The Royce-Engel letter, among other things, stated the need for Congressional review of the pending nuclear deal with Iran. It played an important role in laying the groundwork for passage of the Iran Nuclear Review Act of 2015, which was signed into law on May 22. The act, while not perfect, provides Congress with one line of defense against a “bad deal” with Iran.
You are correct in holding members of Congress accountable for boycotting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress. However, credit should be given when a representative takes a stand on a substantive matter such as the Royce-Engel letter in an effort to protect America, Israel and, indeed, the entire world from a nuclear-armed Iran.
Mark I. Fishman
President
PRIMER-Connecticut
(Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting)
Fairfield, CT
FIFA’s Poetic Justice
The Palestinians finally rescinded their request to have Israel suspended from FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). This came after weeks of shameless and brazen attacks on Israeli soccer teams and the people of Israel directed and organized by the PLO and its Central and South American cohorts, aided and abetted by the European Union members who have joined the chorus for censoring Israel at every conceivable forum and venue.
Locally, a pair of self-proclaimed and clearly misguided human rights activists disrupted and terrorized a luncheon of woman who had gathered in support of Israel at a local temple. One of them even had the temerity to claim in a letter to a newspaper that he had a right, nay, an obligation, to call Israel out for its policies and mistreatment [sic] of minorities within its jurisdiction. Clearly this young man, who claimed to be of Jewish heritage, had been brainwashed all too well by the anti-Semitic agenda camouflaged as merely “anti-Zionist” so in vogue on college campuses throughout America.
At the same time that FIFA was considering the expulsion of Israel from its ranks, a number of its officials were indicted in connection with an investigation by the FBI and the IRS into wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. And so an organization that had taken up the hatchet to strike Israel and even remove it from the community of soccer-playing nations has been publicly humiliated and roundly sanctioned by both the U.S. and the international community for being immoral, unfair, and dishonest.
Rule number one in soccer is that any part of the body may be utilized in playing the game except for the hands. Now FIFA officials have been caught red-handed and have been flashed the referee’s “red card” for not bothering to keep their hands clean in promoting this beloved sport.
One has to believe there is a God in Heaven watching over Israel and the Jewish people the world over.
Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht
Norwalk, CT