Brigadier General (res.) Rav Avichai Ronsky, the former Chief Military Rabbi, issued a call through Arutz Sheva Wednesday for Israelis to come to Beit El and join the struggle against the destruction of 30 homes in the Givat HaUlpana neighborhood.

Rav Ronsky, who heads the Itamar Yeshiva and is a part of Naftali Bennett´s new faction in the Jewish Home, explained that he is less naïve than he was during the 2005 "Disengagement" pullback from Gaza. "Since that sorry expulsion, the rules of the game have changed," he said.

"I have sobered up in the course of the last year," he said. "There is a battle of titans here inside our society, a struggle for the character of the country. Will the state of Israel be Jewish and democratic, or will it be ´a country of all its citizens.´ And on the other side we have all kinds of elites that are close to the media and are also inside the systems of the state and the State Attorney´s Office, for whom the end justifies all means."

Those who hold Israel´s character dear must come to Beit El, he said. "We have to go there and protest. Protest like we did in the distant past in Samaria. In all of the times we ascended to Elon Moreh, when there were attempts to evict, we lay down on the floor. The soldiers and police took us with their hands. That is passive resistance, but when many thousands are there, carrying out the eviction is a very difficult thing."

"We must not be naïve and sit on the sideline and let the convoy pass as the dogs bark," the rabbi added. "We need a harsh protest here, of course – without raising a hand on soldiers or cursing, but rather a tough passive protest by masses of Jews."

Rav Ronsky said that he is convinced that this is a war against the forces of evil. "Any thinking person who sees the coldness and meanness of the authorities, both legally and morally, understand that there is a wicked intention here, which cynically uses all means including lies."

Rav Ronsky said that his eyes were opened when he saw the representatives of the State Attorney´s Office lying. This happened, he said, when a parole committee was convened to decide whether Shlomi Dvir and Ofer Gamliel (of the "Bat Ayin underground" group) could go free after serving two thirds of their jail sentences.

"I saw with my own eyes how the representatives of the State Attorney´s Office lied," he recalled. "I gave an affidavit in which I said they were lying, and I was ignored. That is shocking and as far as I am concerned, that is when things changed. Government officials lie to advance their world view." (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 06/13/12)