For What it’s Worth: Warren Hecht

In my QJL column “Chuck the Speech” (March 28, 2024), I wrote, “Even if Schumer had been right on the merits, he was wrong on the timing. There is a time and place to say something. This was the wrong time and place. Hamas sees what we are seeing. There has been a continuous erosion of support for Israel worldwide and especially in the United States. Hamas has no incentive to make any deal since the longer it goes on the worse it gets for Israel. Schumer’s speech plays into this narrative. This is the same person who months ago made a strong pro-Israel speech and has now changed his tune.”

The Trump game plan is, before the date of the decision, to repeatedly attack the process as rigged, and then when you lose, say I told you so. Trump did that leading up to the 2020 election, which he lost, and the New York County criminal trial, where he was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He also did it before he lost both Jean Carroll defamation trials and the Attorney General’s civil proceeding against the Trump organization. 

In last week’s column during the Hunter Biden trial, I wrote that “in contrast to Trump’s trial, where Trump and his acolytes including the House Speaker repeatedly attacked the prosecutor, the Judge, the judge’s daughter, the jury, and the process. In Hunter’s case, the president and important Democratic party elected officials have not attacked the prosecutor, the judge, the judge’s family, the jury or the process.” That has continued, even though Hunter was convicted. Furthermore, the president said not only would he not pardon his son, but he would not commute his sentence.

Although this is the introduction to my column and not my main topic, it is more important. On Sunday, June 2, from 11:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. between 62^nd and 74^th Streets on Fifth Avenue will IY”H be what was referred to as the Israeli Day Parade and Celebrate Israel Parade but is now called Israel Day on Fifth.

The Republicans were clamoring for Hunter Biden to be tried for a felony relating to his drug use. They thought that it would embarrass the president. It appears that it has not worked out that way. The trial relates to his falsely answering a question about drug use while filling out an application for purchasing a weapon and then possessing the weapon. At trial, what has been shown is a person who has struggled with drug addiction and a family that has tried to help him and otherwise cope with a difficult situation. This is a problem all too common in our country. It covers all social, economic, and political classes. Hunter’s family has been at the trial. Unlike at Trump’s trial where Melania was a no-show, Hunter’s wife has been there every day to support her husband.

I, among other individuals, have made comparisons between what is going on in our country today and what happened in 1968. I have taken the position that 1968 was worse, since back then both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated within two months of each other. I was speaking with someone a few years older than I who takes a contrary position. He says it is worse today since back then we had leaders who were respected.