Rep. Rothman responds to Shmuley

Last week we published an opinion piece by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, complaining about his new neighbor in Engelwood, N.J. — Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations:

Like many people these days, I am a busy man. But that did not stop me from taking off several weeks from my professional life to fight Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s plan to take up residence directly next door to me this past August and September during the U.N. General Assembly.

Together with my friend Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes, and the support of the entire Englewood, N.J., community, we pushed Gadhafi out.

Sad to say, it was a pyrrhic victory.

Last month, with the cooperation of the U.S. State Department and our otherwise brilliant police force, as well as the silent acquiescence of our elected leaders, Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, stealthily moved in and took up residence as my immediate next-door neighbor.

Every time my kids hit a baseball a bit too far, it goes into Libyan territory, onto the lawn of a man who last week disgraced the U.N. Security Council by showing a gruesome slide show featuring images of mutilated Palestinians with Israeli soldiers as the culprits. His condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza made no mention of the thousands of Hamas rockets that have been fired without provocation at Israeli children.

Boteach said he was so angry that he was considering a run for public office. Both in his piece and a subsequent interview with JTA, Boteach declined to identify a specific office that he was considering. But he did take aim at one politician by name:

The fact that our elected officials allow the representative of a state that sponsors terrorism to live in our community is scandalous. When I read that my own congressman and friend Steve Rothman, who fought so hard against Gadhafi, had told The New Jersey Jewish Standard that an agreement had been reached 25 years ago allowing the ambassador to take up residence and that therefore “I hope everyone will be appropriately good neighbors,” I was beside myself.

Is he seriously asking me to borrow a cup of sugar from a man whose government murdered American servicemen while they danced at a disco?

Rothman — who was born in Englewood and served as mayor there in the 1980s when the Libyan government first bought the property in question — has responded with his own piece, saying that Boteach took an unfair swipe and "misrepresented" the situation:

At issue is a property purchased by the Libyan government nearly 30 years ago, and 17 years before Boteach moved into the neighborhood.

My first involvement in the matter began at the end of November 1982, when I learned that the Libyan government, without my knowledge, or the knowledge of the previous mayor and other city officials, bought a mansion on Englewood’s East Hill for its ambassador to the United Nations.

I had just been elected as mayor and was to be sworn in on Jan. 4, 1983. As the new mayor, my main goal was to prevent — at all costs — the Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi from spending any time in Englewood or, even worse, taking up residence in our community. …

Fortunately, President Reagan’s State Department agreed with me that the Foreign Missions Act applied and they entered into a back-channel negotiation with the Libyans. (As noted, the United States had no formal diplomatic relations with the Libyan government at the time.)

This negotiation resulted in an informal understanding that the Englewood property would only be used as the personal residence of the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations and his/her immediate family. Neither Gadhafi nor any other person would be permitted to use the house without the advanced approval of the secretary of state.

The people of Englewood were relieved when they learned of this understanding between the two governments. And as hot issues often do, this one cooled and faded into the background for nearly 27 years. The understanding has been observed by all, without violation — and without Gadhafi ever setting foot in Englewood.

This past summer, rumors began to spread that Gadhafi was coming to Englewood and taking up residence at the Libyan U.N. ambassador’s house in anticipation of the September 2009 opening ceremony of the U.N. General Assembly. A third party directed me to Boteach’s column on this subject that had appeared in The Jerusalem Post.

While the rabbi and I had met several times on various occasions, and I was his congressman, he had not called or contacted me, my staff, the U.S. State Department or any other federal official as far as I know to speak of this matter before publishing his Jerusalem Post column.

After I was made aware of Gadhafi’s interest in residing in Englewood for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, and perhaps longer, I immediately contacted the Obama White House, State Department and representatives of the Libyan government in Washington. Over the course of the next six days and nights I was able to persuade the U.S. and Libyan governments to reaffirm, on Aug. 28, 2009, the 1983 understanding between the two countries limiting the use of the Libyans’ Englewood property.

That is why Gadhafi never set foot in Englewood in September 2009 when he came to New York City to address the U.N. General Assembly.

In the Aug. 29, 2009 edition of The Huffington Post, Boteach was kind enough to thank me for what he described as my “strong and tireless efforts to keep Gadhafi out of Englewood." I also was very moved when the rabbi reiterated his gratitude to me several more times in public and in private.

However, in his recent JTA column, Boteach was extremely critical of me and all U.S. officials for not evicting the Libyan U.N. ambassador from Englewood, despite the limitations of the law and the fact that the rabbi had purchased his Englewood home in 2000 knowing of the Libyan government’s ownership of the 5-acre adjoining property.

Despite monumental steps by the Bush administration to re-establish relations with Libya, Gadhafi is still a madman with the blood of innocent Americans and others on his hands. And we have been able to keep him out of Englewood now for 27 years and counting — despite his government’s ownership of the Englewood property.