Displaying posts categorized under

HISTORY

HISTORY Comments turned off

The Report of the Jews’ Death ‘Has Been Grossly Exaggerated’ by Lawrence Kadish

By on June 26th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18650/the-report-of-the-jews-death-has-been-grossly

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin misquoted Mark Twain about the Russian president’s cancer: “The rumors about my death were greatly exaggerated,” Putin was quoted as saying about his cancer by Fortune and The Guardian. Mark Twain had actually said about an illness: “The report of my death has been grossly exaggerated.” The same assessment by Mark Twain also applies to the Jews and the great American author’s view of them, as in his remarkable article, “Concerning the Jews,” published by Harper’s Magazine in March, 1898:

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent. of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

He has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

Continue reading →
ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, HISTORY Comments turned off

The Nazis’ Favourite Colour? Deep, Dark Green Alistair Crooks

By on June 25th, 2022

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2022/06/the-nazis-favourite-colour-deep-dark-green/

“ALMOST as soon as the Nazis took power in 1934 they established environmentalism, explicitly including ‘organic’ farming and ‘sustainability’, as key agenda objectives of the Third Reich. The importance that Hitler placed on his new ‘green’ agenda can be seen by the garlanding of his most senior and then-trusted deputy, Herman Goering, as Reichforstmeister (Reich master of forestry) to oversee the implementation of a new law “Concerning the Protection of the Racial purity of Forest Plants”. The involvement of Hitler’s beloved SS also signifies the importance given to this agenda. ”

I came across a 2013 essay in my files the other day and thought I would give it another look.  It’s  Nazi Greens – An Inconvenient History. [i]  by Martin Durkin, who produced The Great Global Warming Swindle, which describes how the modern environmental movement dips its lid to the German Nazi Party.  But more importantly for this essay is Durkin’s explanation of how the green-thinking of the Nazi Party found its origins in the much older German phenomenon of the so-called ‘Volk’ movement.  [ii] 

Reaching back into history, there was a rise in commercial activity and in the market economy in Middle Ages Europe, which was reflected in the growth of cities and towns. In England by the eighteenth century, this new city-based money resulted in a power shift away from the rural-based aristocratic elites to a city-based bureaucratic elite composed of burgers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, academics, priests, merchants and the like, and led ultimately to the establishment of a democratic parliament where the rank-and-file increasingly got to choose which of this new  elite was going to govern them.  However, at least theoretically, they did get some say in how the country was run. (Goodness me! Add in the media to the mix and we are pretty much describing today’s version of ‘parliamentary democracy’) This shift in power, from the aristocracy to the bureaucracy, was the essence of what’s called ‘the Enlightenment.’

Continue reading →
HISTORY Comments turned off

The Liberation of a Continent and the Fall of the Nazi Third Reich by Lawrence Kadish

By on June 7th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18593/europe-liberation-d-day

Understanding who we are today as Americans living in a democracy — because of the sacrifices of those we honor on June 6th — is a solemn responsibility for every American. Yet few will acknowledge the date or the solemn obligation.

On that date, June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, confronting Nazi troops that had conquered much of Europe. General Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded the invasion, reminding his troops, “We will accept nothing less than full victory.”

More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies had begun to push the Germans back, but some 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded that day.

Pinned down for hours by German fire, brave Allied soldiers recognized what was at stake: literally the liberation of a continent. Confronting unimaginable obstacles, they found the means to push the enemy back, climb the heights overlooking at the beaches, destroy the bunkers that contained heavy cannons and begin the task of defeating the Nazi Third Reich.

Continue reading →
HISTORY Comments turned off

Remembering the Boys of Pointe du Hoc By Paul Krause

By on June 6th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/06/remembering_the_boys_of_point_du_hoc_.html

“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.”

Eisenhower’s speech, on the eve of the greatest military campaign for freedom in human history, was matched only by the speech of President Ronald Reagan in 1984 on the fortieth anniversary of that event. “The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.” D-Day remains one of the greatest manifestations of the American, and human, spirit of liberty and courage ever known.

We are told that America stands at a crossroad. America has always been standing at crossroads. And time and again America has weathered the storm and come back stronger and freer than before. While it is easy to despair, we must remember what propelled the spirit of freedom and progress — true freedom and progress — into the new dawn despite the surrounding darkness.

What Eisenhower and Reagan’s speeches have in common is a thread going back to our Founding Fathers and the very spirit that birthed America.

In his inaugural address, George Washington said, “I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my Country can inspire: since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage.”

Continue reading →
HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Churchill’s Lesson for Our Time:Daryl McCann

By on May 14th, 2022

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2022/05/churchills-lesson-for-our-time/

“Churchill’s lesson is not about how to wage war—though he knew something about that as well—but how to avoid wars. The armed forces of Ukraine have bloodied the nose of the Russians and knocked Putin’s “special military operation” off balance, while thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and millions have fled the country. Putin is undoubtedly a monster but not an irrational monster, which is all the more reason why the implications of Churchill’s lesson should have been grasped by Obama and Biden. Better, by far, there had never been a Russo-Ukrainian war even if that war results in an unlikely Ukraine victory or, at least, stalemate. Hopefully, America and the West in general will take to heart Churchill’s lesson in time to stymie Xi Jinping’s designs for Taiwan.   ”

Winston Churchill has a reputation in some quarters as a warmonger, and yet nobody was as courageous and prescient in trying to avert the Second World War. His line of argument, which brought him social and political ostracism in the years immediately preceding Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, might be summarised as follows: appeasing a vainglorious demagogue was folly. In the preface to The Gathering Storm, the first part of his six-volume history of the war, he defined his theme as follows: “How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness and good nature allowed the wicked to re-arm.” On November 16, 1945, in a speech to the Belgian Senate, Churchill implored the West to “profit at least by this terrible lesson. In vain did I attempt to teach it before the war.” It could be argued that Churchill’s lesson did leave its mark, if only for the duration of the Cold War. However, Xi Jinping’s militarisation of the South China Sea and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, commencing on February 24, suggest we need to learn it all over again.

Continue reading →
HISTORY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

American military cemeteries come alive in memory of Jewish soldiers How Operation Benjamin connects people with their forgotten past and Jewish identity Samuel H. Solomon

By on May 8th, 2022

https://www.jns.org/opinion/american-military-cemeteries-come-alive-in-memory-of-jewish-soldiers/

Benjamin Garadetsky fought with courage and died on August 23,1944 in service of the 2nd Armored Division in Europe. Benjamin was just one example of the over 550,000 Jews who fought to defeat Nazism during World War II. From his birthplace in Zhitomir, Russia to the shores of Ellis Island, to the streets of the Bronx, to the battlefields of Europe, Benjamin Garadetsky lived as Jew. He died a Jewish-American hero and was laid to rest at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, along with 9,386 other heroes of the war.

And here our story begins.

For various unintended reasons—along with an estimated 500 other soldiers—Benjamin was buried under a Latin Cross and not the Star of David. One of the two main reasons for these errors was related to paperwork during the multiple reburials of these soldiers. But the more ironic reason was Jewish soldier’s reluctance to wear dog-tags with the identifying “H” for Hebrew, as they feared certain death in the hands of the Nazis, thus they enlisted as Christians. These historical errors are being painstakingly researched and corrected by a small team that has taken it upon themselves to welcome these war heroes into the bosom of the Jewish people once more.

Rabbi J.J. Schacter, Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, discovered these historical errors back in 2014 while visiting Normandy. Months later, he mentioned the missing Stars of David to a friend and military historian, Shalom Lamm. Together, they decided to take action, and their first experiment with the process was in connection to the headstone of Benjamin Garadetsky. From this experience, Operation Benjamin (www.operationbenjamin.org) was born.

Changing a soldier’s burial marker is a very difficult process, as it should be. The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) administers the Normandy American Cemetery along with 25 other cemeteries located in 17 foreign countries. These beautifully arranged and maintained cemeteries are a symbol of America’s role in defeating Nazism. They are very special and, I dare say, holy places. The ABMC is tasked with the maintenance of the integrity and beauty of these cemeteries. As such, they dictate the process by which a gravestone is changed.

Continue reading →
EDUCATION, HISTORY Comments turned off

Harvard, Slavery and Judaism What the story of Judah Monis tells us about America and the children of Israel. By Ira Stoll

By on April 29th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-slavery-and-judaism-slaveholder-judah-monis-hebrew-professor-founders-11651172214?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

Mr. Stoll is managing editor of Education Next, based at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The first Jew at Harvard was a slaveholder. That’s the bombshell, so far as I can tell, buried in the appendix of the new report “Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery,” released by the university this week.

The report’s “list of human beings enslaved by prominent Harvard affiliates” includes the “enslaved persons” Cuffy and Cicely, owned by Judah Monis. Monis lived from 1683 to 1764 and was an instructor in Hebrew at Harvard College from 1722 to 1760. In researching this article, I discovered a third possible slave, “my Negro child Moreah,” mentioned in Monis’s 1760 will.

I first encountered Monis’s name more than a decade ago while working on a biography of the American revolutionary leader Samuel Adams. Part of the required curriculum for Harvard students from 1735 to 1755 was the study of Hebrew grammar from a textbook written by Monis. That might seem like an obscure detail, but it’s of historical significance because Harvard students in that era included Samuel Adams, his cousin and the future President John Adams, and their fellow signers of the Declaration of Independence John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, William Williams, and William Ellery.

Monis had converted to Christianity from Judaism one month before joining the Harvard faculty. In a 2018 article for the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Jon D. Levenson writes that the conversion had been a condition of hiring. The baptism took place in Harvard Yard. “Although doubts about Monis’s sincerity in converting have long been raised, I am certain that he was absolutely sincere in his desire for a Harvard professorship,” Mr. Levenson writes.

Continue reading →
HISTORY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

There’s a B-17 Parked on My Desk It reminds me of what America was. Don Feder

By on April 28th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/theres-b-17-parked-my-desk-don-feder-0/

A scale model of a B-17 Flying Fortress — very detailed, with gun turrets and all — sits on my desk. It reminds me of the country we once had and what we’ve lost.

The B-17 was the most widely used strategic bomber in World War II. The Army Air Corps deployed the long-range, heavy bomber to drop 640,000 tons of bombs over Germany and Axis-occupied territory.

As much as any weapon, the B-17 won the war. By 1944, German industry was smashed. Its cities were rubble. It softened up German defenses for D-Day and the liberation of Europe.

The brave men of the Army Air Corps paid a terrible price – 18,400 aircraft were lost and 51,000 died in the skies over Europe. For comparison, that’s more than twice the number of Marines who died in WW II.

The B-17 represented a nation that knew how to defend itself and take the battle to the enemy. It was an America that was determined and unapologetic.

It was the America of the Greatest Generation that survived the Depression, won World War II and went on to create post-war prosperity that was the wonder of the world. GDP soared from $200 billion in 1940 to $500 billion in 1960.

Continue reading →
BOOKS, HISTORY Comments turned off

‘Common Sense’ Indeed by Lawrence Kadish

By on April 21st, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18465/common-sense-indeed

Founding father Thomas Paine knew a crisis when he saw one.

When America’s Revolutionary War was sputtering he wrote a powerful essay that spoke directly to the men being asked to shoulder their muskets against the British Empire and the most powerful army in the world, giving them the spirit to sustain the fight.

In his Common Sense pamphlet, “American Crisis No.1, 1776,” he shared, “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

With these inspiring words Thomas Paine dismissed the Loyalists, Tories, and traitors who were against the patriots and would throw aside the demand for independence and freedom. He would scathingly ask, “And what is a Tory? GOOD GOD! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs [Patriots] against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward, for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.”

What would Paine make of today’s American “Tories” – those against American patriotism, no longer patriots loyal to America; these might be the Americans whose enormous wealth has so altered their perception of self that they may not even view themselves as citizens of our threatened democracy? Rather, their self-concept may be that of a sovereign entity answerable only to themselves and their stockholders.

Continue reading →
BOOKS, HISTORY Comments turned off

The Middle East: An American Vision Review of Behind the Silken Curtain by Amir Taheri

By on April 20th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18437/middle-east-american-vision

“If my experiences in the days and weeks devoted to this problem have taught me any one thing, it is that everywhere the need is felt for an American foreign policy — a foreign policy so firmly embedded on principle that it will hold equally for United States troops in China or the atom bomb, or Palestine.” — Bartley Crum.

[Crum’s] account … clearly shows that President Truman, who always… sided with the forces of freedom and progress, was often opposed by his own State Department that practiced a value-free diplomacy in the name of preserving the status quo.

“We can throw our lot in with the forces… who prop up feudalistic regimes in the Arab states in the hope that these will serve as a cordon sanitaire against Soviet; who believe they can successfully continue the same processes of exploitation in the future which have proved successful in the past. Or we can throw our lot in with the progressive forces in the Middle East. We can recognize that there is a slow rising of the peoples, and that we must place ourselves on the side of this inevitable development toward literacy, health, and a decent way of life.” — Bartley Crum.

He was against a status quo that subjected the nations of the region to despotism and poverty. He also realized that Arab despots and their hangers-on used the issue of Palestine as a means of diverting attention from their own misdeeds, wasting Arab energies on xenophobia and religious bigotry. The irony in all this was that Great Britain… sided with the Arab despots, and did all it could to discourage and weaken the very forces of reform and change that Crum saw as the natural allies of Western democracies.

Continue reading →