Dear Rabbi Lamm: Thanks for your note of January 10. Even though we are not in total accord, I know that overall and on balance our goals are the same. I disagree with your comment that I “gratuitously” brought “a foreign government into a local scandal.” By alerting them to the impact of their taking an action which would have enormous adverse reverberations in the Congress, I tried to save them from making an error – and perhaps I did. Don’t you agree that as a Member of Congress I have a right to speak out on the actions of foreign governments and their internal policies? Would you object to my adverse comments on the Western Democracies’ craven submission to Arab oil blackmail or the Soviet Union’s repression of its Jewish and other minorities? Obviously not. In this case, because of my love and support of Israel it was even more important that I speak out. Sincerely, Edward I. Koch