In response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s April 9 column, “Obama and the deafening silence of American Jewry,” I requested and was granted the opportunity to respond. Rather than engaging in a point-by-point debate with Rabbi Boteach’s accusations and demonization of President Obama and Rep. Steve Rothman, I would like to use this space to draw a few historical comparisons.

When it came to protecting the right of the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations living immediately next door to me in Englewood, my Democratic congressman, Steve Rothman, found his voice, issuing a three-page press release about a deal he had brokered with the State Department 27 years ago for the Libyans to bizarrely remain in a New Jersey suburb. But when I asked Rothman, who is Jewish, to give me a comment on Obama’s degrading treatment of Israel’s elected officials and the administration’s opposition to Jews building in all parts of Jerusalem, his chief of staff sent me an e-mail that said the Congressman was “away for the holidays so we won’t be able to provide you with a statement.”

The recently announced proposal by Israel’s minister of national infrastructure, Uzi Landau, that Israel build a nuclear power plant makes absolutely no sense economically, militarily, or environmentally. It’s also bad for the health of the Israeli people.

Economically, the cost of a nuclear power plant is between $12 billion and $15 billion per plant.

Because private money does not go into nuclear plants, according to Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, huge government funds would be required. In the United States, President Obama recently proposed a $54.5 billion loan guarantee fund to build new nuclear plants stateside.

President Barack Obama seems to have forgotten whom America’s friends are. When it comes to tyrants like Hugo Chavez who have dismantled their nation’s democracies and thrown their political opponents in jail or worse, Obama hugs them with both arms. And when it comes to Middle East dictators, like King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who brutally oppresses women and won’t even allow them drive cars, the president of the United States will bow down before them, literally (he gave the same treatment to the emperor of Japan, even though Douglas MacArthur forced the emperor to renounce his divinity). But if you’re the democratically elected prime minister of the Middle East’s only fully functioning democracy and America’s most reliable ally, the president will sic his secretary of state on you if you don’t cave in to his demands. Who does President Obama think the Israeli Prime Minister is? His poodle?

The world,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “is full of miracles, but man takes his little hand and covers his eyes and sees nothing.”

How true this is. God created nature and nature abounds in miracles — especially at this time of year, as we emerge from the dark and dreary days of winter. Doves return to backyard decks; crocuses begin to show on front lawns; buds appear on once barren branches. It is beautiful to behold, even awe-inspiring, and we do behold it and we are awed.

When you get behind the wheel, think Torah. It may save someone’s life — perhaps even yours.

In the first six weeks of 2010, 32 drivers, 12 passengers, 18 pedestrians, and one bicyclist were killed in 59 fatal traffic accidents in New Jersey. That works out to three deaths every two days.

Last week I was honored to speak to the Jewish community of Venice, Italy. Having just returned from Haiti, I addressed the issue of why a good God allows the innocent to suffer. I was amazed when an observant Jew approached me to say that the people of Haiti were not innocent, immersed as they are in voodoo, witchcraft, and idol-worship.

I said, “Surely you don’t mean to say that the morgue filled with the babies that I witnessed, the stench so bad that I was gagging, deserved to die? Or that the discarded bodies I saw being eaten by scavenger dogs deserved their fate?” His response: The people of Haiti as a whole were punished. A similar sentiment had earlier been voiced by the Rev. Pat Robertson on The 700 Club.