Russian Paper Prints Israel's Rebuttal

By Pam Robinson

A Russian newspaper printed an op-ed piece Monday written by U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, responding to comments by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Israel, D-Huntington asked the paper Kommersant to publish his commentary after The New York Times printed Putin's remarks,  A Plea for Caution From Russia, last week. In that Times column, Putin expressed doubts about whether the Syria government had used poison gas on its own people, wrote that "It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States" and disputed the concept of American exceptionalism.

In response, Israel laid out his case for intervention in Syria. " if diplomacy proves to not be an option, I believe the U.S. must degrade and deter the further use of chemical weapons, without boots on the ground and in a limited, focused and swift way." 

And he wrote that "When my grandparents lived in Russia, the prospect of your leader using our cherished freedom of press in America would have been unfathomable." 

The paper also printed an article about the dueling op-pieces.