Everything changed last night and the world will never be the same after President Donald Trump ordered the military to take action against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Two Navy warships fired 50 Tomahawk missiles upon a Syrian airfield from which chemical weapons were dropped on civilians, killing some 80, including children.

It was the slaughter of children that provoked Trump and led him to change his mind about interfering with force in the throes of Syria’s civil war – though he was critical of Obama for declaring a red line during a previous chemical assault but that saw no action from Obama. 

Trump sent a message to Assad that indeed there’s a new sheriff in town. At the same time, Trump alerted the nations that this President means business and that the days of taking the United States for granted are over. His UN envoy Nikki Haley has been his voice of change at the UN – warning the nations that the United States has had its fill of Israel bashing while ignoring war crimes throughout the rest of the world.

In his message last night, Trump vowed to stop Assad and asked the civilized world to join him in eradicating terrorism everywhere. 

He did not mention North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. But that is one Supreme Leader that got a wake-up call, as did every other tyrant.

World leaders everywhere will now have to think twice before going ahead rashly. This includes Putin.

Americans got the news at around 8 pm last night. Full coverage was immediate throughout the cable networks.

CNN bested Fox news with sharper and more immediate facts and analysis. Anderson Cooper was factual and let the experts speak.

Fox News’ Shepard Smith was unable to mask his disdain for the President and kept interrupting his analysts with critical and inappropriate asides.

This was no time for backstabbing, but there was more of it on MSNBC. 

A time like this, our military in action, is no time for bickering. The news media, so hostile to Trump from day one, will have to find a new voice in which to speak to America, whether Trump speaks their political language or not. Americans won’t tolerate divisiveness while our servicemen are in hostile waters – and certainly not when the job is about putting a stop to the random killing of infants.

For Israel there is a dark undercurrent to Trump’s response. The Palestinian Arabs who’ve been waging terrorism against Israel throughout the years, namely the PA and Hamas, have surely taken note at Trump’s heightened sensibilities toward children – they watch and they learn. 

They learn that harming infants is one way to get at Trump, and so Israel must be prepared for a Gaza war aimed not to defeat Israel by arms, but through bombing Israeli towns and villages, and creating terror on the streets, drawing the IDF into a conflict that leaves Israel no choice but to move in at all costs. Otherwise the risk to the Jewish State would be unbearable.

Hamas has perfected the use of human shields to wage warfare through soliciting sympathy…with the PA’s Mahmoud Abbas cheering on.

They did it three times previously – 2008, 2012, 2014.

Hamas and the PA care nothing for the number of children that get killed, Jewish children and even their own children – if it makes a point.

So that’s Israel’s challenge against this epidemic of terrorism that has spread throughout the world.   

Trump’s world is a new world and we all better start getting used to it, for the best we trust, and so far, so good.

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