Readers sound off on Biden and Netanyahu, Mayorkas impeachment and centrist fantasies

Netanyahu bullies our president into submission

Whitestone: If President Biden loses the presidential election, it will partly be because he allowed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and right-wing extremists to turn him into a genocide enabler. If Biden doesn’t have the courage, decency and compassion to do something to stop Netanyahu from the genocide of the people of Gaza, he is not much more qualified to be president than the narcissistic psychopath Donald J. Trump.

Joseph N. Welch confronted the dangerous and malicious bully Sen. Joe McCarthy by asking him, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” President Biden, do you lack the courage and decency to tell Netanyahu and his friends that either they stop the genocide of Palestinians or the United States will stop supplying Israel with all military support. And do it immediately.

With 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza dead, two-thirds of whom are women and children, and starvation and disease threatening the rest (almost 2 million), the United States can not keep supplying Israel with weapons (those 2,000-pound bombs) and hope the war that is now spreading to other nations ends peacefully.

Israel can defend itself without killing every Palestinian, but Netanyahu won’t stop until we stop supporting and enabling him. This may be politically risky for Biden, but not as dangerous and immoral as continuing to support him. The reputation and respect for the United States is damaged around the world every day we feed Netanyahu’s genocide. Michael J. Gorman

As important

Whitestone: We should be discussing antisemitism, which is a real problem in this city and this nation. However, Islamophobia is also a serious issue in our nation. A suggestion: Every time we speak about antisemitism and the 1,200 people killed in the Hamas attack, we also speak about Islamophobia and the tragic deaths of 30,000 Palestinians from the Israeli attack, 70% of whom are women and children. Dorothy Lyons

End this nightmare

Brooklyn: As I have scrolled through Instagram and TikTok this week, I have been horrified at the carnage that is unfolding in Rafah, where Palestinians in northern Gaza were “evacuated” to during the course of months. It makes me weep. We need to send more humanitarian aid, not less. The U.S. needs to pressure Israel to seek return of hostages through diplomacy, not wanton killing of civilians. The attempts at military extraction of hostages have brought fewer than 10 hostages home, while previous diplomatic efforts have secured the release of over a hundred. Meanwhile, dozens of civilians, including children, die each time the IDF reaches further. Thirty-thousand Gaza residents have died, about half of them children. We need to act now to save lives. Restore aid. Stop the killing. Ceasefire now. Beth Kelly

Punishment pledge

Scranton, Pa.: Vladimir Putin’s harshest, most outspoken critic has died behind bars. If his orange-hued American cheerleader who called Putin a “genius” meets the same fate, I will twerk to “Dancing with the Stars.” Vin Morabito

Feels real

Scarsdale, N.Y.: I think Trump must be feeling a bit like Gen. George Custer did at the Little Big Horn when it finally dawned on Custer that the Indians really meant business, and there were a whole lot of ’em. John Kern

Doesn’t add up

Manhattan: When he was president, Donald Trump tried to engage in talks with North Korea. He stated that he talked to the parents of American soldiers who are still listed as missing in action in North Korea. Trump claimed they asked him to bring their missing sons’ remains home. American soldiers who went missing in North Korea would have most likely been in their 20s, with their parents in their 40s or 50s. That was 70 years ago. The Korean War took place from 1950-1953. That means the parents Trump said he talked to would have been 110-120 years old at the time of their conversations. Was Trump talking to dead people? Or perhaps it was just another hallucination from a man with malignant narcissism. Richard Simon

Undue commentary

Rego Park: Oh, the sweet irony — the indicted, soon-to-be-convicted ex-president railing about European countries paying their NATO “dues” to get defended. I remember the Daily News articles from years ago covering stories of vendors large and small suing the Trump Organization to get paid for work done on projects like Trump Castle in Atlantic City or Trump Tower on Fifth Ave. Ask all his lawyers who are suing to get paid. Let alone that isn’t how NATO works. Members are obligated to spend 2% of their gross national product on national defense so they can be part of the deterrent alliance. There are no “dues.” B.Y. Lee

Next!

Astoria: Now that Trump was ordered to pay, how about President Biden and his son’s dealings with Russia? Let’s be fair! Anthony Gigantiello

Only him?

Brooklyn: The arrest of Alexander Smirnov for lying about President Biden and his son Hunter’s involvement in business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings shows what a thoroughly corrupt, double-standard justice system we currently have. By this standard, a slew of senators and law enforcement officials should have been arrested for the Russian collusion hoax against President Trump. Where are all those arrests? We need a serious overhaul of the Justice Department. Josh Greenberger

Historic action

Terre Haute, Ind.: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been proclaiming the southern border has been operationally secure. In his numerous public pronouncements, an ongoing “crisis” has not existed, only a “challenge.” Sunday, in a CNN interview, Mayorkas finally quacked that a southern border crisis indeed exists, notwithstanding his numerous lies to Congress to the contrary while under testimonial oath. This smug individual deserved House impeachment. The first impeachment of an executive branch cabinet officer was against William Belknap in March 1876. Sadly, Mayorkas’s Democrat cronies will not remove him from office. At least his ignominious conduct for refusing to execute United States immigration law will be publicly documented in an upcoming Senate trial. Earl Beal

Get organized

Kew Gardens: It is astounding that this nation of immigrants can’t process new immigrants systematically, which it was very proficient in doing during the ink-dipped pen era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The conundrum might not be immigrants coming in, but where they are coming from. As Donald Trump queried once: “Why can’t we get more people from Norway?” Evidently, if that were the case, our immigration systems would again operate very efficiently. Maybe this nation should look at the Rio Grande as a symbolic Atlantic Ocean. We know they are coming across — it is up to this nation to funnel the arrivals into an immigration processing center like Ellis Island. Historically, there is no denying that this nation has benefited greatly from the contributions of immigrants, and because of their pursuit of opportunities and their willingness to work, they have revitalized local economies. Glenn Hayes

Realpolitik

Manhattan: Now that Tom Suozzi has won his seat, let’s get down to specifics. His claim to be a centrist is verifiable, logical and clear for all to see. I’d like to know which members of the right-wing MAGA Republican Party he thinks he is going to reach across the aisle and work with. Who — Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Goetz, Steve Scalise, Mike Johnson? Who? If he really believes that, he is very naïve. If he doesn’t, it is a meaningless slogan. If he wants to make a pledge that is doable and will benefit the country in the long run, he should vow to help Democratic candidates all across the nation defeat and bury the fascists-in-training on the other side. That would show some fight and aggression, which is usually absent in Democrats. How about it, Tom? Are you going to fight those on the other side, or are you going to say nice things so people will like you? Steven Davies

Talk it out

Providence, R.I.: Voicer Peter Griswold decries the fact that “political debate has become increasingly bitter and even vicious.” But as long as political viciousness is purely verbal, we’re in good shape. Let’s hear it for public invective / That follows this simple directive: / Use language alone when there’s partisan strife / Steer clear of the bullet, the bomb and the knife. Felicia Nimue Ackerman