Seth Rogen and his Delusional Adolescent Generation

January 23, 2015

Life is not a Nintendo game and wars are fought in the field of battle, not on the television screen from your father’s couch in the basement.

So it’s easy to see how Sons of American Privilege get confused between the one and the other, namely, at the moment, Seth Rogen.

That’s the actor who sneered at Chris Kyle’s achievements as portrayed in the movie “American Sniper,” which is breaking box office records as, for once, Hollywood gets it – we want heroes. Kyle (since deceased) was America’s most lethal wartime marksman. In the heat of battle, he scored more than 200 hits against Islamic terrorists. He saved countless lives while doing so.

He had no love for the enemy. He called them by their proper name – savages.

The success of the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, based on Kyle’s book, was too much for the Left and for those who think war is a video game.

So it goes with a generation that’s been raised with all the trimmings. These are kids and no matter how old, rich or famous, they never left home. They’ve been shooting fake bullets at make-believe savages for so long that they truly believe themselves to be warriors.

They’re bound to think it’s combat, blood, sweat and tears, when they’re at war against toys, virtual figures on the TV screen. So if Kyle got 255-plus kills – why that’s nothing compared to the thousands of hits Sons of American Privilege score from the couch. 

In terms of the war in Gaza, some members of the IDF are being questioned for being too heroic. They failed to abide by Marquess of Queensberry Rules when up against the Hamas savages.
Blowing heads off from the sofa to the TV screen counts as bravery and skill.

For my part, I don’t think Rogen meant to say something so ridiculous; roundabout equating heroic American marksmen to Nazis. He’s retreated on that loose-lipped comment. He was simply mouthing off as guys do in the Frat House – and as actors do when fame comes too fast.

When will actors learn that without a script they are just like you and me?

The reaction against Rogen has been fierce and here we go again, another illustration to prove that what happens in America also happens in Israel. We hear that, in terms of the war in Gaza, some members of the IDF are being questioned for being too heroic. They failed to abide by Marquess of Queensberry Rules when up against the Hamas savages.

This entire backstabbing armchair coaching as the Jewish State faces the next round from Hamas and braces for nuclear Iran.

As in America, Israelis love their soldiers, admire the courage of their sons and daughters and enough, they say, from the scoffers.

Same here as per detractors Rogen, Michael Moore and Rolling Stone.

For Israel at war, the front is everywhere and it happens for everyone. Here, it’s something that happens far away and to someone else.

So I doubt that Israel has anything like our own forever-young couch potatoes. We are into a generation that’s gone soft and blurred from excessive technology and game playing. These Sons of American Privilege believe that their selections actually count when they play Fantasy Football.

Men aged 30, 40 and even 50 still read and collect comic books and consider themselves learned on literature.“Batman” and “Superman” are movies Sons of American Privilege take seriously.  

Before Seth Rogen came Gable, Cooper, Bogart, Brando and Redford. They played heroes. Who figured on Seth Rogen and the Frat Pack (my designation)? These are the Thirty-something movie makers, brash but sensitive for the times.

Today, Alan Ladd would not raise his guns against Jack Palance in “Shane.” Today’s script would have him understand the gunslinger’s root cause.

The Frat Pack turn out buddy flicks that are often quite good and deservedly successful.

Mostly these are about guys being guys, for better or worse, and in either case, they are likeable. Seth Rogen is likeable. So is his crew. They are talented. 

Their movies give us no heroes, no villains, no peace, no war, no purpose, no cause.

Chris Kyle and others like him here and in Israel have a cause – and they have to use real bullets.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. 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. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

OBAMA'S STATE OF THE UNION: THE THRILL IS GONE

January 21, 2015

It is good to be an American. That was the gist of President Barack Obama’s speech tonight before a packed house – mostly Republicans.

Few were smiling.

The President focused on the economy, which he did gladly, since both unemployment and gas prices are downץ

Nowhere, however, did he mention that about 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

Nor he did explain why gas prices are down. We are paying less no thanks to his administration.

Those congratulations go to the other side who summoned America to “Drill Baby Drill,” which indeed we did. Even Sarah Palin deserves bows for this win.

There was nothing in this speech to ask what we can do for our country, nor even what we can do for the world.
This was a speech directed at the Middle Class…affordable childcare, free community college and other goodies we’ve heard before.

That’s it – we have heard it all before. Wish it weren’t so, but the act has grown old – and two more years to go.

The thrill is gone. This was no different from the campaign speeches he uses to whip up his legions and which we have heard a thousand times before.

The word “overexposure” comes to mind as does the phrase “so what else is new?”

We could not have expected Obama to note that under his watch race relations are in terrible shape, worse than in half a century.   

There was no call to action. Unless raising taxes counts as action, or as anything Americans really want.

There was nothing in this speech to ask what we can do for our country, nor even what we can do for the world.

As a fireside chat, this speech may have worked.

The speech fell short on one tiny item – the rest of the world. Obama gave it about five minutes. Can’t blame him. It’s rough out there.

Obama mentioned anti-Semitism. He came out against it. Thank you. He called it deplorable. Small comfort for those in pain since here too there were words but no call to action, say against the boycott movement, or the terrible acts of intolerance Jewish kids face on American campuses. A word of support to something so serious would have been appreciated.

I missed the part of his unwavering support for the only democracy in the Middle East – Israel. And I missed the part where he said that given the gruesome killings taking place all over the Middle East from the hands of Radical Islam, only Israel stands as a beacon of tolerance and liberty.

No such luck, and neither did he call it by name, Radical Islam. They remain “terrorists,” which could mean anybody.

But on that topic, Obama is thrilled to be getting us out of Afghanistan. The Taliban are also thrilled about this.He appeared to say that we are winning the war against those “terrorists.” He said this with a straight face – and to some applause?

Really? Does he read the papers? Those of us who do are aware that much of Iraq and much of Syria are in the hands of ISIS.

That’s just a start. Much of Europe is alarmed by the peril of Radical Islam. Freedom of speech now comes with a price. Not since World War II has the world faced such a menace and been so afraid.

But for the time being, according to Obama, America is in pretty good shape. As for the rest of the world, gee, too bad.

Only this: The rest of the world, they know where we live.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. 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. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

They Came For Freedom

The forces of suppression are at it again. They keep coming. The fight for free speech is a fight without end.

Opponents to liberty never rest. They will always be with us, those who seek to muzzle our thoughts and opinions.

They favor complete freedom of expression, they say, unless it offends. 

This means that they do not favor free speech. They are simply embarrassed to say so. They stutter, they sputter. They equivocate.

Yes, they say, we love the First Amendment and we respect and support these liberties, BUT!

Their tongues get all twisted up as they make the case for one, but then the other.

Their warped arguments put them on the side of censorship and tyranny.

Their dithering connects them not to Jefferson ("Our liberty cannot be guarded except by the freedom of the press”) but to Stalin. Boris Pasternak’s “Dr. Zhivago” was banned in Russia. Other bold voices in the Soviet Union were forced to whisper through the under-the-table clandestine format Samizdat. Is this coming?

Book banning is book burning and any wishy-washy defense of freedom of expression is still an Inquisition.  

The Quislings spoke up. Better to hush up, they said. Cherish your liberties but fear the mobs. The mobs are given carte blanche to be violently sensitive.
The right to be offended extends not to all. Christians did not take to the streets when Jesus was mocked. Jews did not riot when the Hollywood movie “Meet the Fockers” depicted a dog named Moses. Jews did not stampede when in the same movie this dog named Moses was flushed down a toilet.

An offensive anti-Jewish display in Israel provoked only a request – not a demand – to take it down. Yes, both sides have the right to express an opinion.

This is not complicated. We have the right to speak our minds or we don’t. Britain’s leading novelist Martin Amis is still being asked to apologize for heated remarks he made after an Islamist attack on the London Underground took the lives of 52 civilians and left 700 wounded in 2005. Amis reportedly favored deportation, adding: “The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.”  

Why apologize (as reportedly he has done). In a moment of anguish, has he no right to spill his guts and have we no rights to express our pain at the injustice of it all?

Soon after part of the world gathered in Paris to insist on unalienable rights, another part of the world answered with doubts and objections.

The Quislings spoke up. Better to hush up, they said. Cherish your liberties but fear the mobs. The mobs are given carte blanche to be violently sensitive.

We thought we won the war after a series of landmark rulings. D.H. Lawrence was tested. James Joyce was tested. Henry Miller was tested.

After grueling court trials, their books were finally free to be published and read. But then it starts all over again. Here they come to shut us up.

I can testify to this personally about a book that American publishers tried (but finally failed) to hush up because it was “too strong” and “too far ahead of its time” and might offend. (Even the bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” had to jump through hoops for being “too pro-Israel.” Hollywood washed all that out.)

Salman Rushdie faced censorship of a similar kind.Rushdie faced the censorship of Jihad, the same Jihad against free speech we face this terrible moment amid times that demand our surrender. 

We have two ways to go. One road leads down the darkened path of tyranny. The other road glitters from King David’s Lamp for our Paths.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. 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. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Anybody in the Mood for Another Islamic Country?

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Arab leader who giggled his way through the solemn anti-terror rally in Paris, is ready to try the UN again.

He wants recognition of “Palestine” as an independent state (which it never was).

Should he get the required votes this time around (plus surmounting the other legal hoops) that would up the number of Islamic countries to 58.

That would also make it the 23rd Arab state.

Upon his most recent try, the Arab statehood measure fell short by one or two votes. Can’t remember exactly, but this I do remember:

The French voted in favor. True, this was before the bloodbath in Paris. This was before President Francois Hollande got his wake-up call.

If Israel gives in (and cuts its own throat) finally there will be peace on earth. Ask Jimmy Carter. Ask Tzipi Livni. What can possibly go wrong?
But did he wake up? Did anybody wake up?

Some people, maybe. But still, from progressives in Israel and from Liberals outside Israel, nothing has changed. Israel, they say, must give in.

Israel must cut itself in half and consent to a two-state solution – to make Hamas happy and to make Fatah happy and to make Hezbollah happy.

That is only a partial list of all the people who would be happy. We aren’t even mentioning the UN, the EU (France included) and the US State Department who will be dancing in the streets.

More than that, if Israel gives in (and cuts its own throat) finally there will be peace on earth. Ask Jimmy Carter. Ask Tzipi Livni.

What can possibly go wrong?

I am writing this a day after news from Nigeria. Boko Haram, it is reported, just got through murdering 2,000 Black Christians. 

I could have written this a day after news from Pakistan. The Taliban, it is reported, walked into a school and guns blazing murdered more than 100 children.

I could have written this a day after millions of Syrians ran for their lives to the nearest border to escape butchery at the hands of their own tribesmen. 

I could have written it any day. The atrocities keep coming,

I could have written it a day after an Arab terrorist in Israel firebombed an Israeli vehicle and set fire to a father and his gorgeous 11-year-old daughter Ayala. 

This terrorist was most likely heeding the call, the call that came from Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas who urged his people to run over Jews or kill them “by any means.” This is the same Abbas who uses “any means” to prove himself a reliable peace partner and neighbor.

He also keeps providing samples of what Israel would look like with himself and his people living side by side with the Jewish State. Try Syria as his model.

Every day brings new evidence of what a 23rd Arab country would look like – smack in the middle of Israel.

If I’d been on the ball, I would have written this the day after Rabin, in 1993, shook Arafat’s hand and after the Oslo Accords were signed. These deals legitimized the PLO, created the PA, and under such “peace terms” the Palestinian Arabs embarked on killing sprees that took the lives of thousands of Israelis.

I could have written this the day after Israel vacated itself from Gaza in 2005 paving the way for Hamas to launch 25,000 rockets at Israel.

The number is just a guess. If anything, it is more. The million and a half Israelis who live along the border with Gaza, they know the exact number, you can be sure.

They could count the missiles from their shelters, where they spent half their lives, and they could count the bombardments in their sleep.

So what was my question? Oh – does the world need a 58th Islamic country? Does Israel need a 23rd Arab country in the heart of Israel?

Yes, that was my question.

US Cops Now Feeling Awfully Jewish

December 26, 2014

All officers of the law across the country are now officially Jewish. At least they know what it feels like to be Jewish, now that the brats have found a new grievance to solve all their problems. The Jews, and now the cops. 

 If you’re a cop, now you too are subject to the catcalls and the heckling once reserved for Jews only. “Cops around the city are being tormented by maniacal threats.” Sounds more like Israel, but it’s happening in New York City according to the New York Post. 

 Now a typical Gotham precinct knows the turbulence Israel faces every day. The hate comes from all quarters but it’s the campus that says hatred best. Stay tuned, as this is the up and coming generation that is going to make this a better world. You betcha! 

For campus firebrands it must be quite a chore deciding who to hate more on any particular day. If it’s Monday it must be the Jews and if it’s Tuesday it must be the cops. Is that how it works? 

This we know about the darlings who have turned our universities into gulags against free thought and free speech. They want to boycott Israel and they want to divest from law and order and they want to sanction anyone who makes them feel “uncomfortable.” If you do not agree with them they will shut you up and they will bully you down. Jewish students, amateurs, have no chance against professional agitators. 

 So naturally, Brandeis University is making headlines again, so you know the news can’t be much good. The Daily Caller has the full story but the gist of it is that a student at the once-Jewish college used Twitter to say that she has “no sympathy for the NYPD officers murdered today.” Yes, this multi-cultural diversity-sensitive Brandeis student “celebrates” the murder of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. Don’t you dare call her a bigot. Stay tuned, as this is the up and coming generation that is going to make this a better world. You betcha! 

We’ll skip the Brandeis names and the nuances, but the story gets worse when we find that this particular student’s gruesome message was approved by many along the same campus that denied free speech champion Ayaan Hirsi Ali the right to speak freely. All signs point to a disturbing trend. We now have No-Go Zones in America. Cops are unwelcome. Jews are unwelcome. Several days ago BDS-type storm troopers blitzed a Jewish diamond business at 60th and Madison Avenue. The owner is reportedly Israeli. The thugs can’t think but they can rhyme. They shouted, “Glitz and Glam. He steals Palestinian land.” 

“Only in New York” we used to say when things were going well. But now it leaves a bitter taste when we think of what’s happening around town and in Israel. From Ferguson, Missouri to New York City, when the marchers howl for “justice” it is with the blood-curdling voice of savages. They are not subtle. Every cop “has it coming” and so does 11-year-old Ayala Shapira who is fighting for her life in an Israeli hospital as the result of a firebomb attack from the hands of Arab terrorists. 

This is what the protesters call justice. But here’s the bright side. With cops as fellow targets we are in good company. For once, Jews are not alone. 

 Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist, the inside-the-newsroom tell-all thriller, The Bathsheba Deadline. 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. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Declare Abbas a Terrorist - Op-Eds - Israel National News

Declare Abbas a Terrorist - Op-Eds - Israel National News

Olmert, Harvard, the Best, the Brightest - Op-Eds - Israel National News

Olmert, Harvard, the Best, the Brightest - Op-Eds - Israel National News