Rabbi Rontzki
Rabbi RontzkiYoni Kempinski

Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, a former Chief IDF Rabbi and currently the rabbi of Itamar in Samaria, accused the state's leaders of blindly following a path of fake peace, in a statement reflecting his exasperation following the murder of IDF soldier Eden Atias – the latest in a string of terror murders that took place after "peace talks" with the Palestinian Authority began.

"Another Jew has been murdered, and to be more precise, another Jewish soldier has been murdered by an Arab terrorist," Rabbi Rontzki wrote. "And we are silent and continue our lives as if nothing happened."

"The leaders speak of peace, as a strategy that has no alternative," he wrote on his Facebook page, "and they gallop forward like blind men in the preconceived notion they have built, as the journalists of 'the state of Tel Aviv' cheer them on, without noticing those who fall along the way, "victims of peace," who are like signs that are as clear as day, that we must see the intention of Arab enemy, who incites wildly on a daily basis; who calls us, the peace-seeking Jews, pigs and apes."

Rabbi Rontzki added a pointed question: "Our complaints about the blindness of the USA and its partners, who do not see clearly the intentions of Iran – are they not in fact directed to ourselves, who fail to see that the Arabs' will is to have the state of Israel annihilated, and that the whole current move to negotiate is part of the 'strategy of stages'...?"

The rabbi asked: "Is the release of murderers from their prison not the direct cause of these murders? A nation that releases the murderers of its women and children, loses its moral backbone, which is the rock of its existence."

"The obsession with 'realism,' as if that is all there is, without noticing the growing erosion of our national dignity, the insults we have to put up with in refraining from avenging Jewish blood that is spilled, is a strategic mistake and a basic misunderstanding of the essence of the norms by which the nation of Israel lives."

The Stages Plan that the rabbi refers to was adopted by the PLO in 1974. It calls for the gradual annihilation of Israel in stages, which include the establishment of a Palestinian Authority in part of Israel, from which the rest of the war is to be staged.