Rabbi Melamed gets a hero's welcome at Bat Yam synagogue

Ha'aretz
Only the alertness of the ushers stopped the crowd of hundreds in a Bat Yam synagogue yesterday from carrying Rabbi Eliezer Melamed on their shoulders and from kissing and embracing him, as they welcomed the new hero of the nationalist-ultra-Orthodox camp with thunderous chanting.

......"The accusations levied by the defense minister at our yeshiva boys and at me personally are blood libels. They may promote him politically but they are destroying the Israel Defense Forces."

...I was asked by reserve soldiers whether they should go to war. I wrote then in my column it was a mitzvah to go to war, because even when the leaders of the army are problematic and there are failures and mistakes in their commands, it still a mitzvah to serve in the military...

.....At Har Bracha, one of the yeshiva's graduates, Yoni Hayisraeli, told Haaretz, that Melamed's popularity - his column is reportedly read by 270,000 people every week - is the true reason for the strife. Full story