BenK,
The way I see it, rightly or wrongly, is that these so called ‘kano’im’ will not listen to anyone. If you are familiar with the baryonim of the gemora gittin that is learned on tisha b’av, these people are similar.
At the time of the 2nd churban, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai said that the baryonim wouldn’t let him out of Yerushalayim to make peace with the Romans. This was the godol hador of that time. Those people according to some opinions were ‘frum’ jews who took the law into their hands and had no rabbonim of note with them.
These hooligans, think they are doing the biggest mitzva in the world. They listen to nobody and will not bear the thought of anyone opposing them. They threw stones at Rav Elyashiv zt”l, they continue to disgrace Rav Steinman Shlit”a, and even the Eida’s own Rav Moishe Sternbuch shlit”a. Similar to the ‘Neturei Karta’ (the modern day NK, not the organisation of yesteryear with the same name), they have no gedolim or any recognised Torah authority on their side, yet claim that they speak for Torah jewry.
If the rabbonim oppose them publicly, it will just rub them up the wrong the way, and then they’ll never get anywhere. They would just call them apikorsim who support the zionists.
I’m open to discussion…