-out war against them.”…