Senate leader wrong to challenge Netanyahu
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s recent advice to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, call for new elections and redirect the course of the Israel-Hamas war is presumptuous, inappropriate and wrong.
First, who asked for his opinion? Second, Sen. Schumer has never served in any army. Third, he is not a citizen of Israel and yet has the audacity to direct its public policy. What chutzpah.
Fourth, Israel is waging an existential war against the Hamas military in Gaza. No stranger to using Gazans as human shields, Hamas effectively has held all of Gaza hostage since Oct. 7. It did so by murdering innocent Israelis, including women and children, and bringing others back to Gaza as trading pawns. Roughly seven active Hamas battalions (about 7,000 fighters) remain in Rafah. The elimination of Hamas is an important step in creating a sustainable foundation for peace.
Sen. Schumer, why not instead ask Hamas to release its hostages?
RICH LAPIN, DUNWOODY
High court’s pro-Trump rulings are no accident
Donald Trump did his worst damage while president when he filled three Supreme Court vacancies with ultra-conservative sycophants.
In a recent AJC op-ed (“In ruling for Trump, the Supreme Court applied special rules,” March 12), law professor Tonja Jacobi makes it clear that SCOTUS completely contradicted the Constitution’s 14th Amendment by ruling that only Congress can enforce the disqualification of a candidate for engaging in an insurrection. In doing so, they totally ignored the conservative mantra demanding a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
But as Jacobi points out, that glaringly flawed decision is only the latest in pro-Trump judgments. The justices’ most crucial ruling has yet to be made, that being to decide on Trump’s seemingly preposterous claim that former presidents are immune from prosecution for crimes committed when they were president.
Given the court’s current tenor, it seems entirely possible that SCOTUS might even grant Trump blanket immunity, perhaps paving his way to victory. A second term would mean a rejection of democracy in favor of an autocracy like those in Hungary and Russia.
LUCAS CARPENTER, CONYERS
