RUTHFULLY YOURS

The treaty of Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong to the British at the end of the Opium War. It was given to them in perpetuity but in 1898 the British pledged to give Hong Kong back in 1997 signing a 99 year lease.

In 1984 Prime Minister Thatcher’s reluctance to return Hong Kong- a bustling, successful mercantile nation with an extremely popular British governor named Christ Patten- was overcome by Deng Xiaoping’s promises of retaining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Was it naivete or duplicity?  Only a few years later in 1989 the massacre of Tiananmen occurred but did not temper the zeal to appease China by ceding Hong Kong.

When the withdrawal was implemented on June 30th, 1997 Great Britain further betrayed its former colony, by refusing entry permits to citizens of Hong Kong, rendering them prisoners to mainland China’s tyranny. The citizens of Hong Kong were rightly outraged.

And as soon as Patten left, he was vilified by Beijing as a “Whore of a thousand years.”

The rest as we see now is the legacy of western appeasement of Communist China.

Taiwan beware! rsk

I reflect on the heroism of those who have been drafted or who volunteer to fight for nation and freedom.

Hannah Senesh was one of 37 Jews from Mandatory Palestine parachuted by the British Army into Yugoslavia during the Second World War to assist in the rescue of Hungarian Jews about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz.  Senesh was arrested at the Hungarian border, then imprisoned and tortured, but refused to reveal details of her mission to the Nazis. She was executed by firing squad November 7, 1944 five months after D-Day.

She wrote these words in a poem found decades after her death:

Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.

Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake.

I make Cuban style brisket called “ropa vieja”….It is boiled with onions and carrots and garlic and salt and then shredded and cooked some more with tomato sauce and more garlic and green peppers and saffron. My family loves it. It is labor intensive and makes a huge mess. When I gather the refuse from cooking and eating, I cadge a copy of The New York Times from the recycling pile in the disposal room and use it to wrap the soggy garbage… and to mop the kitchen floor…..rsk 

Thanks to my dear friend Joan Swirsky for this nugget.

New York Times Faces a Brisket Brouhaha  by Ira Stoll (https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/05/30/new-york-times-faces-a-brisket-brouhaha/)

The cover story in this week’s New York Times food section asserts, “Brisket remains oddly off limits for one large segment of the population: home cooks.”

The article was about Texas or Kansas City-style barbecued brisket, but the sentence sweepingly suggesting the cut of meat is rarely if ever cooked at home was enough to exasperate more than a few Times readers.

One comment, with 33 upvotes, was, “My first thoughts were, ‘excuse me, have you ever met a Jewish person…?’”

In August 1943 President Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill in Quebec to discuss a plan for a cross-English Channel assault to liberate Nazi occupied France. The operation’s code name was “Overlord.” In November 1943, at a meeting held the Soviet Union’s embassy in Teheran, the plan was formulated and shortly thereafter  President Roosevelt appointed General Dwight David Eisenhower to be Supreme Allied Commander of “Overlord.” British Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery, renowned for leading the first major Allied victory at El Alamein, Egypt, in 1942 became ground commander of the Anglo-American forces under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

On Memorial Day May 30, 1944  2,876,000 Allied troops were amassed in southern England joined by an armada of 4,000 American, British and Canadian ships and 1300 planes to give air cover to the invasion troops prepared to land on five French beaches code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

Strategy was bedeviled by disagreements, poor weather and tidal conditions, but on June 5th before dawn, Eisenhower decided to proceed. He wrote a brief note accepting full responsibility for the decision and accepting total blame should the assault fail.

To his troops as they were boarding transports to combat, he gave this speech:

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

After Normandy, there were many hard won and brutal battles, but the tide did turn and eleven months later, on May 7, 1945 the war in Europe ended. God bless our troops ….rsk

They come from everywhere, cities , towns, villages throughout the nation. Every generation has them.

Benjamin Lewis Salomon (September 1, 1914- July 7, 1944) was a Jewish Dentist from Milwaukee Wisconsin who was drafted as a Private in 1940. By 1942, he was declared the “best all around soldier” of the 102nd Infantry Regiment and by 1944 he was promoted to Captain. In 2002 he received a posthumous  Medal of Honor America’s highest and most prestigious decoration awarded to military service members.

Citation

Captain Ben L. Salomon was serving at Saipan, in the Marianas Islands on July 7, 1944, as the Surgeon for the 2d Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division. The Regiment’s 1st and 2d Battalions were attacked by an overwhelming force estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese soldiers. It was one of the largest attacks attempted in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Although both units fought furiously, the enemy soon penetrated the Battalions’ combined perimeter and inflicted overwhelming casualties. In the first minutes of the attack, approximately 30 wounded soldiers walked, crawled, or were carried into Captain Salomon’s aid station, and the small tent soon filled with wounded men.

As the perimeter began to be overrun, it became increasingly difficult for Captain Salomon to work on the wounded. He then saw a Japanese soldier bayoneting one of the wounded soldiers lying near the tent. Firing from a squatting position, Captain Salomon quickly killed the enemy soldier. Then, as he turned his attention back to the wounded, two more Japanese soldiers appeared in the front entrance of the tent.

As these enemy soldiers were killed, four more crawled under the tent walls.

Rushing them, Captain Salomon kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. Captain Salomon butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Captain Salomon ordered the wounded to make their way as best they could back to the regimental aid station, while he attempted to hold off the enemy until they were clear.

Captain Salomon then grabbed a rifle from one of the wounded and rushed out of the tent. After four men were killed while manning a machine gun, Captain Salomon took control of it. When his body was later found, 98 dead enemy soldiers were piled in front of his position. Captain Salomon’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

His memory is a blessing…..God bless our troops rsk

 The immortal composer and lyricist Kurt Weill wrote “But it’s a long while from May to December…..” But time does fly, and the election season goes into full gear in early February.

All the states will be choosing representatives for Congress and many Senate sets will be up. Those are critical, since the Dems are relentless in their drive to distract or destroy President Trump.
February 3, 2020 The Iowa Caucus
February  11,2020 The New Hampshire Primary…Democrat and GOP
February 22, 2020 Nevada Caucus- Democrat

February 29, 2020 South Carolina Democrat Primary

Then in March the primaries of both parties start on the 3rd for 23 States…..Stay tuned rsk

Omar Suleiman, founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research in Texas, was invited by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas-District 30). Rep. Johnson, a former registered nurse, has a history of animus to Israel, for which she got a 3+ in 2012 from the Arab American Institute.

On Thursday May 9th in Congress: Suleiman delivered peaceful blather.

This is how he speaks to his congregants: “How befitting that the 3rd Intifada starts on the 27th night of Ramadan as worshippers are denied prayer in Masjid Al Aqsa. …God willing on this blessed night as the 3rd Intifada begins, the beginning of the end of Zionism is here. May Allah help us overcome this monster, protect the innocent of the world, and accept the murdered as martyrs. amen.”
The man is a virulent racist and only Rep.Lee Zeldin (R- NY-District 1) took him on. Nancy Pelosi whose father was a great friend of Zionism and Israel, stood behind him looking reverential.
But, this is not an isolated incident. Increasing numbers of militant Moslems are elected to Congress who share the Imam’s Koran driven agenda. Ilhan Omar is just the tip of the sword.

MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN

“Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength the hand of the Lord brought you out from this place. Exodus 13:3

On Friday evening, at sundown, millennia after our redemption from slavery in Egypt, my family will gather around the Seder table.

We will retell the rescue by Moses who demanded freedom for our people. We will recount how the Pharaoh sent an army to capture the Jews who were escaping and how a miracle parted the Red Sea for the Jews and returned a tide to drown the pursuing army.

We will celebrate the return of the Jews to Israel in 1948 when the seas and the clouds parted for the steel hulls of ships and airplanes that brought the besieged and beleaguered and traumatized survivors of the Genocide of World War II and the oppressions of tyrants in Arab nations to safety and succor in the Jewish state of Israel.

Then, we will have a moment of silent prayer in memory of the martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto who courageously rebelled on Passover on April 19th, 1943 and held off the well-armed Nazis for over a month.

We will bless America this wonderful corner of the earth where we can celebrate our holidays in tranquility as proud and patriotic citizens.

But, wherefore will this Seder night be different than all other Seder nights?

There is a foreboding…an anxiety…over the increasing anti-Semitism growing in academia, in the media, and now, lurking in the corridors of legislative power.

So this year our Seder will end with the words of Deuteronomy 20:1

“When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Amen!
This year Passover coincides with Easter. May our respective Holidays bring us better days and peace.
RSK