Zolli’s deepest desire was to be named Chief Rabbi of Israel and it was not going to happen. No sarc tags needed for a fact!
So, to drag this back to your original contention, there was no reason for Zolli to lie about PXII in order to get a position he wasn't going to get anyway. You're slandering a man because you don't like what he said?
Of course, since Golda Meir, Albert Einstein, and other contemporary Jews praised PXII, they were liars too? What did they get?
Occam's Razor.