BEN STEIN'S DIARY: After Munich
Stein, Benjamin J.
BEN STEIN'S DIARY After Munich by Benjamin J. Stein SATURDAY i OU WOULD NOT BELIEVE what we did today. We T woke up in Munich. Or, I should say, I woke up in Munich at the Four Seasons. My...
...it was a spectacular day with blue skies, a few clouds, and a batmy breeze...
...The people at the brasserie had a sullen, surly, demanding, never satisfied, "gimme, gimme, gimme" look like the people in Beverly Hills...
...We stopped late in the day in Verdun and looked at some sights...
...And both of them have been tortured by liberal Jews...
...But they did it and we won the war...
...My neck and back hurt badly, so I hurtled to the spa where a stunningly beautiful masseuse named Angela or Christina or something gave me a fabulous and all too wholesome massage...
...How could anyone do it...
...Yuck...
...I have the terrible fear that if the GOP loses in'06 and '08, there will be no more pro-Israel presidents and, soon, no more Israel...
...MONDAY O KAY, THIS ONE IS A MUST...
...And there are thousands whose remains were never found: drowned with heavy packs, blown to pieces by artillery, murdered after capture, perhaps...
...As Bob Dylan so aptly says, "The reason for fighting, I never did get...
...By night, myboss, Wait Ruloff, and I walked the streets...
...Why are the Germans so mean...
...Much more scraggly vegetation (but still beautiful...
...But you know what...
...The Democrats are already washing their hands of Israel, doing the kowtow to the terrorists, and refusing to support Israel wholeheartedly...
...We came upon an opera singer singing that famous aria from Traviata to a group of diners, who whistled with thanks...
...A young Frenchman touched my arm and said, "Thank you, sir," in heavily accented English...
...Great soldiers, but capable of unimaginable horrors...
...The site is perfectly kept...
...Sends its boys to die to save the world and asks only for space to bury our dead...
...Two presidents have stood up unequivocally for Eretz Israel, Nixon and Bush 43...
...I sat on a bench and looked at the beach and the slope...
...Much less clean bathrooms...
...The grass is an emerald green...
...Why do they have so much hate...
...Now, back to Paris...
...I have been back om Europe, spoken at many places, had any horrible hotel experiences, spent a few days on Nantucket, and now I am in mybed next to my 62 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 2006 BENJAMIN J . STEIN Brigid...
...Munich is as clean a city as I have ever seen...
...Kennedy wasn't totally pro-Israel...
...A statue of the goddess Germania slaying a tiger...
...The crosses and few Stars of David (actually not that few) go on forever...
...How many men died here...
...As soon as we got into France, my neck stopped hurting...
...Then I realized he was thanking me as an American for liberating his country...
...It is not easy to defeat an entrenched army in that country, especially the German army...
...How can they be so foolish...
...Not at all," I said...
...Subhuman on every level, to the Ffihrer...
...I am so happy...
...America is such a great country...
...No, from Eastern Europe...
...One taste and I spit it out...
...You are German...
...MONDAY N ~ m W, IT'S THREE WEEKS LATER...
...Two million...
...Two magnificently beautiful German policewomen strolling down the street...
...I guess that's why there is faith...
...NOVE~BER 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 63...
...But what eternal glory is theirs...
...Anyway, it all makes me think of George W. Bush...
...How can this be...
...I'm reading a review of a book tracing one Jewish family in the Ukraine and how the Nazis killed them...
...It was a long trip, and we passed many famous places...
...How any Jew could fail to vote Republican is a total mystery to me...
...Big plazas, ideal for Nazi rallies...
...I am awed that the Allies did it...
...A million...
...How could they have done it, exhausted, carrying heavy packs, soaked, hungry...
...The crosses and few Stars of David (actually not that few) go on forever...
...No Hitler...
...Verdun was haunting, the fortress immense...
...The Nazis did not just kill them in a mass, impersonal way...
...Then, our driver vaulted forward and we were in Paris...
...I really face hotels with dread because usually my room is a disappointment, but this one is spectacular...
...she asked me as I signed the tab...
...Amazing...
...But your ancestors must have been German" she said with a smile that was beyond beguiling...
...I had been in Germany for a week, and France was totally different...
...Johnson wasn't at all...
...One of the worst meals of mywhole life...
...Many cities I associate with World War I I battles...
...In a world turning ever more anti-Jew, he is a glorious beacon of love of the Jewish people and state of Israel...
...What a loser Olmert is...
...It was small but had a vivid series of exhibits of weapons and a great documentary about how the battle was won...
...In one day...
...The ones I met in Munich and Frankfurt were delightful, but I really wonder what's going on in their heads...
...Anyway, that was last night...
...The site is perfectly kept...
...No Bolshevik revolution...
...They tortured them beyond imagining, beyond any evil that can be conceived...
...Jewish...
...He's the best friend the Jewish people have ever had...
...How can God have let the Nazis pull a baby out of a woman in birth pangs, trample the baby to death in front of the mother, then have the mother nude and bloody, stand up to be mocked and killed...
...But Bush, the goy of goys, a Wasp to end all Wasps, stands up for Israel and never wavers...
...I asked for chopped steak and they gave me chopped horsemeat...
...This hotel is a PALACE...
...At the main memorial, there are war maps and a loudspeaker plays "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful...
...I sure never thought I would see that again...
...As I lay there...
...It would have been a much different story without the Red Army on our side, but then we all know that...
...The food was a catastrophe...
...The bravery of the men on both sides, the women on both sides, was amazing...
...Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu...
...It was a spectacular day with blue skies, a few clouds, and a balmy breeze...
...There were many tourists, all sober and respectful...
...The concierge directed us to a small brasserie for alate supper...
...I could not stop thanking God that I (1) never had to fight in any wars, (2) was never tormented and killed by the Nazis or anyone else, (3) get to live like this...
...They sleep here...
...For what...
...Why don't we unite behind him...
...Nothing at this point, I guess, except to pray for their souls and their families...
...And Ehud Olmert's Israel let him down so very badly...
...Today, after my nonsensuous massage, off wifey, Walt, and I went in our huge Mercedes from Munich to Paris...
...It would have been so much better if the Kaiser had won right away...
...But the cemetery at Normandy: that was glory...
...By a great effort of our travel agent, wifey and I have rooms the size of a train station, with immense chandeliers, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a continued on poge 62 60 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 2006 BEN STEIN'S DIARY staggering view of the Eiffel Tower...
...Today, our driver took my boss, Walt, my wife, and me many miles into Normandy, past many hedgerows and chateaux and then down a long, narrow road to the American Military Cemetery at Omaha Beach...
...What can we ever do to make it up to those who died there...
...But I was too tired to really get into it...
...Dwight Eisenhower often paid tribute to their skill, as well he might...
...Well, it's not up to me...
...How could these men have climbed that hill under sniper fire, machine gun fire (the Germans had by far the most rapidly firing machine gun in the war), mortar fire (the Germans were super expert at mortars), and artillery fire (the Germans were damned good at that, too...
...I firmly believe God made man, but why did He make man so evil...
...Gorgeous, stunning girls...
...Germany is a BIG country...
...There are some questions that cannot be answered...
...What a disaster...
...On the way back, we stopped at the D-Day Museum...
...The Germans have the cleanestbathrooms on earth...
...FDR certainly wasn't wild about Jews...
...Your name is Stein...
...At first I thought he mistakenly thought I was at Normandy (I was in fact not yet born on June 6, 1944...
...It was too damned far, though, and virtually vertical...
...The white of the markers, the All-American names, like in a World War I I movie, aYankee name, a Polish name, an Irish name, a Southern name, a Jewish name, the home towns, or home states, and so many of them...
...Why are they such tough soldiers...
...How can that have happened...
...He treated Israellike dirt...
...How come we don't get that, for the first time in history, we have a superpower whose leader is unequivocally pro-Jewish...
...Then, room service in our palace, and then to sleep...
...I really, really, really hate the Nazis, but they put up a hell of a fight, especially with America and the UK having total air superiority...
...Our hotel was the Westin, which used to be the InterContinental, on Rue de Rivoli and Rue de Castiglione...
...Their names are on awall that is sacred...
...How can God have let the Nazis cut the eyes out of a rabbi and then make him dance naked with the terrified young woman, then killed them both...
...It all scares me to death...
...I think Colin Powell said that, and was he ever right...
...Almost ten thousand killed here and nearby in the battles after the landings...
...Still, Angela, or whatever her name was, smiled cheerfully and asked me to come back next time I was in Munich...
...No comparison...
...I really was not sure I could walk back up...
...After the neat, buttoned-down Germans, the French did not look appealing at all...
...I was very touched...
...My whole life is a prayer of gratitude and so should the life of every healthy American be...
...It is so clear: one party is united behind the Jews and Israel, and one party is divided and gives an uncertain sound...
...People happily eating in outdoor cafes...
...Much slobbier-looking people...
...I am just glad I did not have to live and die in muddy, rat-infested, cold, deadly Verdun trenches and fields...
...Then she said, in German, "Now for a good German song," and she sang some oom-pahpah song...
...No, this is wrong...
...But most Jews still vote for the party that is not behind Israel wholeheartedly...
...We did some filming, and then I walked down a path to the actual beach...
...Germans scare me a lot...
...It is right across the street from the Hotel Cambon where I stayed with Mom and Pop and my sister in 1958...
...Ike, for all his greatness, wasn't...
Vol. 39 • November 2006 • No. 9
