Seems to me that upon any worldwide sporting event, which features nations that are hateful to Israel, along comes King David to ask an age-old question, such as:
Why are the nations in an uproar?
I love that line. So pure in thought. So perfectly King David.
Further along, he has a warning to those nations that push too far, saying to those miscreants, that G-d has your number, and plays you like a toy…or like a fiddle.
Israel (and certainly America) shall not be counted among the nations when judgment day comes.
Meantime, world cup soccer is the madness of the moment, and soccer is the least complicated of any sport.
Kick the ball into the other team’s net. That’s the entire objective. There is a goaltender, but nobody knows why. There is no stopping anything when the goalposts are so wide apart.
Typically, the game goes forward without much scoring. Goals are rare. If someone does score a goal, the hero is mobbed by his teammates.
They tackle him to the ground and begin punching him as best to express their gratitude to the man who scored the goal.
First, only a few players reach him as he keeps trying to cut loose from the abundance of their affection. Actually, he is terrified.
They have so much more love to give, and more help keeps coming even from the bench, and no, they are not done.
They will continue to beat him up until he and the rest of them are fully exhausted. All by way of thanks and gratitude for a job well done.
Should the hero score ANOTHER goal, this time, after he begs for mercy, he runs straight for the grandstand hoping he won’t be recognized among the crowd.
Which brings us to the BIG GAME that took place Monday night between Team USA and some other team, Belgium, I think it was.
To American boosters, the rest of the world is all the same, yes, toys. Belgium may as well be Lower Slobovia, a country invented by cartoonist Al Capp, the creator of the comic strip Lil Abner, a sensation throughout 800 newspapers during the 60s and 70s, and if you are of a certain age, well then oh yes, you know what I’m talking about.
Worth noting that , 1, Al Capp was Jewish, born Alfred Caplan. Also, 2, at age 9, he had his left leg partly amputated after a trolley car crushed it severely.
He gained wealth and fame as a cartoonist and he gave generously to children who suffered as amputees, and his acerbic wit came naturally for a man with a lifelong limp.
Dogpatch was his name for a town populated by hilarious, kindly hillbillies, and. Lower Slobovia was any country run by idiots.
Nevertheless, and for all the hoopla, Team USA lost the BIG GAME to a well-respected country, Belgium.
Leslie and I were there many years ago to visit relatives, from my mother’s side, before it was too late. We travelled through the Ardennes that still whispered the battles of World War 2.
The Ardennes were the site of the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s last big, desperate attempt to stymie Allied forces.
Cousin Villie showed us the building where the Gestapo had at its headquarters, and it too brooded and spoke.
Villie told us many stories on what it was like back then, and how lucky we were as Americans. I was an infant. I would do my fighting as an American in Israel.
I seldom write about that, but maybe there is still a book to be done, which is true but not self-serving.
Where were we? Oh soccer, that’s right.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal," today a classic for literature and film. His “Days of the Bitter End" is cited as the greatest work about the 1960s, comparable to Tolstoy’s War and Peace. His latest book, “Writings," offers a collection of his varied and widely popular columns. From John W. Cassel: “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all."
