Rabbi Eliezer Melamed of the Har Bracha Yeshiva said Tuesday morning, "It appears that there is no good senior commander who never refused an order." adding that refusal of orders in battle was not to be compared to a refusal in the kitchen, and refusal of action against an enemy was not to be compared with uprooting Jews.
Speaking on a panel about Torah and military orders at the eighth annual Jerusalem Conference on public policy issues, Rabbi Melamed said consideration that refusal of an order could be be a matter of national life or death is a consideration that should be used only in rare instances. The Har Bracha yeshiva was removed from the Hesder program after the rabbi refused to back down from insisting that soldiers refuse orders to uproot Jews from communities in Judea and Samaria.