Botlókövek - Slipping Stones

A new fashion in Budapest: street stones with a memorial for Jews  killed while serving as unarmed forced labor within the Hungarian army fighting with the Nazi Army in Russia. They are calle "botlókövek" which means more or less street stones that make one slip. The left stone says: Here lived Tyroler Gyula (Julius) born 1902, killed in Ostrogodjsk while in forced labor, the 6th of August 1942.  He must have been among the 900 Hungarian Jewish civilians forced to serve the 10,000 strong Hungarian expeditionary soldiers. Osztrogozsszk is a place near the bend of the river Don where the German and allied (Hungarian and Italian) forces suffered a bloody defeat  by the attacking Red Army led by Sverlov. The detailed description of the battle - in Hungarian - can be seen in this book. My father was there and returned with frozen feet.  

The Wiki: On 13 January 1943, the Soviets began the second stage of Little Saturn, the Voronezh–Kharkov Offensive. The Bryansk Front, Voronezh Front, and Southwestern Front attacked simultaneously. The Soviet attack totally successful this time: during the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive the Soviets rapidly destroyed Second Army near Svoboda on the Don River. An attack on the German Second Army further north threatened to encircle that army as well, forcing it to retreat. By 5 February, troops of the Voronezh Front were approaching Kharkov. Second Army's losses were made especially severe by the attitude of its commander, Colonel General Vitéz Gusztáv Jány, who forbade any sort of withdrawal, even though the neighboring German and Italian forces pulled back. Most of Second Army was encircled. They were either annihilated or succumbed to the extreme cold (-30C – -40C) while trying to escape. The 1st Armored Division was reduced to a single operational tank within a few days, and most of the personnel of the 1st Air Group died on the ground when their airfields were overrun by Soviet tanks.

During its twelve months of activity on the Eastern Front, Second Army's losses were enormous. Of an initial force of about 200,000 Hungarian soldiers and 50,000 Jewish forced laborers,^[4] about 100,000 were dead, 35,000 wounded, and 60,000 taken prisoners of war. Only about 40,000 men returned to Hungary, scapegoated by Hitler for the catastrophic Axis defeat. "No nation lost as much blood during World War II in such a short period of time."^[5]

Second Army, like most other Axis armies in Army Group B, ceased to exist as a meaningful fighting force. The German Sixth Army, encircled in Stalingrad, surrendered on 2 February 1943. The remnants of Second Army returned to Hungary on 24 May 1943.

Laziness

Pictured: La Paresse (Laziness) by Félix Vallotton (1896). 

I like it.

The Price of the Alliance with the USA

We are allied with the USA and we enjoy its vital political support. But now a colossal rival has rised to dispute American hegemony, the Agatean Empire (as by Terry Pratchett) and America is calling its debts of goodwill. Last week, in the middle of the worlwide corona epidemic, the all-powerful Secretary of State made a short visit to us and discretely reminded us of our friendship.

I can imagine a very polite conversation over tea in the garden about the weather with some vague mention of advances in telecommunication and the taste of desalinated water, because that was the English style and Mr Pompeo is American and probably drinks coffee and his style is direct. We understood (how not to!) and immediately (yes! immediately) the Soreq2 desalination plant project was given to an Israeli-European consorcium and not to the cheaper and better Chinese, and of course the advanced and efficient Huawei will not allowed to put a feet in Israel. We are paying the price of American alliance, in this war we are faithfully with America. Not that the Chinese ever did something bad to us, and personally I like the Chinese and admire their hard work and can-do spirit.
But they dared to compete with America and that will not do. Look what happened to the Japanese.

Ill.: The Athenian tetradrachm, the US dollar of Antiquity, the currency of the so called Delian Alliance (symmachia).  

P.S.: Ron Unz predicted this outcome a few day ago. Unz is conspiracy maniac but this time he was right. Quote: "The classic 1972 film The Godfather ranks #2 in the IMDb Movie Database, and one of its most famous scenes concerns a conflict between a powerful and arrogant Hollywood film mogul and a visiting representative of the Corleone family. When the polite requests of the latter are casually disregarded, the movie tycoon awakens to discover the bloody head of his prized race-horse in his own bed, thereby demonstrating the serious nature of the warning he had received and indicating that it should not be disregarded. Pompeo had recently served as CIA Director, and I suspect he called in a few favors with elements of the Israeli Mossad and had them take lethal steps to convince Netanyahu that our demands that he reassess his ties with China were of a serious nature, not to be treated lightly. I strongly suspect that the controversial Chinese-Israeli economic ventures will soon be curtailed or abandoned."

No real children in the streets

"It is startling to see actual San Francisco children in the movie — they did not seem to be hired extras." writes Tyler Cowen in Marginal REVOLUTION blog. He is comparing a 1970 movie with today's street scenes. You cannot see children on the streets of San Francisco. Neither in most European capitals. Cowen appears to take for granted that the children in today's movies (and reality?) are hired extras. For a change: a Jewish Street in London, today, from The Guardian.

The Renewed Rumbach Street Synagogue

Built a hundred years ago, the synagogue was renewed and is, I think, quite amazing. Pity that there is not even a minian there. A museum, a beautiful tomb. Budapest, May 2020. 

Progress of the Shimon Peres Regional Peace Plan

Peres' vision was that Israel becomes the supplier of water and energy to the surrounding countries, our enemies, creating a closeknit economic network that would make war against us not only prohibitive but suicidal. The Dead-Med project was to be start of this network, but failed to advance, mostly because Jordan's opposition to openly cooperate with Israel. However, Jordan is silently accepting free water from the Kinneret, feeding its capital Amman. It is faithfully guarding the common border, and fighting anti-Israel terrorism.

The coming large water supply project is the Soreq 2 desalination plant, producing 200 million cubic meters of drinking water. As with former desalination projects, this one is also managed by the Ministry of Treasure - the Otzar -, specifically by Itzig Marmelstein (pic), a young economist. As before, the role of the Water Authority is marginal. The project has to solve the difficult dilemma that the best, maybe the only feasible, proposal is Chinese, and Pompeo will punish us if we decide for the Chinese option.

We do not need additional water, we have nowhere to store it. Therefore, I assume that it is another go towards the realization of Peres' vision. The water supply situation in Jordan is catastrophic and worsening, and will have to rely on Israel. Amman is supplied water once a week, smaller cities once every two weeks. Water demand is growing (last decade it added one million Syrian refugees and the population is exploding) and much of the sources are fossil, non-replenished aquifers. Jordan is vocally against buying natural gas from Israel, yet somehow we managed to sell some to them.

Jordan's political situation is similar to Gaza, all the infrastructure investments are foreign donations. Jordanians can demonstrate and throw stones at the border fence, and can imitate Orwell's 1984 holding daily "Hate Israel" meetings, they can cry and protest life's injustice, but one day with on-off supply of electricity and water is sufficient to remind them who is who.

  

I Got Plenty of Nothing

Oh, I got plenty o' nuttin'

And nuttin's plenty for me
I got no car, got no mule
I got no misery
De folks wid plenty o' plenty
Got a lock on de door
'Fraid somebody's a-goin' to rob 'em
While dey's out a-makin' more
What for?