Letters
No one was kowtowing to Erdogan
Shmuley Boteach is wrong in berating people for attending this meeting with Erdogan at the Peninsula in NYC during the General Assembly week (“When Jewish leaders cozy up to dictators,” October 11). How can Boteach be serious? No one kowtowed or pandered to Erdogan; we all recognized Erdogan for who he is. Questions and discussions addressed to him were pointed and even somewhat combative. I have had the privilege of attending several meetings with Erdogan and Hoenlein and it was very clear that if there was anyone, at all, from our community who could garner his respect and speak with him appropriately, it was Malcolm Hoenlein. Shunning Erdogan would be stupid, nonproductive and even seriously damaging.
Gerald Platt
Manhattan
(Mr. Platt is president of the American Friends of Likkud and a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations)
America’s Republican Rabbi cozies to Trump
Once again, “America’s Republican Rabbi” shows his unflagging support of Donald Trump. In his column, he criticizes Jewish leaders who “cozy up to dictators,” citing a meeting held weeks ago by Bnai Brith, AIPAC, ADL, et.al. with Turkey’s dictator Erdogan. (“When Jewish leaders cozy up to dictators,” October 11.) Curiously, the good rabbi makes no criticism of Donald Trump, who has never met a dictator he hasn’t cozied up to, including Erdogan, Russia’s dictator, Putin, or the dictators in North Korea, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, etc. Our Salesman in Chief promises to make a deal with all of them, but nothing happens. It’s all a show. And, lest we forget, the world has been waiting for three years for Trump’s proposed deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Does Rabbi Boteach ever criticize the President for any of his actions and meetings with dictators? Does he ever disagree with Trump? Apparently, he only condemns relatively moderate Jewish organizations for their actions. Can one expect any less from a rabbi who ran for Congress in New Jersey as a Republican and lost in a landslide (60-30)?
Jerry Fischer
Fort Lee
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