Ostreicher: "I hope Alan Gross got to eat my rice"

Matzav:

Yanky Ostreicher was interviewed on The Dov Hikind Show on Motzoei Shabbos, speaking from Bolivia, where he is still under house arrest 16 weeks after he was released on bail.

Joining Assemblyman Dov Hikind were Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey and New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

“Every prosecutor and judge on my case is either in jail or under house arrest and I am still not out?!” asked Mr. Ostreicher with palpable pain and frustration.

“The embassy knows. The state department knows. My lawyers have received threats, but I have no security at all,” said Mr. Ostreicher, who has been incarcerated for over 685 days.

“They will have to answer why it all happened,” said Mr. Ostreicher about the Bolivians. “No one is discussing the millions of dollars worth of rice that disappeared,” he said.

During Yanky’s imprisonment, Bolivia, an impoverished country, strangely donated almost 500 tons of rice to Cuba, and Yanky says that it was his rice that was donated, adding, “I hope Alan Gross got to eat my rice,” referring to an American Jew jailed in Cuba.

Listeners to the show also heard from Yanky’s wife, Mrs. Miriam Ostreicher.

You can hear the audio of the show there too.  

This brings to mind the famous saying of Haza"l (Bava Kamma 92a):  

כל המבקש רחמים על חבירו והוא צריך לאותו דבר, הוא נענה תחילה

Whoever requests mercy for his friend while he needs the same need is answered first.

I can only add:

וּפְדוּיֵי יְהוָה יְשׁוּבוּן, וּבָאוּ צִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה, וְשִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם, עַל-רֹאשָׁם; שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יַשִּׂיגוּן, נָסוּ יָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה