Along the Internet, the buzz is about the butchery and bloodbath in Gaza. One contributor at freerepublic.com asks, "Do we get our money back?" This was in reference to the millions that were funneled into the Palestinian Authority, all for nothing. A second contributor gave this response: "We don't deserve to get our money back if we're that
What happened to Shimon Peres? He now serves as President of Israel.
stupid."

Stupid? Let's count the ways.

As soon as Mahmoud Abbas fled to Ramallah, leaving behind American money and American weapons for Hamas, Condoleezza Rice phoned Abbas to assure him that America stands behind him one hundred percent. He can count on more American money and more American weapons.

After all, we don't want to abandon an ally who wants to destroy Israel just as much as does Hamas - only in stages. Abbas's Fatah wants Israel in increments. Hamas wants it in one swoop. This makes him a friend and a moderate, Abbas. We will follow him and support him and prop him up wherever he goes running and hiding. We are much more comfortable with his brand of terror.

There's already a report that the United States has sent over $40 million to "president" Abbas. That fast! Snap, and the money is there, pronto. The citizens of wasted New Orleans, many still waiting in lines and filling out papers, must be wondering why that kind of money wasn't so quickly available for them, as victims of Hurricane Katrina.

(Despite an alleged economic boycott against the PA, more international money flowed into its coffers in 2006, sideways, than ever before. Meantime, the man who worked in the capacity as treasurer of the PA admitted, some months ago, that he cannot account for hundreds of millions that arrived from the United States and elsewhere. The money just disappears.)

Stupid?

Dennis Ross now serves as a TV expert on the Middle East. There he is on Fox or CNN explaining how of course it all went wrong in Gaza. He knew it all along. But he has a solution. He forgets to mention that, as State Department envoy some 10 years ago, he won those painful concessions from Israel that created all this chaos. That was his solution back then, all of it wrong and wrong-headed from A to Z, but he is still an expert and is never asked to explain or to apologize for his folly.

Stupid?

Today, Mortimer Zuckerman, billionaire, publisher, philanthropist, real estate tycoon, friend of Israel, writes lengthy editorials about how mistaken it was to evict Israel from Gaza. He writes, in his U.S. News and World Report, that since the evictions, "not one day of peace has followed." He sees it so clearly now, that "there is no Palestinian partner for peace."

Yesterday, that is, the day those Israelis were evicted from Gaza, this same friend of Israel raised millions not for the displaced Jews, but for the Palestinian Arabs.

Does he beat his heart for his costly foolishness? Does he cry, "I have sinned"? Are you kidding?

Stupid?

Shimon Peres brought this on as much anyone. Peres not only favored, but fathered, the Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian Authority, now on the run and in shambles. Peres was gung-go for the dream of "land for peace." Now Peres's dream is a nightmare. Hamas's Islamic terrorists now sit at Israel's door, ready to pounce with Israeli and American supplied guns and bullets - most of it Peres's doing. Gaza is Peres's Waterloo.
Fatah wants Israel in increments. Hamas wants it in one swoop.

What happened to Shimon Peres? He now serves as President of Israel.

Stupid?

When it comes to cut-and-run, when it comes showing the enemy that Israel is always ready (as in Lebanon) to surrender, the prize goes to Ehud Barak.

What happened to Ehud Barak? He has just been elected to lead Israel's Labor Party.

Stupid?

There is now talk that, even as terrorist Abbas can't hold on to anything, he is to be rewarded with a state on the "West Bank," with East Jerusalem as his capital.

You can't make this up. Really, you can't.

Jack Engelhard's latest novel, The Bathsheba Deadline, predicted the Hamas takeover, the kidnappings of journalists and more over the course of two years and 12 installments on Amazon.com! Part 12 of this serialized novel, the first published by Amazon, can be accessed here. Haven't started reading it yet? Click the link and scroll down - all previous installments are there and ready to be downloaded.