The Left is Left Out in Left Field

This is not the time and venue to go into a deep analysis of the current situation with Russia and the Ukraine, though it does have potential repercussions worldwide.  If Putin retakes the Crimea, for example, what will his thoughts be regarding Alaska?  If the United States is perceived as weak and unwilling to flex its military and diplomatic muscle, then will the Japanese decide to depend upon themselves for military defenses?  And if so, what will be their designs on Korea? (Remember that unrestrained Japanese military power has brought about incidents at Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Manila, Nanking and Alexandra Hospital, et cetera).  And so on.

My perspective is colored by the fact that I am a Jewish American, and all four of my grandparents came here from what is now the former Soviet Union.  Two of my grandparents were from the Ukraine and one was from the Crimea (which had not yet been officially turned over to the Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier who himself was from the Ukraine).

I am concerned for the safety and well-being of the Jewish communities in the Ukraine and the Crimea. Historically, neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians have been particularly friendly towards us, nor have many other ethnic groups in the mix, including the Crimean Tartars, many of whom collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.  On the other hand, I have no quarrel with the Russian or Ukrainian or Tartar or anyone else who lives his or her life and minds his or her business and does not assault or attack others.

The situation is very complex, and very dangerous, to say the least.

On the college campus where I teach, there is a small but vocal group of leftists (or rather, far, far left of the left leftists) who regularly set up tables to pass out their pap propaganda in support of all kinds of leftist causes (and against freedom and American causes, but that is redundant).  Today, their tables were not set up in the usual locations, and the useful idiots were nowhere to be found in the Student Union building.

My foray to the Student Union building (I had a meeting with someone whose office happens to be there) was just a sample of one.  But I cannot help but wonder what the Red Lefties are trying to mentally wrestle with when they know that they will receive ridicule at best for backing the Comintern Conspiracy, and are too much owned on a lock, stock, and barrel basis by the Communist Party  to back the Ukrainians.

These are not fun times to be a leftist.

Rest in Peace, Richard -- Or Not!

 

There are two ways (at least) of viewing the late Richard Ben Kramer, the Pulitzer Prize laureate journalist who died on 7 January 2013.  The MSM obituaries praise his brilliant journalistic talent, and point to his political campaign and sports writings as exemplars for the Fourth Estaters.

But Richard Ben Kramer's writings also gave aid and comfort to the downtrodden unfortunate darlings of the Left, the so-called Palestinians.  During some of the active conflicts such as the Yom Kippur War, RBK went in to write about the sufferings of those people, in a way which somehow blamed if not criticized Israel for defending itself, nay, even existing.

Accordingly, he can be viewed either as (1) a true humanitarian who genuinely believed that some empathy and understanding could bring about peaceful co-existence; or (2) a self-hating Jewish dhimmi useful idiot.

Quite frankly, I remain undecided.  The reason I give RBK the benefit of a concededly tenuous doubt is that I recall one article, after a series of Israel-bashing ones, which, for a change, was sympathetic to the Jews who could not leave Damascus, where their families had lived for hundreds of years and who were oppressed by the Assad regime in Syria.

While my assessment of RBK's intent is undecided, I can state, without reservation, that whether through design or ill-advised ignorance, RBK's hands have some sprinkles of the blood of the thousands of Jews, Israeli and otherwise, killed by Muslim terrorists in the years following RBK's Middle East reporting junkets.

G-d will decide whether Richard Ben Kramer rests in peace or burns in Gehinnom.