Council Member James F. Gennaro responds to Schumer’s Israel Remarks
Dear Editor:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer read straight from the Hamas playbook today (3/14) from the floor of the Senate, proclaiming that he sees Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “obstacle to peace” in the country’s war with Hamas, and said it was time for the country to hold new elections. How dare he? Further, he stated, “Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.” He also said, “Were Netanyahu to remain in power, it would jeopardize global support for Israel at a critical juncture,” and “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” and he said Israel needs to make “some serious course corrections,” blah, blah, blah. You get the idea…
Newsflash, Sen. Schumer: “Jeopardize global support for Israel?” What global support? Most countries are led by outright Israel-haters or those who fear the political consequences of standing up to their largely Hamas-brainwashed populace. Two attacks occurred on October 7: the attack on Israel AND the launch of the worldwide pro-Hamas propaganda apparatus. And, now – when the war is not going how you want it to go (wars rarely go how you want them to go, Mr. Majority Leader), rather than being the leader and the ally to Israel that Israel and the world needs, you stand on the floor of the Senate and say exactly what Hamas would want you to say, while also making perfunctory and meaningless denunciations of Hamas.
The objective of Israel’s real allies is to liberate the people of Israel and the people of Gaza and the people of the world from the death machine of Hamas once and for all. Hamas has prosecuted this war in such a way as to ensure maximum civilian casualties despite the IDF’s efforts at its own peril to minimize such casualties. Hamas has done all this deliberately to elicit the exact statement that you delivered today in the Senate. So, now, the most powerful Jewish leader in US history has betrayed Israel and played right into Hamas’ hands, to the delight of Hamas, because leaders around the world who were trying to hold back the tide of pro-Hamas sentiment in their countries will now have your statement thrown in their faces by their pro-Hamas zombie constituents. This is not being an ally to Israel; this is a betrayal. I stand with your Senate colleagues and Israel supporters and the foes of Hamas who have denounced your statement.
Council Member James F. Gennaro
Schumer Yisrael? I Think Not
Dear Editor:
I suspect that this week’s Queens Jewish Link will be filled with outrage directed at Chuck Schumer’s calling for the ouster of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. I don’t want to waste space on what low-life turncoat Schumer is, or what a despicable excuse for a “Shomer Yisrael” he claims to be. I just want to make one point.
There are approximately 134 hostages being held in Gaza. Every Israeli attempt at freeing them has been rebuffed by Hamas. At the same time, Hamas is being dismantled on the battlefield. How do we square these two facts? The answer is: Hamas knows it cannot win militarily against Israel. At this point, it’s all about leverage for them. If they can convince the dullards in the Democratic Party that the IDF is indiscriminately killing civilians or depriving Gazan civilians of food or that Netanyahu does not represent the Israeli people, that’s a win for them and increases the price on negotiating a return of the hostages.
Hamas watches very carefully what Biden, Schumer, and the rest of their supporters say and recalibrate their actions accordingly. Schumer’s words are emboldening Hamas and endangering the lives of the hostages currently held. But Schumer does not care about Israel or whether the hostages are endangered. The only thing Schumer cares about is doing the dirty work of the Democratic Party and maintaining power.
If sacrificing the lives of his fellow Jews being held hostage is the price of getting Biden re-elected, Schumer is more than willing to pay it. He is a coward, morally-bankrupt, and a disgrace to the Jewish people.
Avi Goldberg
Government/Media Collusion
Dear Editor:
Our government and media constantly feed us lies, only to reveal the truth when they feel it is politically safe to do so. A few examples:
We were not allowed to know that the Wuhan coronavirus came from a coronavirus lab in Wuhan until our overlords in government and media informed us of this many, many months after we all suspected this was the case. Before the 2020 election, our lying media and 51 dishonest, former intelligence officials colluded in covering up the Hunter Biden laptop scandal under the pretense that it was Russian disinformation. That is until three years later, long after everyone knew the truth that the contents were all real and intentionally suppressed by the government/media industrial complex to influence the outcome of the 2020 election. Only then was it deemed safe to admit the coverup.
When Joe Biden’s indiscriminate spending caused inflation to go through the roof shortly after he took office, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told us there was no need to worry because it was just “transitory.” Now, more than two years later, with Bidenflation a permanent fixture and everything costing 20-25 percent more than under President Trump, Yellen admits “transitory” might not have been the best choice of words. Ya think?
This week, despite the mountain of evidence that would point to Fani Willis likely being disbarred, brought up on ethics violations, and ultimately jailed for perjury, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that she can stay on as Prosecutor of President Trump in the Fulton County case. I suspect it might be a few years before the truth emerges that Judge McAfee was highly influenced by the sudden emergence of a left-wing primary challenger a week before his Willis ruling, in a contest he was previously running unopposed.
These are but a few examples, but at this point, only a rube would take information the government and its de facto state-run media espouses at face value. If the media and our government are lockstep on an issue, history has shown us that they are likely lying.
Doniel Behar
Fani Fallout
Dear Editor:
Scott McAfee, the judge in the Trump racketeering trial, issued a ruling this past week allowing District Attorney Fani Willis to remain in her post as prosecutor despite her prosecutorial misconduct, ethical lapses, and the clear conflict of interest she has in prosecuting this case. The judge allowed Willis to stay, on condition she jettisons Special Prosecutor/ex-boyfriend Nathan Wade. This ruling (like this entire case) is an absolute sham for a few reasons.
First and foremost, if a witness (in this instance, DA Willis) lies about a material fact, there’s no reason the judge should give her testimony any credibility. DA Willis lied about the timeline of her affair with Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade. That’s more than enough to impeach her credibility on all other issues such as her specious story of having six months of cash on hand, and paying Wade back in cash.
The second flaw in this ruling is the issue of burden shifting. Once Willis made her dubious claim of cash repayments to Wade for the kickbacks she was receiving in the form of vacations with Wade around the world, the burden shifted to her to prove her claim. She failed to meet this burden with her inability to produce any bank withdrawals, contemporaneous photos, a ledger, or anything to substantiate her ludicrous claim. The judge’s disjointed opinion makes little sense, as both Wade and Willis were caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Dismissing one without the other is illogical.
Legal analyst Jonathan Turley stated that this ruling is analogous to finding two bank robbers inside a bank vault, arresting one and letting the other one go on condition that they promise to stop robbing banks. Some have called the judge’s ruling a King Solomon-esque “split the baby” decision, but having read the decision myself, I suspect that if given the opportunity, an appellate court will not find much wisdom in it, when they easily overturn this travesty of a decision.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
Moshe Hill is back with another in a series of columns that can be summarized as “Biden is more corrupt, crazier, and extreme than Trump – if you ignore everything Trump has ever said and done.” Prime examples in his latest column include NATO (where he simply ignores much of what Trump has said on the topic, to say nothing of the fact that Trump doesn’t seem to understand how NATO spending works) and Russia. He says to “[c]ompare Biden’s rhetoric and record regarding Putin to Trump’s” and then proceeds to not even mention Trump’s rhetoric and record on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine! Biden has led the international effort to give vital support to Ukraine, which has helped it defy expectations to push Russia back, while Trump has commandeered the Republican strategy to cut off much needed aid and by all accounts is planning to just let Putin take what he wants. But Putin has said he prefers Biden, and he never lies, so that’s all that matters to Mr. Hill.
The theme continues with Mr. Hill’s thoughts on Biden’s comments about democracy and how he feels this is sowing division. Sure, if you’ve never heard Trump talk, Biden would come off as the extreme one in the race. But to take a recent example, Trump just said, “If we don’t win this election, I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country,” and we all know what he has said about the previous election as well as those who oppose him. But Biden reacting to that is what Mr. Hill characterizes as extreme. I guess that’s not surprising for someone who minimizes January 6 as a self-contained event limited to a few hours, and ignores the months of lead-up and the fact that by all accounts it will inform a big part of Trump’s potential second term. Just look up “Project 2025.” It’s pretty crazy!
While Trump was somewhat constrained by having his administration mostly staffed by conventional Republicans, they have almost all declined to endorse him, with many warnings of the dangers of him returning to office. Instead, a second term seems sure to be staffed by MAGA hardliners who would fan his worst impulses, rather than trying to reign him in.
Mr. Hill also writes about how much “America and the world prospered” under Trump. That follows a Republican talking point about how much better off everyone was four years ago. It’s like the pandemic never happened! Of course that wasn’t caused by Trump, but we’ve seen how Trump handles a crisis, and it wasn’t pretty. Four years ago, Trump was going through a stretch of downplaying the virus while keeping up his usual flow of misinformation. He seemed a lot less concerned with preparing America for what was to come, after we should have had a head start after seeing what was going on in China and Italy, and more so with making sure the Covid cases on a cruise ship wouldn’t be counted against his record.
Operation Warp Speed is basically the one thing Trump handled well during his last year in office, and that’s now considered a negative with conservatives. And Mr. Hill talks about the unrest in the summer of 2020. Does he know who was president then? I know what the counter-argument is, but when you want to claim that Biden is responsible for everything that happens around the globe, as well as the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic, then you shouldn’t be able to pretend that Trump’s term ended in February 2020 and that he is the one president not responsible for things that happen on his watch. But hey, I’m sure there won’t be any crises for Trump to deal with during a second term.
As for Mr. Hill’s usual context-free attacks on Biden for inflation, what is Trump’s plan? When asked about an analysis that found that his proposed tariffs would further increase prices, Trump said that “taxes can be cut…to more than adjust that.” But tax cuts are themselves inflationary, so how would that work? If he means that savings from the tax cuts (which with Republicans always overwhelmingly go to the rich with false promises of trickling down) will offset price increases caused by the tariffs, that’s bad news for Mr. Hill and the crowd that believes that the cost of goods is the only economic number that matters.
I look forward to the next edition in this series. Maybe it will claim that Biden is really the one with bizarre hair.
Yaakov Ribner
Old-Fashioned
Dear Editor:
Old-fashioned? Is that what you are going to call me? You are probably right. Anyone who walks into my kitchen is shocked to see a land-line telephone. What? Do you have a rotary dial, too? Do you send smoke signals? As a matter of fact, when I’m asked to provide my telephone number, nine out of ten times, I’ll give my land line number since I can’t remember my cell-phone number.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to contact my friend while we were shopping separately at Aron’s. However, I couldn’t connect with her nor with any of my other contacts. I tried turning my phone on and off, but to no avail. I had heard something about 75 percent of AT&T customers not being able to make calls, but I assumed I was part of the 25 percent who could make calls. Naturally, I panicked and attempted to call 1-800 AT&T (no such number). Then I ran over to my trusty computer guy on Main Street who told me there was nothing he could do. Alas, that’s when I calmed down and decided to use my land line in case, G-d forbid, I needed Hatzalah. My lesson learned was the old phone comes in handy sometimes.
My old-fashioned behavior extends to my not knowing what TikTok is, but that has turned into a blessing. However, before you think I’m incorrigible, since I still use a blech instead of a warming drawer (which my old-fashioned oven doesn’t have), I use a LeChef urn instead of a “chynik.” Excuse my Yiddish spelling. The other good news is: I refuse to wear a plastic bonnet in the rain, so I guess I’ve entered the 21st century.
Debbie Horowitz
Laziness
Dear Editor:
I sat down last Wednesday night around 9:00 to write a d’var Torah. As I was beginning, I was informed that Chazaq was in the last two hours of their Charidy campaign. I love everything that Chazaq does and wanted to donate; however, I was very behind schedule and really wanted to get writing. In addition, it looked like the campaign was going well and that they would make their goal anyway, so if I didn’t give this time, it wouldn’t be the biggest deal in the world. I decided to go back to the scheduled plan of writing. I opened the Chidushei Halev, one of the s’farim I use, and I saw the following d’var Torah – and boy did it shake me up.
In last week’s parshah, Rashi tells us that the N’siim were punished for being lazy in how they dedicated funding to the building of the Mishkan. When the collections began, they convinced themselves that it would be better to give at the end so that they could supply whatever the other members of klal Yisrael couldn’t provide. Hashem sniffed out their bad intentions and held them responsible for their behavior and their name was spelled in the Torah without a “yud.” The Chidushei Halev highlights the deception of the yeitzer ha’ra and how even such great people were susceptible to laziness, even though the cause was so “once in a lifetime.”
As you could imagine, as soon as I finished reading the d’var Torah, I dropped what I was doing and quickly got in touch with Chazaq and made my donation. My cover was blown, and I got Hashem’s hint.
Rabbi Mordy Anton
Youth Director
Young Israel of Queens Valley
(as appeared in the YIQV’s weekly Parshah Corner publication)
Democrats – A Lost Cause
Dear Editor:
Senator Chuck Schumer outrageously accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of losing his way, but it is President Biden – obsessively concerned about the left-wing and Muslim vote – who “has lost his way.” President Biden is the leader of the free world. From day one, October 7, when he condemned the atrocities, he should have continued this condemnation. The stance should be: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists. We don’t bargain for lives. Return the hostages, or we will come after you.” Hamas knew the consequences of their atrocious attack and correctly anticipated and counted on the liberal mindset that has invaded the world to defend them. Hamas, not Israel, put the people of Gaza in the horrible position they are in.
President Biden repeatedly says to the families of the hostages, “I lost a son. I know how you feel.” President Biden indeed lost a child, but even he cannot possibly relate to or comprehend the pain of the parents of the victims of October 7. Does Biden know how it feels to see your child raped, molested, burned alive, to watch your baby being cooked, or watch your parents being shot? Can Biden – or any of us for that matter – fathom the depth of the immeasurable pain, worry, and fear the families of the hostages are experiencing? They are living a nightmare. They are the living dead – continually worried, tormented, and broken, tirelessly praying and fighting for the return of their loved ones. They know that the hostages were taken by the cruelest, most sadistic, unfeeling monsters. G-d only knows what the hostages are living through – if they are living!
President Biden should be unequivocally calling out this evil and harshly condemning Hamas and those who diminish, defend, and even deny Hamas’ atrocities and culpability. Instead, his and his Party’s drive to win the election has blinded them to the truth. He should be telling the world that our priority is to destroy Hamas and eradicate a radical Muslim evil that starts in Iran and infects the entire world. Rather than emphasizing the suffering Israel is going through and the rampant anti-Semitism that has sickeningly revealed itself, rather than speaking of how Israel left Gaza years ago and gave the Palestinians self-rule and the opportunity to build an area that deserved statehood, rather than speaking of how the Gazans chose Hamas, a known terrorist organization to lead them, rather than speaking of how the Quran calls for the destruction of the Jewish people so that Hamas’ goal is not to live in peace with Israel but to destroy the Jews, and that they are not looking for a two-state solution, which they have had numerous opportunities to have, they want one state, “from the river to the sea.” Rather than telling Hamas to surrender and sanction Iran, President Biden has turned the focus to the poor, innocent Palestinians (84 percent of whom still support Hamas), and Vice President Kamala Harris is leading the fight against Islamophobia.
Genocide is taking place daily all over the world – mostly by Muslims. No one cares! People are starving all over the world. No one cares! Yet, Biden, Blinken, and sadly, Senator Schumer, for their political gain, are busy condemning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has the backing of the majority of Israelis. Rather than speaking of how America can help its greatest ally in the Middle East, the only democratic country in the Middle East, the only state that the Jews have (which is open to every nationality), Biden is busy finding ways to protect and feed the Palestinians “by the land, the sea, and the air,” with not a word about the hundreds of thousands of families in Israel who are displaced, whose livelihoods have been destroyed, who live with constant terror attacks on the streets, who each knows someone who was mutilated, killed, or kidnapped on October 7, and whose precious sons and daughters are fighting and dying for the survival of their country. He is not speaking of the Israelis, whose only goal is to eradicate those who vow to destroy them, and to be allowed to live in peace with their neighbors.
President Biden has the power to set the right tone and deliver the right message to the world. Sadly, he is choosing not to. Senator Schumer outrageously called for new elections in Israel to oust Netanyahu. Thank G-d we will have elections in the US and hopefully oust the warped, misguided, Democratic leadership.
Ruki Renov
Dear Editor:
In Moshe Hill’s piece last week, “2024 Big Secret; Trump is the Normal One,” Hill falls flat. In his attempt to normalize Trump, Hill conveniently neglects to mention Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election and thereby dismiss democracy along with the multitude of other dangerous words uttered and actions taken by this unhinged man.
Trump’s admiration and support form Putin should be of great concern to voters. Let’s not forget that he suggested that Putin “do whatever…he wants” to countries who don’t pay their share to NATO. I cringed when Hill actually took Putin at his word that he prefers Biden to win the presidency! How naive could Hill possibly be? Hill further dismisses January 6 by incredulously stating, “after a few hours everything was back and Pence certified the vote.” That is after many deranged Trump supporters breached the Capitol, occupied offices of several members of Congress, and threatened to hang VP Pence for not stealing the presidency from Biden. Ever-loyal VP Pence’s life was in real danger from these dangerous cult members.
Finally, Hill sniffs that Biden is not an ideologue. Nobody can be further from an ideologue than Trump, who doesn’t give a whit about policy about which he knows little. He is a narcissist who only craves attention and praise, and cruelly insults his competitors and anyone who disagree with him.
Trump is polling neck-and-neck in a general election against Biden (or slightly ahead, depending on the day). However, Nikki Haley polled many points higher in polling before she exited the race. In a recent WSJ poll, she beats Biden by 16 points! I don’t know what my fellow Republicans were thinking by nominating Trump. What I do know is that I won’t even have an opportunity to vote against Trump in the upcoming Republican primary that had been scheduled for April 2.
In case you’re wondering, I won’t vote for Biden either. It saddens me greatly with all the serious problems we are facing, very much including the situation in Israel, there is not an acceptable presidential candidate to vote for. Very frustrating situation for us normie Republicans.
Arlene Ross
Forest Hills
Dear Editor:
Mr. Hecht seems incapable of explicitly calling out his beloved Democratic Party, so I will help him out a little. According to his definitions last week, the following Democrats are Haman: George Soros, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Steve Cohen, Jamie Raskin, Jerrold Nadler, and Cori Bush.
The following Democrats are Achashveirosh: President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Adam Schiff, and now, out of the closet anti-Semite, Senator Chuck Schumer. His Senate floor speech last week was abhorrent. The speech was clearly coordinated with the White House. I do not want to hear another Democrat complain about interference in elections ever again after that speech! Obama interfered in the 2015 Israeli elections, attempting to get rid of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it’s abundantly clear that he is pulling the strings today and trying to finish what he started back then.
Last week, President Biden revealed his $7.5 trillion budget. What this demonstrates is that he is an economic illiterate. We are already at sky-high inflation. What does he think spending $3 trillion more than last year is going to do? His “Bidenomics” is already hurting every working person in this country. Real inflation is up 18 percent. The government removes food and energy costs from their inflation numbers, so the inflation percentage does not make this administration look worse than it really is. We are overburdened with expenses and our wages are not keeping up. Don’t listen to the propaganda coming from the lying Press Secretary. Now, they want to saddle our kids and grandkids with debt that they will never be able to climb out of. With open borders killing our low skilled job opportunities and a guarantee of higher taxes and higher costs, who wants four more years of this guy?
Shalom Markowitz
