Has Trump ever had a good day? Have I? Have you?
From Jerusalem, a woman writes to me, saying, “i want my old troubles back.”
The lamentation, such as this, came soon after Oct 7 … a date that will live in infamy…and people who quote FDR as saying a Day, have it wrong.
As FDR had it for Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7 was a Date which (should be THAT) will live in infamy, for the United States. So too Oct. 7 for Israel.
The specification is important, because for an exact moment onward, everything changed for Jews everywhere, for Israelis, emphatically, and for the world.
Nothing would ever be the same. We all want our old troubles back. Bonnie Kaye’s last words to me were, “Jack, I can’t remember the last time I had a good day.”
This woman of valor, a valiant fighter for Israel to the last breath, the self-appointed “president of my fan club,” a friend to the end, left us months before Oct. 7.
It was Bonnie who insisted that we collect my most recent op-eds into a book. I was reluctant. Because my motto of life is simply, “Nobody cares.”
I was right. Mine enemies will be glad to know, and that goes for critics who are free to critique all they want, but too cowardly to give their names.
Yes, Dick. I hold an advanced belt in Krav Maga, and I served as an American Volunteer in the IDF, Dick.
Well, King David also had enemies, and for Moses, there was always Korach.
We tend to focus on the empty seat in the second row.
This is true. We seldom remember the majority, the good reviews. Plenty of those. All we know is that we write the best we can into a wilderness of anonymity.
We are gamblers, wagering that what we write will be greeted with wisdom. Happily, that is generally the case with reader reviews at Arutz Sheva.
Otherwise, who knows what’s out there…no faces, no names…and wait for the facelift coming for America when the illegal migrants, by the millions, start voting, this November.
Yes, this November. Biden and his Democrats fixed it so.
Anyhow, as per my collection of op-eds, Bonnie had her way, and she did all the work.
In her introduction to the book, she placed me alongside her other heroes, Ben Hecht, and Rabbi Meir Kahane. She was far too generous.
Imagine if she were alive for Oct. 7. Since she never had a good day before, imagine the day, the moment, after Oct. 7.
This is a bullseye for the rest of us as well.
Offhand, I can’t remember what was going on in my life before Oct. 7. Surely there were good days and bad days.
Personally, never mind the details. Let’s just say the usual, the same for you and me, health and money worries.
But whenever something good would happen, like an uptick in sales for my books, or the sweet voices of my grandchildren on the phone, in an instant a dark thought would cloud my mind.
That would be the sound and fury of Oct. 7. It is there, wherever you go, whatever you do.
In other words, and with our IDF guys risking their lives in the hell that is Hamas/Gaza, it is impossible to let go and be completely happy…about anything.
Because there is always that.
I bring up Trump because, being dragged in the mud, from one crooked courtroom to another…have you seen his face lately?
It is the face of utter hangdog despondency.
It reminds me of me, and perhaps you too, when we are overwhelmed by troubles, Oct. 7 in particular.
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.