Two Worlds
Dear Editor:
Think rich people have no problems? Think again! What wedding gift do you give the couple who is making a $600-million wedding and is having star-studded entertainment (Rihanna) and a three-day cruise, among other amenities?
I assume this isn’t a Takanah wedding, and a gift certificate from Walmart’s won’t suffice. Forget the registry! I usually end up buying the couple an ironing board because I can’t afford one silverware serving. I recall getting a silver vase from Tiffany’s, which had me all excited until I realized it was for one rose and the vase was so narrow that you couldn’t fill it with water.
This leads me to the topic of Two Worlds. Within a few miles of each other, I encountered the world of Walmart and that of the Five Towns. This is meant as no criticism of the latter. It was, though, my first trip to Walmart, and Sam Walton, I was impressed.
Following the demise of “Toys R Us,” this was a kid’s toy paradise. The prices were spectacular, too. What was most impressive was that as my friend and I (I bought nothing) exited the store, we were asked what improvements could be made to the store and shopping experience. Your trusty letter writer, of course, had some suggestions.
Then came the world of whiplash. A mile or so down the road from Walmart is Central Avenue, where they were holding the first day of a four-day sidewalk sale. There wasn’t one parking spot to be found. Needless to say, if I didn’t spend a penny at Walmart, I couldn’t spend a penny here. I am not criticizing this event; it’s just that the word “sale” has different meanings in different places.
I fervently hope that all you readers can shop wherever you want and enjoy yourselves!
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
I would be remiss if I didn’t compliment Caroline [Schumsky] on her very poignant, experienced views on life. I am dear friends with Caroline’s husband, and he forwards them to me each week.
I now share them regularly with more than a dozen women contacts who do not have the resources for private counseling. Each and every one told me that she has benefited immensely from the variety of subjects discussed. Kudos and accolades to the author.
Robert Baffa
Kamala Is Dangerous, Not Interesting
Dear Editor:
Warren Hecht describes a potential Kamala Harris Presidency as “interesting.” For anyone who cares about Israel’s security, a more accurate adjective would be “disastrous.” Hezbollah’s trigger finger has gotten a lot itchier the last few weeks, and the rocket attack last week that killed 12 children on a Golan Heights playground was appalling.
Part of the reason Hezbollah, which has far more firepower than Hamas, is getting friskier is due to the support they receive from US politicians such as Kamala Harris. Harris does not openly support Hezbollah and Hamas, but her disgusting and untrue comments blaming Israel for “too many” deaths in Gaza is exactly the type of rhetoric that emboldens Hezbollah to attack Israel. Hezbollah is always looking to exploit daylight between purported allies such as the US and Israel, and Harris is more than happy to provide it.
This past week, thousands Hamas supporters gathered around the Capitol in Washington, DC, where they chanted “Allahu Akbar,” burned the American flag, raised up the Palestinian flag, yelled anti-Semitic slogans, and defaced statues with graffiti that included threatening messages such as “Hamas is coming.” For a run-of-the-mill politician, it should have been pretty easy to condemn this riot.
For Kamala Harris, who compared the January 6 riot to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, this should have been a layup. Yet Harris remained silent on the riot for 24 hours before issuing her belated, tepid press release. “Interesting,” as Mr. Hecht might put it, but definitely not a good sign for Israel or American Jews.
Jonathan Goldgrab
LOL
Dear Editor:
Warren Hecht titled his column last week: “Timing.” A better title for it would have been “LOL.”
Mr. Hecht, who for months could not find anything askance with the ridiculous New York rulings on the preposterous E. Jean Carroll case and the “felony” case over a bookkeeping error that the statute of limitations had already tolled on, now questions whether there is something nefarious about the favorable court ruling Trump received in the classified documents case he had pending against him.
Mr. Hecht questions the timing of the ruling as it preceded the RNC. Off all the angles to pursue, one would have expected Mr. Hecht to refrain from taking issue with the timing of the judicial ruling here, considering he never mentioned anything regarding the intentional timing of the four nonsensical lawfare cases brought against Trump this year to coincide and interfere with his Presidential campaign. Most egregious of all was Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who sat on evidence in his case against Trump for three years (!) so he could time his indictment of Trump to be in in an election year.
The other big LOL provided by Mr. Hecht was his beef with the recently released from prison Peter Navarro speaking at the Republican National Convention on behalf of the so called “law and order” party. Mr. Hecht’s drive-by swipe of former Trump advisor Navarro is devoid of any context or explanation as to why Navarro was sent to prison. The casual reader might assume Navarro is a common criminal like Hunter Biden who has broken numerous tax, gun, and drug laws, and the law finally caught up with him. Except that’s not the case. Navarro was sent to prison for four months because he defied a Congressional subpoena and refused to reveal private conversations he had with President Trump.
If Mr. Hecht believes defying a Congressional subpoena is such a serious crime worthy of a prison sentence, perhaps his next column can explain how Attorney General Merrick Garland not only walks free but still has his job after being held in Contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with a Congressional subpoena to turn over audio tapes of President Biden’s rambling, incoherent testimony in his classified documents case.
Doniel Behar
“Defending Democracy”
Dear Editor:
Democrats think that if they say something enough times, they can will it into reality. “The border is secure,” Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas insists as more than ten million people have waltzed in under his watch. Our Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen told us “Inflation is transitory” in 2021 until it wasn’t, so the message morphed into “Inflation is down” while Americans are paying 20-30% more for everything.
Chuck Schumer, who proved he was no “Shomer Yisrael” a few months ago, showed us he’s also not a “Shomer Democracy” either, when he crowed about Kamala Harris’ desire to “win the nomination on her own and to do so from the grassroots up and not top down.”
The party that forced Joe Biden out, practically at gunpoint (sounds a little “insurrection” to me), and within two days installed a woman who has not earned a single primary vote, wants us to believe that this is Democracy at work. Warren Hecht and the rest of the Democratic Party apologists have for years painted Trump as a threat to Democracy, but this is what the Democratic Party is serving up as their “Defense of Democracy?!” Previous “Defenses of Democracy” including attempts at jailing, bankrupting, and assassinating Trump have all spectacularly failed.
This latest attempt by Democrats to force out the elected nominee, who received 14 million votes, and install a candidate no one voted for is just the latest shameful attempt by Democrats to gaslight the electorate that Democrats presume is made up of enough low-information dummies to buy this latest round of scheming, cover ups, and lies all in the name of “Defending Democracy.”
Avi Goldberg
Biden Was Only A Fair-Weather Friend Of Israel
Dear Editor:
In last week’s issue of the Queens Jewish Link, columnist Sergey Kadinsky looks back fondly at the relationship between Joe Biden and Israel. At the outset, it’s worth noting that Biden has no core principles; he has always stuck his finger in the wind to see which way the political winds are blowing and tried to position himself in the center of the Democratic Party. That’s the only way you can get the same person who supported Israel in the 1970s and ’80s slow-walking weapons to Israel in their 2023-24 war against a terror state.
Biden authored a crime bill that toughened sentences on violent criminals, yet now he espouses the woke police reform agenda. He believed for four decades that marriage was between a man and a woman, yet now he supports so-called “gay marriage.” The same man who for years bragged about growing up in Black churches and in synagogues turned Easter this year into “Trans Day of Visibility.” And that’s how the same man who was hawkish enough to support a border wall while he was a Senator has irreparably harmed this country by leaving the border open for three and a half years.
Kadinsky laments that we are unable to “pause and appreciate the totality of Biden’s career and relationship towards Israel and the Jewish community.” Kadinsky is apportioning way too much credit to a fair-weathered politician like Biden.
Even in his defense of Israel, it’s obvious Biden was giving himself a political way out. Biden said, “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and a Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they’ve been persecuted.” Had Biden said he was a Zionist because he believed the Jews have the Biblical right to occupy their own land, that would be praiseworthy. Instead, he said he believes in Zionism because Jews have historically been victimized. That’s how you end up with Biden publicly undermining Netanyahu, slow-walking aid to Israel, and pressuring Netanyahu not to finish off Hamas.
Remember, Biden’s support for Israel was predicated on Jewish victimhood. If Jews are prevailing in a war and are no longer the perceived victim and Biden receives pressure from his left-wing, pro-Hamas supporters, then he is no longer a Zionist. Not exactly the loyal friend of Israel, Kadinsky portrays Biden out to be.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
TheZone campers are back home! We wanted to extend a warm thank you to our wonderful staff members who went above and beyond this summer for their campers, and accompanied them on their return flight home.
We would also like to extend a very special thank you to the members of Queens Shemira and Chaverim of Queens and Great Neck. Their support and expertise were invaluable when our campers arrived at LaGuardia Airport. These dedicated individuals went above and beyond, coming down and assisting with so many aspects to ensure everything ran smoothly and safely. Thank you, Nesanel Schechter, Shabsie Saphirstein, and Yosef Noy -- and a very special shoutout to all of our Queens and other campers!
Mrs. Rifky Mandelbaum on behalf of Oorah’s TheZone Camp
What Netanyahu Should Say
Dear Editor:
Netanyahu is a brilliant statesman and an outstanding orator. His speech was excellent, but there were things I believe he should have said.
Firstly, it should be made clear that there is only one Jewish state, as compared to 57 Arab states.
Netanyahu spoke of Israel belonging to the Jews for 4,000 years since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why didn’t he say Jews were called Palestinians? Yasser Arafat took the name and claimed our land as theirs. Jews were evicted from the Arab countries. Two million Muslims are permitted to live in Israel.
When the Muslims controlled the Old City in Jerusalem, the Jews were not allowed to visit our holy sites. Even now, when the Jews permitted the Muslims to keep their El Aqsa Mosque, which was built on the site of the Jewish Temple Mount, the holiest place in the world for Jews, the Muslims do not allow the Jews to worship there.
People are suggesting Abbas should rule Gaza; but when he was in power, he never agreed to a peace plan, and there were constant attacks on Israel.
The Palestinians don’t want a two-state solution. They want one state: Palestine.
There is no two-state solution, because the Muslims want Jerusalem as their capital, despite the fact that their real capital should be Mecca; and in truth, they want, as they have outwardly said, the destruction of all Jews, as the Quran calls for, and of the democracies of Israel and of America.
At the time of the attack on October 7, Gaza had self-rule.
If Gaza achieves statehood, the residents will no longer be considered refugees. They would no longer be entitled to all the money from UNRWA and all the contributions they receive. Since they were ruling themselves until now, what would they gain by being a state? If they achieve statehood, they will no longer have to smuggle in weapons and build tunnels. They will have the right to build an airport and buy and import weapons. That is their plan.
As far as accepting a hostage deal: In 2009, in order to get back one hostage, we returned at least 1,005 prisoners. Included in these returnees was Sinwar, the architect of October 7.
It’s heartbreaking that the hostages are being held, but it is Hamas’ fault, not Bibi’s. If we make a deal without victory, it will just be a matter of time until we experience another October 7.
Ruki Renov
Dear Editor:
I reject the anti-Semitism contained in the weird and hateful comments from Donald Trump that he shamelessly repeated once again this week.
I am a Jew.
I am a Zionist.
I am sane.
And I will be proudly voting for Kamala Harris to be our next President. Because she is simply the most qualified candidate that will be on the ballot. As will 70% of Jews in the U.S.
I will enjoy the first installation of a mezuzah on the White House by Kamala and her proud Jewish husband Doug Emhoff, just as I kvelled when they put up the first mezuzah on the Naval Observatory (aka the VP residence) and lit the first menorah in their window.
But between now and Election Day, I hope that all Jews join me in condemning these remarks, regardless of affiliation and level of observance.
And if Trump wishes to question anybody’s sanity, it is incumbent upon him to submit to a full physical at Bethesda that includes a metabolic, cardiovascular, neurological, and yes, psychological evaluation that is made public before Americans have to decide whether they will elect the oldest major party nominee in history who is running with the youngest and least-experienced Vice-Presidential nominee ever.
But I doubt that Trump will share a full exam, because he never has. He’s even hiding the ER report from after the shooting. Just like he has never released his taxes, as he promised. Just like he promised infrastructure and a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.
Because he lies like other people breathe. Which is why he has never decided to testify in his many trials. As he promised. And lied.
David S. Pecoraro
Former Vice President
Rosedale Jewish Center
