Now with all the talk about who should rule Gaza, whispers are growing louder that it should be Hamas. If only because they have no other place to go.

Not Egypt, that’s for sure, nor Jordan or Lebanon, none of whom share Trump’s vision of a Riviera there in Gaza, a place, as imagined, by Trump, where savages turn into croupiers in tuxes serving blackjack to sophisticates like Bond, James Bond.

The real Gaza, under Hamas, dates back to the wars of 2008-9, 2012, 2014, 2021 to the present.

To get this straight, remember, back in 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave away Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, who then surrendered to Hamas, 2007/2008.

As recently as this week, by the way, Israeli families who have suffered from the Oct. 7 Hamas attack are suing the PA for aiding and abetting.

But it all begins with Sharon who one fine day decided to enforce a two-state solution, under which the Israelis who were prospering as cutting-edge farmer/agronomists in Gaza’s Gush Katif would need to be uprooted for a population of PA Arabs all set and ready to replace them, according to Sharon’s plan of Disengagement.

Sharon wanted the Jews out, the Arabs in…but the Jews were happy to stay where they were. This land was their land.

Upon which they were planting and growing the finest fruits and vegetables, which they sold throughout Israel and the world.

Leave all this, for what reason?

A woman of Gush Katif whom I will call Hanna began sending me emails expressing her fears at losing her home and livelihood.

She kept me up to date on what was happening to herself and her neighbors, and the situation was turning grim.

Troops were arriving. They began posting up eviction notices to the 9,000 inhabitants, who were being asked to leave voluntarily.

As Hanna put it…where? why? Naturally, they refused to abandon their homes and businesses. Sharon threatened to remove them by force.

No way, the people believed, would a Jewish government turn on its own people. Sharon kept changing his cabinet.

Those against him were dismissed and replaced by those who were with him. The Supreme Court was with him.

Protestors were handcuffed and arrested. Sharon’s way or the highway…and so they came. The roundup had begun.

Jews were being dragged from their homes…men, women, children, infants, babies. A group of 13-year-old girls were kept locked up for weeks for daring to protest.

Appeals to the Supreme Court, and to the media, did no good. The media (except for me and Arutz Sheva) were in with Sharon.

Sharon had turned maniacal and tyrannical. There could be no dissent. One way or another, Gush Katif/Gaza would be cleansed of Jews.

My friend Hanna became hard and bitter. Her idealism was gone. She moved to Germany and wrote a book about her experience as an Israeli who had a dream.

The Palestinian Arabs took over this good earth and trashed it for rockets, tunnels, warfare, terrorism, and barbarism.

Give that snake another chance?

The land should be re-taken, and re-settled by the Israeli agronomists who made it bloom in the first place.

Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings.”

Jack Engelhard writes 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.”