Q. If the State of Israel is part of the redemption process and beginning of the era of messiah, how was it founded by anti-religious?

Even as religious-Zionists, retroactively, it was clearly beneficial for all that God had secular-Zionist halutzim begin the movement. 1. If Zionism had been started by the religious, most of Am Yisrael would have felt that it's not relevant for them (e.g. only about 7% of the Jews in America are religious). The redemption is not just for religious Jews, but for all Am Yisrael , who are all "sons of God" and part of the Chosen People. Judaism is not just a religion but also our nationality, and accordingly, all agree that even the non-religious are just as Jewish as the religious. Moreover, the redemption is really for all mankind, and if the founders of Israel would have walked around with tefillin, it would have been seen as irrelevant for most of the world. 2. Religious Jews in galut (exile) had a tendency to be passive, emphasizing the spiritual and belittling the secular. Similarly regarding the geula (redemption), the religious tended to shift the responsibility for fixing the situation upon God, e.g. "it will be better in the messianic era/ the world-to-come/in the revival of the dead…". On the other hand, secular people who don't believe in those future worlds, have no choice but to "roll up their sleeves" and get to work and improve the lot of Am Yisrael in this world. They already had experience in farming, the military, politics etc., so inevitably they would be the ones who get the "ball rolling". 3. Religious people, especially rabbis, tend to be wary of change or "reform". Similarly, if you have 2 rabbis, you get 3 opinions! If the halutzim would have asked the rabbis of their time should they bring the geula or wait passively for God to do it, the rabbis would still be debating until this day. Rav Kook (Shmoneh Kvatzim ii, 30, based on Sukka 43b) explains that Hashem solved the problem through the secular, who simply didn't ask- they just did it! 4. Man has free-will and most of the Jews have been secular for many years, so inevitably, that's how Zionism was started! As Rav Soloveichik writes, secular Zionism came around just in time to suggest a "palatable" Judaism for those who don't believe, otherwise they would have been totally lost (Kol Dodi Dofek, p. 80), e.g. for Herzl, Zionism was a step back to Judaism, not a step away. 5. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) teaches that G-d redeemed us from Egypt, despite our ancestors being pagans, for 3 reasons (from the Amida: "ומביא גואל לבני בניהם למען שמו באהבה"): a. He had made a covenant with our fore-fathers that we are the Chosen and Eternal People and will receive the Land of Israel forever. b. Even if we chose not to do teshuva, Hashem has to redeem us because exile is a terrible Chilul Hashem and bad reflection upon Him ("Why doesn't He redeem His people?"). c. He loves us, and didn't want to send us to exile in the first place. Similarly, even if we don't deserve it, G-d is redeeming His people today, just like He did from Egypt. With Love of Israel & Prayer for Victory and Freeing the Hostages! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)