No doubt Hamas is in it for the long game. At this rate, the Israel we know and love will hardly be recognizable in, say, about a year, and that, as I see it, is how long Hamas is prepared to drag this out. Never mind a year from now. Israel is already occupied by Hamas, which gets to dictate the terms for the release of two or three hostages, sometimes dead, sometimes alive, in exchange for hundreds of terrorists…a handshake made out of desperation that led to capitulation, defeat and surrender. Hamas were awarded the keys to the city. They get to say where, when and how. We wait to sweat it out. That is all we are left with from this deal. Who signed off on this? Where is our Patton? Where is our Churchill? (“Victory at any price.”) How does Israel, a nation that produced the wisdom of King Solomon, always get outsmarted? We lead the world per capita for Nobel Prizes…but brutes, thugs, misfits lead us by the nose. The typical picture of Israel, these days, features Hamas. They get to be the stars. They get to make this movie. We play the extras, as they get to triumph….in view of Israel and the entire world. They get to strut their superiority because they have ways against the Jews. Can hardly go a day without them starring on TV…bloated with arrogance. They’ve got their eyes on Israel as a long-term investment…and do only I see this? There are people in Israel much smarter than me, but I’m afraid that too many fail to grasp the big picture. If Hamas gets to play this out, the endgame is nowhere in sight. At this rate, Israel will always have them as a partner who rule separately. Ridiculous? But it is happening already, from one hostage release to another. At about three at a time, with some 50 to go, Hamas has a year, or years, to game the process. For all that time. Israel is in their hands, as the entire nation waits breathlessly for their next act in the movie that they are producing and directing. For the sake of Zion, this can’t go on. Israel needs to be Israel again…the tiny nation that could. Where are all the smart people who made the desert bloom, who vanquished five Arab armies in 1967, and who performed the miracle at Entebbe? To say, “we will settle scores with them,” is not enough. We need people who think and act outside the box. We need Israel to become recognizable again…as the land we know and love. 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 Engelhard books J.Engelhard 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 .
