Israel’s sins are what require repentance

Manhattan: Here we go again. Another guest columnist rabbi, this time Marc Schneier (photo), making demands of Mayor Mamdani using Jewish law and custom as the basis (“Mayor Mamdani, repentance is calling you,” op-ed, Sept. 18). What unmitigated gall to demand that a Muslim adhere to Schneier’s interpretation of his own religious texts and customs. What galls me even more is the temerity to think he speaks for all Jews.

This bar mitzvah boy of 1962 feels exactly as the mayor does toward Israel. It committed war crimes in Gaza, and 2 million people suffer greatly because of it. I consider Israel a pariah country and think the leaders should be in prison. The U.S. shouldn’t give another penny of my tax money to them. Rabbi Schneier, feel free to call me an antisemite and tell me how I should observe Yom Kippur.

Schneier seems to think Jews in NYC should be afraid of Mamdani. This one isn’t. I fear people like Schneier. In the entire half page The News generously offered him, he didn’t once recognize that Israel is to blame for anything. Schneier hasn’t the strength to admit what everyone clearly sees. The sheer folly of demanding the mayor apologize for saying what most of the world knows is true would be laughable if his divisive words weren’t so caustic.

Steven Davies

Repent, rabbi

Bronx: To Marc Schneier: Israel is committing genocide, and calling it out is not antisemitic. I’m a Jew and I fully agree with the mayor on the subject. You need to repent for supporting genocide. You are a shande far di goyim.

Richie Nagan

Enemy of the press

East Meadow, L.I.: After watching the evening news and hearing that President Putin — I mean President Trump — is not allowing certain reporters into the White House, besides not letting certain news outlets into the White House. When did we hear in this country of certain Democrats/socialists speaking about our country the way they are before this president?

Jeff Tuck

Unraveling

Valley Stream, L.I.: So President Thin Skin doesn’t like how certain media organizations report on him. Well, if he would’ve done his job, like keeping his campaign promises — no new wars, bring prices down, etc. — the media might be writing news about Thin Skin’s accomplishments. But our want-to-be king pulled a George Costanza and did the complete opposite of what he promised! His ratings are tanking, the midterms are rapidly approaching and DT is becoming unhinged and showing how unfit he is for the task of being president. Come November, I implore all reasonable and sane Americans to vote blue. It’s time to eradicate this extremely thin-skinned person from Washington.

Vince Sgroi

New Greenland deal

Brooklyn: Last week, Trump’s administration hammered out a landmark deal regarding Denmark and its autonomous territory Greenland. The deal, to be signed at this week’s UN General Assembly, includes a permanent, and more importantly sole, U.S military presence, the ability to increase armed forces with bases in several areas, and access to certain resources. It provides enduring and stable basing, admittance and overflight rights and restricts all other countries, e.g., Russia and China, from the same. This will provide the U.S. and its allies with another layer of defense in the Atlantic Ocean, addressing many U.S security and material concerns at no outlay or expenditure. With this strategic commitment by both parties involved, the agreement includes a screening mechanism for investments, meaning no Russian or Chinese capital ventures. The pact stipulates that no territory of Greenland is transferred to the U.S. This is a win-win for all stakeholders.

William R. Sarnataro

Downward spiral

Astoria: Alarms are going off in every nook and cranny of our country! An unchecked, toxic, duplicitous, self-referential madman has razed the East Wing of the White House to stroke his own ego without getting approval, started a war with Iran without getting Congress to approve, insists on putting his name on buildings like an animal needing to mark his territory, censoring a free press, renaming places putting America in titles while shredding any trace of what America stands for! The list of acts of hubris are as long as the Epstein files he doesn’t want any of us to see. Enough is enough!

Karen N. Pearlman

Throwing caution to wind

Cincinnati: J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who successfully directed the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, worried after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that unregulated nuclear expansion might destroy the world, much like the fear of AI presently. Oppenheimer sought a meeting with President Harry Truman in 1945 to advise of the catastrophic consequences of a human chain reaction if rogue states developed such weapons. Interestingly, Trump went to war with Iran this year to stop Islamic radicals from developing a nuclear bomb. Truman later characterized Oppenheimer as a crybaby, much as Trump has dismissed the dire warnings of AI scientists to slow development of the technology that may threaten the world. As Walt Kelly, the creator of “Pogo,” noted in 1970, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Paul Bloustein

Act for app safety

Manhattan: It’s hard not to worry about what social media is doing to our kids. These apps are built to keep young people scrolling. Videos play automatically. New posts never stop loading. Algorithms learn what holds a child’s attention and show them more of it, even if the content involves self-harm, eating disorders or other dangerous topics. Families can’t control how these platforms are built. Tech companies should be responsible for making safe products, just like toy, pharmaceutical and food companies. The Kids Online Safety Act would require social media companies to make their platforms safer for young people. The Senate version of KOSA has strong support from Republicans, Democrats and child safety advocates. We need Sen. Chuck Schumer’s leadership to bring KOSA to the floor for a vote this month. Kids deserve to explore the internet safely. Families need Congress to put children first.

Marie Weinstein

RIP

Far Rockaway: I’d like to offer my condolences to the family of Dolly Parton. The music world has lost a legend. Rest in peace, Dolly. She was one of a kind.

Leslie Langer

Standup juror

Bayside: I was a big fan of Gayle King. I can’t believe her reaction to the Lindsay Clancy verdict. A brave, moral, common-sense Black man, a hero to the children of Clancy: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callen, 8 months young. I would like to nominate this common-sense juror for person of the year, as he is the only individual on the jury who had the moral courage to honor three innocent angels who were savagely destroyed by their caregiver. How her defense attorney could spin this cold-blooded murder into a mistrial is beyond belief.

Timothy Collins