Jack Engelhard has updated his famous column of November 10, 2020 written after Trump's defeat to reflect Trump's 2024 victory.
For all the four years of Trump's first term there was a sense of warmth and comfort knowing that Israel was going to be all right so long as Trump was in office.
Israel…certainly America…would be tucked in safely so long as Trump was boss. No more sleepless nights with John Kerry and the entire Obama gang on the prowl.
That nightmare was over. So we thought. So I thought, and I guess I should speak for myself since mine are entirely private views.
So that’s how it was during the dark days when nearly every Democrat was Israel’s judge and executioner, as they are today… and no need to mention Omar and the Squad.
In 2020, we thought that was to be done. Finished. Old Business. Never to come around again. It did not occur to me…it dared not occur to me…that here we go again.
We celebrated Israel without fear of being placed on an enemies’ list – which is being developed by AOC and her crew, even as we speak.
Then Trump lost and it became even worse after October 2023, while Israel fought an existential war on seven fronts.
If indeed Biden wins, we realized in 2020, the same people are BACK…and coming with a vengeance. They will be coming with scores to settle.
They won’t be happy until all debts are paid.
A perfect storm is coming, we thought
Say it ain’t so? But it was. Then.
Like Young Love that only happens once, during Biden's term I missed those four golden years when between Trump and Israel it was nearly all honeymoon. I had thought it would go on forever, forgetting that presidents and administrations come and go. But not this one, I believed. This one would stay. At least four more years. How silly of me, I know.
But that’s how comfortable I felt then, knowing Trump was in office and all is right with the world. Before that, everything was so wrong.
We had been through eight years of curses. How about an equally long run of blessings?
Then, in 2024, along came Trump again. Thank G-d. Thank G-d. Thank G-d.
No harm could come to the Jewish State so long as Trump is its Night Watchman. Over and over again he proved himself more than a friend, but as Israel’s brother.
It’s the kind of older brother who puts his arm around you, and says, “Don’t worry, kid, I’m always at your side.”
Yes, he was…and speaking of Trump in the past tense after 2020 was verily heartbreaking, and Thank God that is over.
By only a few thousand (suspicious) votes, the world was turned upside-down four years ago. Though the media would make us ignore the recounts that could change everything back again, and set the world straight again. Now the victory was clear, too conclusive to fight.
Like Gary Cooper in “High Noon,” Trump in 2020 was that lonesome figure who acted heroically for Israel while the rest of the town cravenly fell away, one by one, and deserted him.
He would be Israel’s cowboy…traditionally the mythic he-man who in one person reflects the ideal American.
A reader wrote then: “I always thought I was stronger than I feel now, but the thought of Biden, Harris, the Clintons and Obamas, the Schiffs and Schumers all partying with the Ayatollas and Abbas, ....the licking of chops by all those who literally own Biden and Harris .... it\'s tough to stomach.”
Do you understand what he means? Of course you do. So do I, particularly the thought on strength, and how at that terrible moment strength had been taken from us.
Taken from me, for sure.
Trump at my side again, I feel free to take on all of Israel’s enemies, and I feel safe to express my love for Israel cheerfully, full-throated and unconditionally.
I know the informers are watching. But they do not have the power anymore. Trump has the power. So I have the power. So we all have the power who bled and rejoiced for Israel.
We can celebrate Israel without fear of being placed on an enemies’ list – which is being developed by AOC and her crew, even as we speak.
We can fight for Israel and we can win.
A world without Trump would have been a world that does not care.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.
He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal,” the authoritative newsroom epic, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” followed by his coming-of-age classics, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” and, the Holocaust-to-Montreal memoir, “Escape from Mount Moriah.” For that and his 1960s epic “The Days of the Bitter End,” contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com