Monday, January 11, 2010

Congressman Rothman: Support Englewood and Oppose the Libyan Mission


Congressman Steve Rothman was one of the most courageous voices in opposing Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi from staying in Englewood. Since then, however, he seems to be making the curious decision of identifying me, a constituent, Rabbi, and father of nine, as a bigger threat than my next-door neighbor, the Libyan Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdel Rahman Shalgam.

First, after I objected to my Congressman’s statement encouraging the citizens of Englewood to be “appropriately good neighbors” to the man who served as Kaddafi’s foreign minister for nine years, Rothman wrote a three page press release attacking me and defending the status quo of the representative of a terror-sponsoring government living tax-free in the midst of thirty thousand hard-working New Jersey citizens who can barely afford their own property taxes amid a brutal recession.
 
After I published a rebuttal, I called Rothman and invited him on to my radio show on WABC 770AM in New York City. Politely explaining that the short notice made it impossible, my Congressman reiterated how the law protects the Ambassador’s right to live next-door to me, based on an understanding Rothman had brokered between the Libyans and the State Department in 1982. No one has seen this agreement. I told the Congressman that as more concerned Englewood citizens joined the campaign to pressure the Libyan mission out of our city, he risked being out of step with his own constituents and damaging his leadership.

I was puzzled by his next comment, where he said that negative information about me had been brought to his attention and that I ought to be careful and know that I was not as popular as I think. OK. But life is not a popularity contest and let’s put aside New Jersey’s notoriously bare-knuckle politics. As an orthodox Jew I have always attempted to train myself to fear none but G-d alone. Being intimidated by the Libyans or allies of the Congressman is just not my style, although it was helpful to know whence such attacks might stem.


Rothman can emerge as a hero if he fought the Libyan mission as courageously as he did Kaddafi himself. Why indeed, after boldly labeling Kaddafi a madman with American blood on his hands, would he allow sovereign Libyan territory to flourish in his district?


In August, 2009 while opening the African Union summit in Tripoli in celebration of his 40th anniversary as the dictator of Libya, Kaddafi said that Israel is responsible for all the conflicts in Africa. He demanded that “all of its embassies on the continent be shut down.” Just as he had issued a blood libel against Israel and trivialized the holocaust by accusing Israel, through his UN mission, of turning Gaza into a concentration camp, Kaddafi extended the blood libel by accusing Israel of “fuelling the crises in Darfur, Southern Sudan and Chad in order to exploit the riches held by those areas. Which is why we call on Israel’s ambassadors to leave Africa.” So now Israel is responsible for the genocide not just of the Palestinians but the Sudanese as well.


We American Jews are not asked to join the Israeli army and defend the Jewish state against constant attack. We are mostly cheerleaders of the courageous Israeli nation from the sidelines. But surely at the very least we can demonstrate our devotion to Israel’s existential struggle by showing Kaddafi, and other brutal Arab dictators, that their murderous diatribes against Israel’s peaceful embassies will be met with equal opposition to their own palatial diplomatic missions in heavily-populated Jewish communities like Englewood. To retreat from even this battle is to show cowardice and a lack of solidarity with Israel’s brave citizens in confronting Arab tyrants who demand their destruction.


And saying that the law provides for the Libyans to reside in our community is no excuse. We were told the same thing by the officials of Englewood when Kaddafi’s palace was being readied to accommodate the tyrant. But we found numerous construction violations that were used to win a court order stopping work on the Libyan mission and making it impossible for Kaddafi to inhabit a structure that was still a wreck.

On New Year’s Eve, Hannibal Kaddafi paid Beyonce $2 million to perform at a party at St. Barts. Over Christmas he stayed at a £4,000-a-night suite at Claridge’s Hotel in London where, at about 1:30am, members of his security staff were arrested for obstructing police officers. The police had responded to screams they had reportedly heard from Kaddafi’s wife, 29-year-old model Aline Skaf, who was taken to hospital with facial injuries and a suspected broken nose.
 Why wasn’t Kaddafi’s son arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife? Because he called the Libyan ambassador in the UK, who informed the police that he had diplomatic immunity. Kaddafi’s security were later “de-arrested” after Ms. Skaf told the police that her injuries had come from a fall rather than from her husband.


These are the kinds of people we in Englewood are now being asked to treat as ‘good neighbors’ even as the Ambassador and his security personnel enjoy the same diplomatic immunity. While struggling to keep our own jobs should we accept that the Libyans, who can blow millions on their entertainment, not contribute a single penny toward their police protection in Englewood or basic services like garbage removal?



Every American, in the post 9/11 world has an obligation to confront terrorism by every legal means necessary. The brave passengers of flight 253 who confronted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab understood that is it not merely the TSA who are responsible to avert an airline bombing.


And what does it say to our brave men and women in the military, fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, when they see the representatives of terror-sponsoring states living regally in American suburbs? If Shalgham has to represent his government at the UN – and it would be best if the entire UN, which has become a bully pulpit for rogue dictators, were moved outside the US – then let him at least be confined in close proximity to the UN.

A month ago I visited Zimbabwe and was inspired by my meeting with deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara who told me, after I asked him if he feared Mugabe’s henchmen, that he is ‘unintimidatable.’ When it comes to confronting tyranny we must all learn to overcome fear and pursue justice.



Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder of This World: The Values Network, is the international best-selling author of 22 books, most recently ‘The Kosher Sutra’ and ‘The Blessing of Enough.’ Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.