If this was the plan - to remove the Jews from Gaza in order to create a paradise for all the world's trash - why then, this plan is operating wonderfully.


Theft, arson, murder, rape, blood-sucking, head-hunting, honor-killing, kidnapping - it's all there in Gaza, where once, thousands of Israelis thrived peacefully and productively. Suddenly, these Israelis were told that it's time to pack up and go to make room for a generation that murders and abducts for fun and for profit.


Kidnapping, for example, is how business is done.



(Please note that there are plenty of honest, hardworking Arabs in Gaza, but that they have no shot within the prevailing thugocracy.)


The latest hostage in Gaza's Come-As-You-Are guest program is Alan Johnston of the BBC. As of this writing, nobody knows if he's dead or alive.


We're told - matter-of-factly - that kidnapping, for example, is how business is done in that part of the world. As if? As if, so what's wrong with that? It's just another day at the marketplace, the shuk. Instead of apples and oranges, these people trade in humans. You got a problem with that?


The BBC never did care much either way, after all, business is business, and cared even less that Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit had been taken hostage over there in A Town Without Pity. This hardly made the news, because - nu, what else do you expect from Gaza? The usual rules don't apply, and if you were to round up the usual suspects you'd have to round up just about everybody.


Johnston's abduction was given about 10 seconds during the BBC's nightly telecasts so as not to ruffle the inhabitants of Gaza, who are immune from criticism and protected under some form of Endangered Species provision. Gradually, though, as Palestinian Arab journalists themselves hit the streets, the BBC began to lift the story to a headline.


Now, Johnston's abduction is important, but it's also important for the BBC to refrain from mentioning that all this is taking place under the "leadership" of Mahmoud Abbas, the Holocaust denier who met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert within the week of Holocaust Remembrance Day.


On orders from Condoleezza Rice, these "leaders" are to meet once every two weeks to work out a Palestinian State, the same kind of state that exists at this very moment in Sodom - I mean, Gaza. Ms. Rice wants these two to snuggle up and behave like good little puppies; and when Condi says heel, Olmert heels.


Johnston, give him credit. He was one of a handful (if that much) of Gaza reporters who actually reported from Gaza. That takes guts. Most international reporters file their stories from Jerusalem. Why go to Gaza where people can (and do) get kidnapped and killed, when, instead, it is far safer to absolve Gaza and blame Israel from the American Colony Hotel, which offers all the comforts of home.

We cannot expect the BBC's Barbara Plett to weep for Shalit.



What do the terrorists want in exchange for Johnston (dead or alive)? We don't know. What do they want for Shalit? Abbas and his fellow terrorists want the jails emptied of - well, of all their fellow terrorists. This amounts to thousands of Arabs in exchange for a single Israeli; and in the world where beheadings are considered normal, such a swap is considered reasonable.


We cannot expect the BBC's Barbara Plett to weep for Shalit, as she wept for the dying Yasser Arafat Mon Amour. (Shalit is Jewish.) But where are her tears for classmate Johnston? Those will come the moment the BBC finds some way, somehow, to fault Israel - you know, terrorists can't help themselves, and all the troubles facing 300 million Arabs fall on Israel's five and a half million Jews.


All along, the BBC (and the rest of the world) wanted Gaza "returned" to the Arabs. Now, the BBC wants its man Johnston returned from the Arabs. That is quite a fix for the BBC - how to make it all come out nice and clean while never conceding that the population transfer was a mistake.


But if that was the plan, hatched by Condi to Ariel Sharon to Olmert, to provide Gaza as a depot for the world's fiercest criminals, then - how clever! Guns rule the streets and the homes, and it's every man for himself. Lawlessness is the law. Brilliant! But this plan has one error. What about the neighbors, namely, Israel?


Perhaps Olmert, as he continues to figure out how to give away the rest of Judea and Samaria, can also figure out where to place the "Do Not Disturb" sign.


Part 12 of The Bathsheba Deadline, Jack Engelhard's latest novel, is now available. This installment of the serialized novel, the first published by Amazon.com, may well be its grand finale. Click here to find out! Haven't started reading it yet? Click the link and scroll down - all previous installments are there and ready to be downloaded.