p the secularism of the zionists made them immediately unacceptable to the jews who then resided in the holy land while arab opposition remained primarily political the rejection of zionism and later of the state of israel by traditionial jews was deeply rooted in their judaism and was hardly influenced by political considerations the haredim were alarmed at the danger of the divine punishment that the actions of those whom they viewed as miscreants threatened to bring down all the inhabitants of the land of israel at first the local arab population enjoyed cordial relations with zionist leaders like haim weizmann only when arab leaders become fully aware of the political ambitions of the zionist movement did their views come around to those of the pious jews in taking a rejectionist stance talk