Readers sound off on Schumer and Israel, a revived Brooklyn theater and moderate GOP candidates

Schumer’s abandonment of Bibi is unprecedented

Massapequa, L.I.: The op-ed by Rabbis Shira Milgrom and Steve Gutgow applauding Sen. Chuck Schumer’s speech (“Chuck Schumer was right on Israel and Netanyahu,” March 28) is disingenuous. Even though the rabbis do not point to any Israeli policy with which they disagree, they pretend they don’t know why the speech has been justly condemned: For the first time, a senior U.S. official demanded that Israel, an allied liberal parliamentary democracy, remove its duly elected head of government and elect a replacement more to the Biden administration’s liking.

I can’t recall any member of the U.S. government, much less the Senate majority leader, publicly demanding the immediate resignation and replacement of a duly elected prime minister or president in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, India, Ireland or any other liberal democracy. How come Schumer and the rabbis never demanded the immediate resignation of Mahmoud Abbas, the so-called president of the Palestinian Authority, who was last elected in 2005 and is in the 19th year of a four-year term? How come Schumer or the rabbis have never demanded that Gazans hold an election to replace the Hamas leadership?

The rabbis allowed their hatred of Benjamin Netanyahu to blind themselves to the dangers of Schumer’s speech. It is universally accepted that he made it to help the Biden administration in Michigan and elsewhere with high concentrations of Arab-American voters who think the president is too pro-Israel. No doubt the senator and administration thought the public criticism of Israel from a high-ranking Jewish-American Democrat would staunch the bleeding. Schumer should not have treated Israel as if it was a banana republic. He undermined Israeli liberal democracy and betrayed an embattled and faithful ally. Ira Levine

Slaughter isn’t safety

Woodside: 1,200 Israelis dead, many of them soldiers; 32,000 people in Gaza dead, mostly women and children. The Israeli leader says he will attack until Israel is safe. If my family was killed or wounded like the 32,000 in Gaza, I would want revenge. I am pretty sure the families of the dead and maimed will want revenge against Israel. If it was me, I would. Sounds like Israel is just creating more enemies. Richard Tobiassen

Sacred sentiments

Brooklyn: I was watching the news on Channel 11. They mentioned that it was Easter and that it was the most solemn day in the Catholic religion. Good Friday is the most solemn day in the Catholic religion. Easter is a joyous day, as that’s the date Jesus rises from the dead. I can’t believe such a blatant falsehood was allowed to be broadcast. Dennis Burge

Up-and-coming

Staten Island: Re “Showtime in Brooklyn” (editorial, March 30): It was the late 1950s. We enthusiastically sang and danced by our seats and in the aisles as rock ‘n roll favorites entertained at the beautiful Brooklyn Paramount theater. Afterwards, a few of us walked to a small luncheonette where backups ate post-showtime. Usually forgotten, they were absolutely thrilled when we asked them to autograph the program booklets. Little did they or we ever imagine how many would become famous stars themselves. What great memories! Lynne Kessler

Not for sale

Brick, N.J.: Voicer Richard Meneely suggests “more” gun buybacks to get guns off the streets. He wants to flood a neighborhood with uniformed and plainclothes police, having them make inquiries knocking on doors and on the street but not stop, question and frisk? I truly believe that Meneely missed the concept. Miscreants rarely surrender their illegal weapons. The courts have to indict these offenders and our courts have to act with prison time. Billy Rath

Rushed reform

Bronx: Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his recent op-ed (“Pot shops, like potholes that don’t get fixed,” April 1), complains that he’s tired of smelling marijuana smoke everywhere and that he’s frustrated by the influx of illegal pot shops here in NYC. Wasn’t it his administration that was in such a hurry to legalize it before they set up the infrastructure to regulate sales? It was nearly two years after weed was made legal before the first few legal shops opened up. What did Cuomo think was going to happen? Potheads were going to stop lighting up until they could find the few legal stores? New York State took a drug that’s widely used illicitly, made it legal, but then made it illegal for almost anyone to sell it. This whole sorry situation is because of poor planning and foresight on the part of his administration. Stephen Minter

Rat bastards

Brooklyn: One of the most foolish and nonsensical ideas I have ever heard is New York wanting to pass a law prohibiting the use of glue traps to capture mice and rats. Inexplicably, politicians say this is torture for the rats. I think eliminating this weapon against rats is torture for the people who live in rat-infested buildings, and I would suggest the legislators spend a couple of nights in those buildings. This is the height of progressive nonsense. We need any weapon we can use to get rid of the estimated 3 million rats in the city. Robert Mascali

Politics or race?

Naples, Fla.: The Black firefighters’ Vulcan Society claims in the Daily News article “Fed judge demands answers on FDNY bias” (April 1) that the booing of Attorney General Letitia James and the chanting of “Trump, Trump, Trump” during an FDNY promotional ceremony “exposes the still racist culture of the FDNY.” They booed her for her treatment of former President Donald Trump, not because James is Black. Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis stated in the same article: “This doesn’t have to do with politics, this has to do with race.” Oh, really — how do both of them know what is in the hearts and minds of those firefighters? It was not racist. I only saw it as supporting Trump. I guess anytime someone says something bad about a Black person, it’s racist. Steve Grogan

Artful ambiguity

Kew Gardens: Donald Trump knew exactly what he was saying when he stated that if Joe Biden is reelected, there will be a “bloodbath.” It doesn’t matter that he was referring to the future of the auto industry. All his slack-jawed MAGA supporters will hear is to riot if Biden is elected, just like they did on Jan. 6 when Trump said “fight like hell.” Trump is a master at making incendiary statements that can be taken two ways, always leaving himself a plausible explanation. If the people vote him into office, they will live to regret it. He is just using his MAGA supporters to further his own goals. The sad part is they’re too ignorant to realize it. Jeff Pullen

Uncompelling

Manalapan, N.J.: Watching the growing circus around the Trump trials, I noticed something odd: Where are all the Trump supporters? Having threatened “death and destruction” if he was indicted, the rabid followers are staying home. Guess they’re getting tired of the same old worn out “hoax, witch hunt, scam” routine. Joe Fontanelli

Depraved in attendance

Floral Park, L.I.: I agree with Voicer June Lowe about inviting that animal Trump to the wake of a brave police officer. He is the lowest form of a human being. I anxiously await the day he will be gone from this Earth. Regina Rossi

Unmoderated

Itasca, Ill.: Someone said, “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Recent Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has a similar problem with chaos — the kind that follows a certain ex-president. Actually, he created the chaos, it’s doesn’t just follow him around. Thanks to people like Haley, it’s raining chaos and no one’s doing anything about it. Republicans had one job to do: redeem themselves after the debacles of November 2016 and Jan. 6, 2021. Why couldn’t the GOP have reprised some old-fashioned “smoke-filled room” magic and presented Mitt Romney as their 2024 standard-bearer? Yes, he’s 76 and is retiring in 2025. But he’s a principled, articulate 76. We could have had a relatively sane campaign with less contentious presidential debates this fall, but no. Jim Newton

Getting better

Peekskill, N.Y.: Massive kudos to the Daily News! On Monday, for the second time in six days, you printed the correct map and stats on the weather page. Try for two straight days! Steven Bevacqua