L’Shana Tova to you, Senator Joe Lieberman:

“I appeal to people who are planning to burn the Quran to reconsider and drop their plans because they are inconsistent with American values and, as General Petraeus has warned, threatening to America’s military.

“We are at war against violent Islamist extremism, as propagated by al Qaeda, its ideological affiliates, and radicalized individuals, who justify their wanton violence based on a corrupted interpretation of Islam. Let us concentrate on working with the moderate Muslim majority to defeat the Islamist extremist minority in Afghanistan, and wherever else it may establish sanctuary, and to discredit this violent ideology that propagates the hateful lie that the Islamic world and the Western World are engaged in a clash of civilizations. We will never defeat this brutally repressive enemy by discarding America’s historic respect for religious diversity.”

Very well said, sir. Let’s leave this awful summer of Islamophobia behind in 5770.

Also, Mayor Bloomberg: I respect what you’re saying completely. But no one’s saying that the Florida congregation is outside its rights to burn the Koran. As far as I’m aware, no one has ever said the planned burning is outside the boundaries of the First Amendment. This debate is entirely about the pastor’s judgment; the strategic consequences of anti-Muslim bigotry; and the implications for a country founded on religious tolerance to abridge its ancient compact.