Israel Matzav

Englewood, New Jersey v. Gadhafi and the US State Department

Writing in the New York Post, former Israel Radio New York correspondent Benny Avni sizes up the chances of the City of Englewood, New Jersey keeping Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi from (literally) pitching his tent in the town.

Standing in the other corner is Englewood's mayor, Michael Wildes. He estimates that the visit of the dictator and a terrorist could cost the town $20,000 a day -- and asks, "Why should I pay while he entertains his guests in my city?"

Can he prevent the visit? He says Khadafy has failed to file required town paperwork and violated several town building codes, and should get at least rhetorical support from politicians statewide.

Of course, New Yorkers know all too well that the State Department sides with the "ex"-terrorists in such cases. Indeed, State called it "an embarrassing breach of international diplomacy" back in 1995, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani kicked Yasser Arafat out of a Lincoln Center concert that the city was co-hosting.

Once again, a mayor is more far-sighted than the striped-pants set. "I don't want to have to pay to move Khadafy's garbage," Wildes told me.

State may have been upset about it, but the bottom line is that Giuliani pulled it off and won kudos from his constituency - New York voters - for throwing Arafat out of Lincoln Center. In addition to all the Pan Am 103 families that live in the New York area, many of you may not realize that Englewood is - surprise - heavily Jewish (yes, 10% is a lot of Jews in the US).

Michelle Malkin has more details on how Gadhafi can be barred from coming to the US at all, an issue I raised here on Thursday.

Why allow him to set foot on U.S. soil at all? Entry into this country is a privilege, not a right. Yes, America is party to an agreement with the United Nations to issue visas to foreign leaders participating in U.N. General Assembly meetings. But those visas are not absolute entitlements.

Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State George Schulz denied entry to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in 1988 over his jihadi ties. Schulz drew the line despite global outrage from Arafat’s enablers. And Heritage Foundation analyst Nile Gardiner points out that under Article IV of the 1947 agreement, approved by the UN General Assembly, “the United States retains full control and authority over the entry of persons or property into the territory of the United States and the conditions under which persons may remain or reside there.”

Englewood also has an ongoing issue with tents.

The second problem concerns East Hill Synagogue. It puts up tents for bar mitzvahs. Some people in Englewood don't like that, either.

"I was hoping the community had put this behind it," Mayor Michael Wildes says of the bar-mitzvah-tent battle -- "until the head of a nation decided to pitch his own tent in Englewood."

...

"Our tent-enforcement rules are laborious and tedious," says the mayor, Mr. Wildes. "When you're putting up a Bedouin-style tent for a period of weeks, there's enough to warrant a more aggressive approach."

Tents, of course, have special meaning for people with deep roots in the desert. For Col. Gadhafi, they seem to represent a nomadic heritage applied to jet travel and diplomacy. Religious Jews, for their part, get married under a kind of tent and celebrate the harvest in another kind of tent.

Over the years, Englewood's Orthodox Jewish community has grown. It now numbers about 700 families. One of the newcomers was Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whose Web site identifies him as "America's Rabbi," and who has gained fame for his book, "Kosher Sex." Rabbi Boteach's much more modest house is next door to Libya's.

The first thing I would do if I were Englewood is to tell the State Department that if they want to let Gadhafi stay there, they can pay for it.

The second thing I would do is to set up a vigil of Pan Am 103 victims.

The third thing I would do is arrange to have very loud Jewish music directed at Gadhafi's tent during the night. I wonder if Rabbi Boteach would be willing to host a massive Jewish music concert in his backyard while Gadhafi is staying there.

And the fourth thing I would do is to tell the synagogue no Bar Mitzvas in tents while the nomad is in town.

But perhaps the last word on the issue should be left to Cape May, New Jersey resident Susan Cohen, whose 20-year old daughter was murdered over Lockerbie, Scotland, by one of Gadhafi's underlings.

“This is what happens when you have the path of appeasement,” she told the press this week.

It is a path paved with blood, tears, lies, and craven obeisance to “world opinion” at the expense of American innocents.

Indeed. And the time has come for the American people to stand up and put a stop to it. In Englewood, in New York City and everyplace else.

UPDATE SATURDAY 9:39 PM

Welcome Atlas Shrugs readers.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:31 PM