RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-cautionary-memoir/

My parents and my younger brother and I lived in Bolivia during the Holocaust. When we settled into life in America after World War II, most of my parents’ friends were European emigres. They were drawn to Jewish academics and physicians who always called each other ”Herr” or “Pan” or “Frau” or “Pani” in German or Polish, and never by first names.

I was particularly fond of the Jewish-German emigres. They had come from the belly of the Nazi beast. They became substitutes for the family I never met — grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all killed in Europe. They reciprocated my affection and always asked for me as soon as they entered: “Vo ist der tochter?”

While they hated Germany, they loved German poetry and composers and always listened to records and recited poems with translations for me. My favorite was Schiller’s “The Ring of Polycrates,” about a king who feared his good fortune and threw his beloved and very valuable ring into the seas, only to have it come back in a fish cooked for him. This was proof that he was doomed by fate. Decades later it became my daughter’s favorite poem.

I loved being with these people and often sat reverently next to them while they listened to an oratorio or piano concerto, followed by tea and pastries of chocolate mixed with jam. They brought me Snickers. I hungered for their stories about life in Germany before the war. They were all very voluble historians of their life and fate.

One of them was a professor in Hamburg until 1938.  He was so assimilated that he sported a “Messerschmitt” — a dueling scar popular among upper class Germans on his cheek, and a handsome bald pate.

He and his Frau had two sons who also assimilated until the 1930s when the Nazi state abolished all youth groups in Germany except the Hitler Youth or its female equivalent, the League of German Girls — and all Jewish children were barred. In January 1933, there were approximately 50,000 members of the Hitler Youth. By 1939, the vast majority of German children were part of the Hitler Youth organization.

Nonetheless, as the professor detailed it, they were optimistic that sanity would prevail and that Nazi ideology would disappear. And in any event, where could they go? As the infamous Evian Conference (Jul 6, 1938 – July 15, 1938) disclosed, of all the delegates from 32 nations, who all expressed caterwauling sorrow and shock, only one country agreed to absorb additional refugees: the Dominican Republic. And who would go to the jungle — something my parents, and so many Jews, gladly did to flee Europe.

Who are the parents of Hamas-supporting students? By Ruth King

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/10/who_are_the_parents_of_hamassupporting_students.html

After the anti-Vietnam War turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Midge Decter wrote an outstanding book called Liberal Parents, Radical Children detailing a generation gap between young militants demanding an end to the Vietnam War  with a quasi-Utopian challenge to the “establishment” and their standard-issue liberal, mostly Democrat parents who did not call American troops “war criminals” nor did they blame America first for every ill in the universe.

When the war and the draft ended, the protests subsided and even stalwarts of the protests like Senator Eugene McCarthy and David Horowitz, editor of the radical magazine Ramparts and now editor of the conservative FrontPage, announced their support for Ronald Reagan.

Other protesters then turned their sights on community organizations and councils, the academy, and the media, but nothing has prepared parents and the general public for the present outpouring of support for Hamas terrorists and hatred for Israel among students.

As Victor Davis Hanson has stated: 

The sheer madness that has gripped many elite universities since October 7 and the butchery, rape, torture, and mutilation of some 1,000 Israeli civilians by Hamas murderers have shocked the public at large.  Campus craziness is, of course, nothing new. But quite novel for campuses was the sudden jettisoning of prior campus pretenses. Universities have brazenly dropped their careful two-faced gymnastics to reveal at last — unapologetic, proudly, and defiantly — the moral decay that now characterizes American higher education.

Noah Rothman adds: 

Younger Americans, aged 18 to 24, disagree with their elders. This demographic is split almost down the middle when asked if the slaughter of senior citizens, the rape of young women, the murder of children, and the immolation of whole families in their homes was justified. Indeed, a slight majority of respondents in this age group said the butchery could be “justified by the grievance of Palestinians.” What’s more, only a bare majority of this demographic backs Israel in this conflict. Forty-eight percent said they side not with Palestinians but explicitly with “Hamas” in this war.

But why blame only the media and the academies? Who are the parents?

That’s a rhetorical question. I know the parents. They are smug hypocrites who vociferously defend affirmative action but pay expensive tutors to give their own kids a leg up. They parrot trendy views on gender, cancel culture, trigger words, pronouns, and perceived offenses. They favor open borders, defunding police, bail reform across the board, and sanction the violence and arson occasioned by the death of George Floyd. They’ve ignored the drumbeat of rising anti-Semitism and support overtly racist organizations like Black Lives Matter. They ignore the turpitude of those who pervert truth and history by denying American exceptionalism and vie with their offspring on all liberal cant and demand for “flexible” history, science, and biology.

The Jews among them are called self-hating but that does not fit. They are self-loving with their preening. They see themselves as an aggrieved minority which rises above others with their empathy for both sides of every conflict and every issue. They curb all debate and dissent in their loathing of Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu while ignoring racist genocides throughout the world. They are mildly troubled by anti-Semitic leftist legislators and commentators because they “know where they are coming from.”  But now that the rising tide of global antisemitism is lapping at their toes, they are alarmed but blaming conservatives. Zero insight.

I watched the messy and shrill GOP debate last night with the misgiving that none of it really mattered. Elections in America are the hallmark of democracy and equality. Every single citizen in America- rich, poor, black, white, radical, conservative, orthodox, secular, atheist, etc. has that day to express a national choice. But, and this is a huge but, that precious freedom to choose is endangered by the lack of real election integrity.

The media libels and disinforms with alacrity. Many pollsters routinely ask yes or no questions designed to elicit shaky results to favor chosen candidates, and shady revised election rules threaten the integrity of results in a preponderance of states and districts.

Not a single candidate last night even brought it up. rsk

At the risk of incurring some anger from valued readers, I wholeheartedly approve of Ramasamy’s reflections on ending aid to Israel in 2028.

Aid to Israel has historically been a cudgel to force Israel’s acceptance of policies inimical to its independence. Examples abound:

In the shuttle diplomacy following the October Yom Kippur War of 1973 Israel bowed to the demands for withdrawal made by the aggressor Anwar Sadat of Egypt after a crude warning by Kissinger that failure to do so would lead to a” reassessment” of aid. Again, during the Camp David Accords of 1978, Vice President Mondale pressured Menachem Begin to accept all Sadat’s demands for territorial concessions by hinting at a reduction in aid. In 1992 Secretary of State James A. Baker III gave Israel’s Prime Minister Itzhak Shamir a blunt public warning that unless Israel halts building Jewish settlements in so-called occupied territories, it would not get $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. In October of 1998 after the Oslo Accords failed to get Israel’s full commitment to abandon the cities of Judea and Samaria to the PLO, a meeting was held at the Wye River in Maryland where Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hinted that aid would be reconsidered if Prime Minister Netanyahu did not accede to Arafat’s demands.

Ramaswamy recognizes the value of the Abraham accords to ensure peace and deterrence to Iran’s genocidal agenda.  A defense agreement with sharing of intel is far superior to aid at a time that America’s economy, military and infrastructure are failing.

I’m saving my opprobrium for the trio of rats- Matti Friedman, Daniel Gordis, Yossi Halevi who are issuing a call to world Jewry to “support Israel but not its present government”…..How does one do that? By threatening to cut off aid unless the democratically elected government is toppled? rsk

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D) is an Iraq War Veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014. In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. On November 12, 2004, her helicopter was hit by an RPG and she lost her legs and partial use of her right arm. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms.

Congressman Brian Mast (R) is in his fourth term representing the 21st Congressional District of Florida.

Prior to his election to Congress, Brian followed in his father’s footsteps by serving in the U.S. Army for more than 12 years, earning medals including The Bronze Star Medal, The Army Commendation Medal for Valor, The Purple Heart Medal, and The Defense Meritorious Service Medal. While deployed in Afghanistan, he worked as a bomb disposal expert under the elite Joint Special Operations Command. The last improvised explosive device that he found resulted in catastrophic injuries, which included the loss of both of his legs.

Bergdorf Goodman was always New York’s toniest department store. Even the sales ladies are soigne and as we said in the Bronx “stuck-up” and clearly cater to the wealthy.
How then to explain how a woman and a six footer lout got into a dressing room to frolic 30 years ago? Women got dirty looks if they wore jeans and sneakers in those days and sales ladies escorted buyers to the dressing rooms and frequently knocked to bring other merchandise.
I can believe a maiden could be escorted by the Secret Service to behold the nether parts of a sitting President.
I can also imagine a damsel getting into a car with Ted Kennedy, or being a waitress pinned between him and Senator Chris Dodd, another one-time Presidential aspirant, who fondled and harassed her in a restaurant until the police were called.
It was proven that a child bearing lass accepted money to cover up her affair with the father, a married candidate running for Vice President with John Kerry.
But porny escapades in a fitting room in Bergdorf Goodman thirty years ago? A lot of people doubt that narrative. rsk

It’s the economy, stupid is a phrase that was coined by James Carville in 1992 to promote the election of Bill Clinton.

Forgive my paraphrasing, but the election of 2024 is a do or die moment for reversing the precipitous slide in American deterrence, foreign policy and prestige, education, national culture, freedom to dissent and patriotic pride occasioned by the election of 2020.

Restoring a modern conservative agenda requires two full terms in the White House and the present leading candidate cannot meet that requirement.

Unlike the Democrat party mired in destructive “progressive policies” the GOP has a multitude of younger, energetic, determined and experienced candidates who should be encouraged and promoted to national status in 2024. rsk

Yesterday I attended a private luncheon and book launching for Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican entrepreneur and businessman, and author of several excellent books on culture, business and politicswho recently announced his candidacy for the White House.

Until yesterday, although I have been seriously impressed by his brilliance and articulate vision for a conservative agenda to restore American values, education, infrastructure, energy independence, and security, I was skeptical about his election chances.

No more. He is an excellent speaker who fields questions deftly with an exciting and infectious vision of our nation’s possibilities and exceptionalism.

I am reminded of an early 2014 meeting when the Tea Party repeated its early endorsement of Donald Trump to a decidedly skeptical reception.

Who knows about 2024? As August debates get closer, Vivek Ramaswamy certainly elevates the language and ideas, and whatever happens he deserves a great future in American politics. rsk

September 2019- The controversial call that spurred an impeachment inquiry. On July 25, President Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The summary of the controversial phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s president in which Trump asked his counterpart to look into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden was released.

The release came a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she was launching an impeachment inquiry related to the phone call.

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, what Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great,” Trump said to Zelensky in the call.
Zelenskiy, when asked in the open, has said he never felt “pushed” by Trump.