This time we’re watching and taking you to account. We’re on top of every move you make. 

This is not 1933, nor is it 1943. Things are different. Israel is the big difference and what a difference a generation makes.

These days Israel celebrates the 69th Anniversary of its Independence. The Jewish State is not to be trifled, as were the Jews in the good old days.

Back then when you kicked us around you managed to get the cooperation of The New York Times and others to hide your dirty work.

The papers – led by the Times – let you off the hook as you rounded up, shot and gassed millions of our people. 

They buried the news on the back pages. 

Sorry to bring it up, all that, especially in this era of reconciliation, but it didn’t come from us – that sucker punch.  

The news today is about your foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, and the disgusting thing he did – with your approval, Angela Merkel.

That was a bad move on the part of your foreign minister. He travelled to Israel where he was sure to be warmly welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Minister Gabriel chose to meet both, one at a time, the Prime Minister of Israel – and at least two fanatical leftist groups who seek Israel’s destruction.

That was too much of an insult and against the norms of diplomacy. But the Israelis were willing to overlook it as a faux pas that only needed correcting.

Netanyahu offered a fix and a simple choice – “them or me.” Minister Gabriel chose them, and Chancellor Merkel, given a chance to reflect and make amends, has instead been quoted as saying that snubbing the Prime Minister of Israel was okay with her, too. 

“Yes he has my backing,” she said of her foreign minister who tossed a coin that landed wrong side up.

Would he have your backing, Miss Merkel, if he’d been as bad mannered against any other country, for example Saudi Arabia?

Or would that be considered diplomatically too rude from one country to another, particularly if that other country practiced Islam?

Chances are you’d make your bows to Sharia, given the six million Muslims invited into Germany to replace the Six Million Jews Germany extinguished.

You would offer the respect that is owed to any sovereign nation. That’s how it works. Allies are courteous one nation to another. Sensitivities are respected.

Except – once again – for the Jews? 

That sort of German arrogance is all too familiar to the Jewish people. Throughout these past decades of polite give-and-take we’ve had suspicions that you’ve only been hiding your true colors, and now we wonder if our suspicions have been justified. 

Finding Mein Kampf stocked high in many German bookstores has been no comfort to the few, or the many, who thought Germany was truly a new Germany.

What sort of message was Minister Gabriel sending – and what is your story Chancellor Merkel?

That you are still the boss…that the Jews can still be pushed around?

That’s exactly how it comes across. Only this time your behavior won’t be tucked inside the back pages.

This time you’re making headlines.  

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva. His books, including “The Bathsheba Deadline,” are available from Amazon and other retailers. Engelhard wrote the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and the award-winning Montreal memoir “Escape from Mount Moriah.” His latest is “News Anchor Sweetheart.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com