![Rabbi Elyakim Levanon](https://a7.org/files/pictures/781x439/250177.jpg)
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, the rabbi of Samaria (Shomron) communities and head of the Elon Moreh yeshiva, took part in a rally Tuesday at the Tapuach Junction, where earlier in the day a young father was murdered by a Palestinian Authority resident terrorist.
The government must institute a national “price tag,” he said. “Defense is in the government’s hands, not the citizens’ hands.”
“I hear there’s a new trend to deal with the ‘price tag’ issue,” he said. “That’s our problem? Price tag?”
“If the government would take real ‘price tag’ steps, like it should do, and knows how to do, citizens wouldn’t have to do ‘price tag.’ I’m against ‘price tag,’ I’m not afraid to say so, but ‘price tag’ is a direct result of the fact that there is no government ‘price tag,’” he argued.
“Price tag” is the term used for vandalism or assaults in which Israelis allegedly target Arab property or IDF soldiers in response to terrorism or the demolition of Jewish outposts. Although the police have arrested suspects several times with much publicity, they have all been freed for lack of evidence, so that there have been speculations that some of the incidents were planted by Arabs and others by provocateurs.
Rabbi Levanon called on the government to take action. “We brought this government to power to change the situation in Judea and Samaria,” he said. “We must extend Israeli sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria. To build and not to destroy.”
“The main issue today is not the Supreme Court appeals regarding Givat Assaf and Amona,” he continued. “That isn’t the main issue. Get that out of the headlines, get the courts and the Supreme Court out of the headlines.”
“The issue today is the terrorism on the highways,” he declared. “Thirty-something years there have been terrorist attacks on the highways.”
“True, everyone is proud that for a year and a bit there was no murder, it’s really wonderful that there was no murder for a year and four months,” he said. “But when there are 'forty years of quiet' (an expression from the Book of Judges, ed.), then we’ll know we’ve reached our goal.”