Rabbi Hershel Schachter Runs Away?

It seems so.

The New York Jewish Week has done some followup on the Rabbi Hershel Schachter "shoot the prime minister" controversy.

What's new? This…

1. Rabbi Schachter cut his visit to Israel short, returning home before the weekend. Some believe one reason was to avoid arrest, since his remarks may have violated a law in Israel that makes calls for violence against the leaders of the government a criminal offense.

2. Several prominent Orthodox rabbinical leaders this week chose not to speak for the record of their deep disappointment over Rabbi Schachter’s remarks, which one said seemed to delegitimize the Israeli government.

3. In 1995, Rabbi Schachter accused the Rabin government of committing “national suicide,” and of hating God and the Torah.

4. Rabbi Herring said this week that “the RCA, as all Jews who abide by Torah law, rejects the suggestion, even in jest, of committing harm to the prime minister of Israel.” But he also noted that “as far as the RCA is concerned, nothing has changed” regarding Rabbi Schachter’s status.

5. That’s the problem, according to Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, who said that after the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, “we’ve passed the point of no return,” noting that “we’ve seen people invoke Torah to justify murder. It’s not a theoretical issue anymore.”

He recalled being an 18-year-old devotee of Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a fiery right-wing rabbi in Hebron and empathized with yeshiva students who love and defend their rabbi. But he said that Rabbi Schachter’s apology “was no apology — he can’t just say he didn’t mean it.”

Rabbi Hirschfield called on Rabbi Schachter’s followers to invoke the ethic of rebuke, out of love. Otherwise, he warned, “when personal allegiance trumps ethical awareness, your rebbe becomes your idol.”

Those are all quotes from the Jewish Week piece. There's more, including sevarl quotes from Rabbi Saul Berman of Stern College for Women (YU's women's school) and Yeshivat Chovvivei Torah (YU's MO competition) in the full article.