Rabbi Avi Grossman writes (regarding Rabbi Schachter’s opposition to Jews ascending the Temple Mount):
“But why does the Rabbanut prohibit?”
That is what Rabbi Hershel Schachter should have asked next.
And the answer is that the Rabbanut prohibits because of a combination of politic considerations (i.e. non halachic considerations) and a misguided sense of piety brought about by the exilic mindset: we are not allowed to do anything we haven’t done of late, and that’s the way God wants it.Both approaches are invalid.