This is not complicated Part of what made Churchill so great was his uncompromising approach between the extremes. There was nothing complicated about this. There is good. There is evil. There is right, and there is wrong. Period. While others dithered, for Churchill, there were no ambiguities. There would be no concessions, and no pity. Pity the Nazis? Never give up. Never give in, was his summons to the nation. Victory at all costs. Churchill came to mind while I listened to a Rabbi on YouTube. The topic of his sermon was Israel. He is a Conservative Rabbi, with a large congregation, so what he says, counts. I catch him on YouTube, now and then, and I like him. He has a commanding presence, and he is a gifted orator. So what’s my complaint? He visits Israel frequently, now more often than ever before to offer his support for the people and the government during this time of crisis. A delegation of other Conservative Rabbis goes with him. Good people. Maybe too good? Did he mention Trump’s plan to expel the Palestinian Arabs out of Gaza…to find a better home some other place? That would have been too political, for a sermon. So I don’t think he did…not directly. But it was obvious that this was on his mind. This has been on everybody’s mind. I wrote about it as something whose time has come. Israel has had a bellyful of them. Let them go, or make them go. How did they get there in the first place? Before 2005, much of Gaza was Gush Katif, a utopia for Israeli farmers whose cutting-edge produce was a step ahead from the rest of the world. Then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon forcibly removed them for a population of Palestinian Arabs, and the rest is history of the worst kind, culminating in Oct. 7. Parenthetically, on January, 26, I wrote the column, “A new sheriff in town.” In it, I predicted that at some point, Trump would get disgusted at Hamas for the slow pace of these hostage exchanges, and would insist on one final full exchange to settle the matter once and for all…or else there would be hell to pay. I said he’d give them till High Noon. Nu, I was right, and he is giving them until Saturday. Meantime, how does a man, yes, Sharon, go from hawk to dove so unexpectedly? Is it something in our genes? The Torah feared this about us, our propensity to turn soft. Rather, in terms of Amalek, Scripture says, “Your eyes shall not pity them.” Followed by, “Remember what they did to you…” Remember their cruelties when we left Egypt weak and weary from years of slavery. Remember… and at the same time, blot them out utterly, completely. Churchill got the message against the Nazis. Did this Rabbi get the message against Hamas and Palestinian Arabs in general? “Remember what they did to you Oct. 7, 2023.” Was he urging Israel to blot them out utterly, completely? Instead, he said the situation is complicated. He ended his sermon urging peaceful coexistence. Complicated? Co-existence with barbarians? What can be simpler than a war between good and evil, and when will we, as Jews, stop being more merciful than God Almighty? New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva. He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” His novel, “Compulsive,” motivated John W. Cassell to declare “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Contact here Jack Engelhard banner Courtesy NOW AVAILABLE: The collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, Writings, here Plus, a free sample chapter of his noir gambling thriller, Compulsive, is available from his website, here.
