'Not in My Back Yard'
Rabbi Shmuely Boteach, a well-known author and television show host, discovered last week that he is going to have a new neighbor next door to his Englewood, New Jersey home in September: Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi. Rabbi Boteach says he woke up one morning two months ago and noticed a disturbing sight on the grounds of his home. Eight large trees and a metal fence, which separated his property from his neighbor’s, were gone. The trees had been chopped down overnight, and the fence had been removed.But while Rabbi Boteach, understandably, does not want Kaddafi as his neighbor for any period of time, there's a bigger issue that's being ignored: Why is the US government allowing someone who is behind the murder of 270 people - most of them Americans - into the United States? And if the reason is because the US has agreed to allow anyone into the country on United Nations business as part of its agreement to host the United Nations, why is Kaddafi being allowed to go anywhere other than the airport and the United Nations? Is he going to be allowed to wander around New York City and speak wherever he pleases as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did last year and two years ago? Will Columbia invite him to speak? Why does Kaddafi's tent have to be accommodated? Why can't he stay in the Waldorf Astoria - three blocks from the UN - like every other unctuous dictator who shows up at the United Nations? Why does he have to be treated as a welcome guest? Could this be part of the President's denial of American exceptionalism?
The perpetrators, claims Rabbi Boteach, were his neighbors, representatives of the Libyan government. The damage to his property and concurrent renovations on the neighboring home, a residence of the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations that had been in disrepair since the rabbi and his family moved to New Jersey a decade ago, led him to guess — correctly — why uncared-for property was suddenly being cared for: Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafi was coming.
Libya subsequently announced that Kaddafi, who has ruled the Arab nation in northern Africa since a military coup 40 years ago, would attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 15, and would live in a tent on the Englewood property during his U.S. sojourn.
Find somewhere else to stay, the rabbi said.
Rabbi Boteach announced at a press conference at his house this week that he is suing the Libyan government for damaging his property, and he wants an accounting of the high-tech surveillance apparatus that will likely be installed in the Libyan house as part of security measures before Kaddafi’s arrival.
Rabbi Boteach will sponsor a protest rally at his house, with the participation of local government officials, on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Rabbi Boteach and my friends in Englewood (I have several - probably more than I know) are right to be outraged. But there are also bigger issues here.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:02 AM
6 Comments:
carl,
you have a very, very short memory.
that murderer made nice with bush and gave up his nuke and wmd program.
he is now on somewhat good terms with these united states
you scream and yell about obama not honoring agreements made between bush and israel...well here he is sticking to an agreement bush made with a filthy animal.
and boteach is a leach...im glad khadafi will be camped next to him...maybe for once he will have the fear of god instilled in him...until he finds another sick pedo to attach himself to
Didn't the Herman and Lily Munster live in that house?
Shy Guy,
Yes, it looks remarkably like the Muenster Mansion but according to the British newspaper from which I shamelessly lifted the picture, that is actually the Libyan ambassador's residence in Englewood.
Do you think this could increase aliya?
Do you think this could increase aliya?
11:01 AM
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IY"H, Obama will increase Aliyah.
IIRC, the UN treaties allow for movement of VIP's in a 25 mile radius from the UN building. Englewood is only 11 miles away.
The US wants to make nice with the Libyans. A tiger never changes his stripes. The real Khaddafi is as unrepentant and radical as when he took power over 40 years ago.
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