For Netanyahu, the Biblical imperative (Deuteronomy 25-17-19) to “wipe out” Amalek…today’s Hamas…is a fundamental mitzvah.
“Remember…do not forget what they did to you,” says the Torah.
Netanyahu does not forget. Oct.7 is a wound that will never heal, and this is where the clash exists between Trump and Netanyahu.
Trump has three more years to work on his legacy, a resume which for all eternity features him as foremost a peacemaker.
This is Trump’s Doctrine.
By way of saying that Trump wants Netanyahu to call it quits…to pick up your marbles, go home, and make the peace.
Ceasefire Now. Hostages Later. Proclaim victory, says Trump, stop the fight, and watch me add to the Abraham Accords. I’ll give you Saudi Arabia, and even Syria, and when you vacate Gaza, watch me turn it into paradise, the Riviera of the Middle East. Shake hands on this…or you risk losing me as a friend.
Thus speaks Donald Trump, President of the United States and the World.
As we all keep saying, Israel has no better friend than Trump…only this, Trump is not Jewish, not like you or I are Jewish; not like Netanyahu is Jewish.
Therefore, Trump…and the rest of the world…will never fully understand what Oct.7 did to the pride of the nation.
Israel prides itself as a nation that can overcome every obstacle, can vanquish every foe, as indeed it has done since the beginning.
Yes, Netanyahu risks losing Trump, but he would risk losing Israel…that is, the support of the people… were he to end the war by conceding to Hamas.
Even now, the humiliation is too much to bear. Is this what it comes to?
We cheer every time a hostage is released. Amen to the individual. But the fanfare is pathetic. This means Israel is a beggar, grateful for every handout.
Thank you, we say.
Thank you, Amalek. Thank you, Hamas.
Can you spare any more?
We’d be ever so grateful.
Indeed, the civilized world would like to pretend that Oct.7 never happened’. Old Business. But to the Jewish world, Oct.7 is a personal catastrophe.
Hamas knows the pain it is inflicting, and so keeps rubbing it in, by slow--walking the process…while playing the game of negotiations…and it is a game to them, a sport.
They even have Trump bamboozled. After saying they will have hell to pay if they continue dragging this out, Trump now proclaims victory after a single hostage is set free.
He is thankful.
By the scores, Israelis are thankful.
The world is thankful.
Yippee for Hamas.
What happened to the deal that was supposed to get all of them out at once…some 50…some dead…some alive?
Can you imagine the cruelty…such cruelty that toys with people? Is this the humanity of our generation?
Yet there are people even within Netanyahu’s own circle urging him to give it up. Israel, they say, has no choice but to live with these brutes.
Instead, Netanyahu chooses to persist until they are all wiped out. He remembers what they did to us Oct.7 and beyond.
Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings.”
Jack Engelhardwrites a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
From the esteemed John w. Cassell: “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the. conscience of us all.”
