Watch Your Language!
Dear Editor:
After “I love you,” “Clean your room,” and “What did you get on the test?”, what is the most common expression that parents utter to their children? It’s “Watch your language!”—and they don’t mean the kids should pay more attention to their subject-verb agreement.
I say this in the context of the ad nauseam political ads on TV. In particular, I refer to Scott Stringer’s ad and his foul-mouthed mention of President Trump. There are definitely more civilized barbs that one can use when referring to the President.
Speaking about politicians and what one can learn from them, I refer to the broken bromance between Mr. Trump and Elon Musk. Two lessons can be gleaned from this relationship: First, watch out whom you choose as your best friend, and second, I’m willing to give the President $5,000 for his red Tesla.
With regard to the first caveat, it’s difficult to form and maintain a best friend relationship à la David and Jonathan. Somewhere along the way, you are going to get jealous—like when she gets married first, or buys a house before you do, or gets an apartment in Florida or Israel. Of course, I’m not referring to myself since I don’t have a jealous bone in my body! Hah!
Your best friends should be limited to your spouse, children, or siblings. At the end of the day, they’re the ones you can rely on for sage advice and concern for your welfare.
Who knows? Maybe you can rely on them for a red Volvo. (My car of choice.)
Debbie Horowitz
From Amalek To Khamenei: An Unbroken Assault On The House Of Jacob
Dear Editor:
In a world often hesitant to name evil, French journalist Catherine Perez-Shakdam (formerly known as Kinez Shakam) has done so with rare moral clarity. In a widely viewed 2024 interview with Israel Now News, she unveiled the genocidal theology driving Iran’s regime—insights gained from years embedded deep within its circles of power.
A secular Jew who posed as a convert to Islam, Perez-Shakdam was uniquely positioned to observe the inner workings of the Iranian theocracy. While working for the Russian state-affiliated outlet RT in 2017, she gained extraordinary access to key figures: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, and then-Chief Justice (now President) Ebrahim Raisi. These encounters, she later said, left her with “an abiding sense of the Iranian threat from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
What she uncovered wasn’t merely political. It was theological. Biblical.
“He wasn’t just talking about the modern state,” she said of Raisi.
“He was after everyone with even a remote connection to Jacob. So, all Jews—essentially.”
According to Perez-Shakdam, the Iranian regime’s hatred is not restricted to Zionism or Israeli policy. Its target is far broader: the House of Jacob itself. This is not a dispute over land or sovereignty. It is a metaphysical war—against Jewish identity, legacy, and divine calling.
“If you follow their logic,” she continued, “it also includes Christianity. The West is viewed as part of a Judeo-Christian world that must be brought down.”
This is Haman reborn—not in metaphor, but in mission.
Though many believed she had converted to Islam, Perez-Shakdam later clarified she had not. Like Esther in ancient Persia, she allowed the illusion to persist—aware that apostasy in Iran is punishable by death.
“I said nothing. I wanted my head to stay where it was.”
Her testimony is so audacious, it borders on espionage. Some have speculated she was working undercover—possibly for Israeli intelligence. While unproven, the theory is not implausible. Her access, her command of Islamist discourse, and her eventual defection all lend weight to the idea that she was playing a long game.
But whether journalist or operative, one truth is beyond doubt: she risked her life to shine light into darkness.
“I was very angry,” she admitted. “But it wasn’t revenge the way people think. It was about redressing the balance. I couldn’t witness horror and say nothing.”
And neither should we.
According to her, Iran’s regime has mapped Jewish communities across the globe. Diaspora Jews, she warns, are seen as legitimate targets—“more alone than ever—without a Jewish army, without a Jewish state behind them.”
Let that sink in: the modern-day Haman isn’t hiding. He’s planning.
Yet like in ancient Shushan, we are not alone. G-d’s name may be hidden in this story—but His hand is not. The enemies of the Jewish people have never endured. Not Egypt. Not Persia. Not Nazi Germany.
Iran will fall.
We are living in a time of biblical echoes. Let us not miss them. Let us fast like Esther. Speak like Mordechai. And stand, like the House of Jacob—firm, unyielding, and eternal.
Because the regime will collapse. The revolution will rot.
But the Jewish people—and the G-d who called them—will remain.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Postscript:
While many remain convinced she was part of a covert Israeli operation, Perez-Shakdam has publicly denied any connection to Mossad, attributing such speculation to her Jewish identity and dramatic reversal on Iran. She now identifies openly as a Zionist and has described her time in Tehran as a period of “self-hate.”
David Simkhaev
Warren Hecht: Are You Serious?
Dear Editor:
Hard to believe, Warren, that you can actually write such conflicting comments in the same article about Donald Trump.
You write that “Over the years, though rare, there have been moments when I agreed with his actions and publicly acknowledged them.” You give him credit for the Iranian attack and write that under a Harris administration it never would have happened. You give credit to Barack Obama, who made a deal with Iran that Trump abandoned during his first term. Kerry and Obama gave cash to the Iranians to further their criminal empire! Did you really think that the Iranians were trustworthy with their nuclear arsenal? If you think so, then you are really very naive!
You go on to criticize Trump for not asking for approval of the 30,000-lb bunker-buster bombs from Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. For real? It was a sneak attack! Obama never asked for permission when he bombed Libya. Biden never asked permission in his bombings, either. So why the reverse position when it comes to Trump?
Why are you suddenly quoting fringe people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, or Tucker Carlson when they criticize the need for the attack? Somehow, when they attack Trump, they suddenly become your best friends.
Warren, your columns are slanted against Trump and are laughable!
Michael Rollhaus
Why Are We Surprised By Mamdani?
Dear Editor:
The Mamdani victory was predictable. Why should anyone be shocked? Europe is a few years ahead of the U.S. when it comes to “progressivism,” aka Marxism. Look at countries like England, France, and Germany. They don’t have a country anymore. Mass migration has completely and utterly destroyed them. Why do you think Democrats allowed 12-plus million people to waltz into the United States over the last four years? Unless you do away with counting illegals in the census, Democrats will continue to push for illegal immigration because it affects representation in the House. It has also destroyed the culture of those countries.
Mamdani is a virulent anti-Semite. Yet “Jews” like Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders support him. “Mainstream” Democrats such as Bill Clinton congratulated Mamdani on his primary victory. The Democrat Party is now a Marxist Party. There are no moderates. Its positions are destructive to our constitutional republic and our culture. No men in women’s bathrooms. No pornography in our elementary schools. We want merit-based systems. No woke and no DEI. (Just an aside: a DEI hire at the Supreme Court got admonished in a scathing rebuke—akin to a WWE body slam—by Justice Barrett in the beautiful decision that ceases the lawfare by the Democrats to stop President Trump.)
Our colleges and universities have been a Marxist ideological breeding ground for decades. In the last ten years, it has finally taken root. A self-hating Jew, who ratted on fellow Jews to save himself—the evil George Soros—funds the whole Marxist movement in this country. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago all came before New York, and it wasn’t enough of a warning. House members Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett, Summer Lee, Ayanna Pressley, Pramila Jayapal, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib are now the faces of the Democrat Party. Where have you gone, Daniel Patrick Moynihan?
I am not surprised in the least.
The President didn’t tell Democrats what he was doing because Democrats, like Adam Schiff, abuse access to intelligence information to bring down this President by leaking. The War Powers Act is unconstitutional. Congress cannot pass a statute that limits the President’s constitutional power. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. Yet, the Revolutionary War started a year and two-plus months beforehand, in April of 1775! The Founders, in our Constitution, gave the Commander-in-Chief role to our President. He, and he alone, is in charge of our armed forces. Congress does not get to make, but declare at some later point, that we are at war. Congress does not get to decide when to strike and which battalions go where.
Sorry, Democrats—what President Trump did was perfectly constitutional.
Shalom Markowitz
