
Ionesco’s play “Rhinoceros” takes us to a small town where one day a rhino appears causing fear and trembling among the citizens, until gradually, one by one, they all fall under the spell of this green monster and become rhinos themselves. The allure of mindless brute force was too much to resist.
A case of life imitates art.
Because imagine what it’s like for Jewish students, post Oct 7, to find their campus turned into a different world.
Before Oct 7, these Jewish kids were just like the rest. Their Jewishness was no big deal. They attended the same classes as their non-Jewish friends, rooted for the same football team, shared secrets, exchanged homework, laughed, giggled at the same jokes, with no hint that in a snap, everything was about to change.
Their classmates, their instructors, their professors had become monsters. Not all of them, but enough of them to turn the college experience into a nightmare, contrary to the expectation that the college years would be the last stage to enjoy the sweetness of youth, a time to celebrate, savor and appreciate that particular age of innocence for a lifetime.
All that’s been shattered. On the very campus where they walked with friends…they have no friends. Or, they don’t know which are these, and which are those.
Being Jewish is a big deal, after all.
On campus…those who dare…they are met with people who scowl, sneer and shriek “river to the sea” and Allah-hu Akbar.
Many of these are here on visas from Jihad-festering hell-holes and bring with them ancient grudges. The others are homegrown American stooges.
Their antisemitism needed only a scratch to surface.
The “pro-Palestinian” crowd is having it their way.
Of all those “Palestine” flags being waved in NYC and throughout America, some might rightfully ask, whose country is this anyway?
Under the guise of Islamic Studies, that is what we’ve brought into our country, and into our universities as teachers and students. (Must read Chapter 8.)
No wonder then, that so many Jewish kids are terrified…afraid to step foot on campus, afraid to attend class.
They don’t know which professors are their friends, or merely neutral, and which of them tore down those posters of the hostages being held by Hamas.
Where are the counter rallies? The one held in DC…very nice. But it changes nothing, day to day, for Jewish students, or for Jews anywhere.
As we write, some “Palestinian Arab” office is naming Jewish individuals and businesses as targets in New York City. They are calling for “direct action,” whatever that means.
Back to campus, the Jewish kids I’ve spoken to share one feeling when it’s time for class…dread and nausea.
They are waiting for their Christian and Asian friends to stand up and be counted. They are still waiting.
Or have they too changed colors…which brings us to Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, who are apparently at odds with Ben Shapiro.
Shapiro, so far as I get the story from YouTube, is disappointed that fellow conservatives, namely Tucker and Candace, are not on his side for Israel and against Hamas.
I’ve wondered the same thing. All along I’ve been fans, of Candace in particular, a black woman fearless to take on and tear apart BLM.
But where is she on Israel when Israel and Jews everywhere can use a strong conservative voice of support? Where is Tucker? Seemingly indifferent.
Their conservatism has limits, and it stops with the Jews.
Too bad. Been good to know ya. So long…and as for that hyped up regular on the PBD podcast (Vinny?} who says people should be allowed to ask questions about Oct 7, suggesting, as I heard it, that there is another side to the story, so tell us then, if a neighbor’s wife and kids were raped and hacked to death…would they be interested in your other side of the story?
For all this negativity there is one shining bright spot. In Israel there are tears, but no despair. All are in it together with firm resolve toward complete victory.
The Israelis need to stop explaining themselves. Finish the job…the rest of the world be damned.
There is no half measure, not this time, for the IDF, King David’s Army.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.
He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal,” the authoritative newsroom epic, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” followed by his coming-of-age classics, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” and, the Holocaust-to-Montreal memoir, “Escape from Mount Moriah.” For that and his 1960s epic “The Days of the Bitter End,” contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Contact here.

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.