Frankly, I do not cover Israeli politics as closely as I should, so I am not up to the latest so far as Benjamin Netanyahu and the small-time court case that keeps dogging the Jewish prime minister.
Supposedly, as he’s been leading the nation against enemies on all fronts, he has been forced to sit and answer questions as to his personal lifestyle.
For instance, does he accept gifts that are over and above an acceptable limit, the sort that come with the job elsewhere.
The alleged crime of EXCESS, in other words, pointedly those cigars he appears to love so much, though I have never caught him in the act of smoking.
That would be Churchill, of course, the man who led Britain against Germany throughout World War Two.
ALWAYS with a cigar tucked between his lips.
This was the age when men knew what a woman was.
Churchill NEEDED his cigar. He needed it morning to night, and yes, he did smoke in bed. A bad thing, right?
But he did win World War Two. Right?
Churchill shared cigars with FDR and Stalin and this was how men came to terms, Passed around the table, the cigar was a token of fellowship.
This was the age when the no-smoking frenzy had not yet touched the great men. Eisenhower smoked cigarettes one after another when he led D-Day.
Churchill hated cigarettes, and Hollywood was slowly starting to outlaw them in movies.
Meanwhile, FDR was snappy smoking high above the world with a cigarette securely shaped in a fancy cigarette holder, as Stalin puffed on his bent pipe, smiling.
Why not, like Churchill, like FDR, like Ike, he was a winner, much of Eastern Europe falling into his grasp.
For Churchill, the cigar was his source of comfort. The draw of a cigar was pleasurable, and the sight of it was a mark of defiance toward his enemies.
For his citizens, the cigar meant carry on, I am in control. We shall prevail.
David Ben-Gurion was in London at the time of the Nazi blitz, and remarked at the heroism of the British people.
He expected the same of the Jewish people when he became Israel’s first prime minister.
Churchill was British head to toe, though his mother was American. He loved America.
For some two years, he stood up and fought Hitler nearly alone, him and his cigar of defiance.
Pearl Harbor rescued him. A date which will live in infamy for us, but which meant world war for Churchill, and thus FDR coming to the aid of Britain.
Bibi stands in good company, the company of winners. Let him keep on winning…and give the man a cigar.
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."