MEXICANS TAKING THE HEAT INSTEAD OF JEWS FOR A CHANGE - JULY 12, 2015

First, the obvious. Jews will always be number one. Right now in Iran they are not chanting “Death to Mexico.”

No, it’s the standard “Death to Israel.”

Even in our own United States, Jews, while leading in so many fields in the Arts and Sciences, we are also number one when it comes to being unloved.

On hate crimes, the figure is 70 percent for Jews, or rather against Jews. If anyone needs clarity about this, Google up what’s been happening at New York’s Pine Bush Central School District, where Jewish students won a law suit but only after enduring years of “Die Jew” taunts and Nazi salutes from fellow classmates.

Islamophobia? Who came up with that one?
Muslims in the US are only targeted at 11 percent even after 9/11 and everything else they do, so it’s rather a charmed life by comparison.

Islamophobia? Who came up with that one?

So from Pharaoh onward, it’s you and me if you are Jewish. Yes, the Jews. 

These are the same people that saved the entire world from polio. Today Israel is saving Africa from starvation by introducing and sharing cutting edge agricultural technology developed within the Jewish State.

Millions and even billions throughout the planet are alive and well today strictly because of Jewish genius in science and technology.

The BBC won’t tell you this because otherwise Israel might slip to number two on Europe’s hate index.

But at least here in the United States, something strange has been happening. Mexicans are taking the brunt on being hated. They’re filling in for us.

Isn’t this wonderful? Well sort of. I think of it like half time in football or the seventh inning stretch in baseball.

Every game needs a pause in the action. So does the pastime of anti-Semitism. True, nothing stops BDS, or the campuses, or the United Nations or people like Roger Waters, but dumping on Mexicans appears to be more in vogue at the moment. This means that we, the Jewish people, can take our shoes off and relax.

This means that we can say, “Y’know, it’s not always about us.” Well, usually it is. So that is why I say that we can catch our collective breath “for a moment.”

This too shall pass. That’s how my doctor put it and I will get to Dr. Lopez promptly.

Certainly I am against hatred against anybody, but must admit that I welcome the pause.

I welcome the breather. Let it be someone else, if only temporarily. Deserved or not let somebody else know what it’s like to get picked on. I have already written that legally processed Mexican-Americans are as okay as everybody else. Those who infiltrate our borders, that’s another story. Deport them!

Donald Trump got it started when he said that Mexico is sending us nothing but riff-raff. Mexico is not sending us anybody from its pool of Einsteins.

This was followed by that murder in San Francisco. An infiltrator from Mexico did this. The killer deserves to be hated.

But now all Mexicans are suddenly suspect, the innocent together with the guilty.

So while it is never safe to be Jewish (ask the Pine Bush kids), to be Mexican is not so terrific, either.

Immediately I asked Dr. Lopez how he felt about his people now making all the talk and all the headlines, and not in a good way.

He smiled and shrugged. “It will pass,” he said.

I was surprised at his nonchalance. “Everybody gets a turn,” he said.

True. True. True. Except that for us, the Jews, it never passes. It’s always our turn.

But for the time being, it’s somebody else for a change. We’ll take the vacation as long as it lasts.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal 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

SF MURDER: REMIND ME WHY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SHOULD NOT BE DEPORTED - JULY 9, 2015

Today it’s Donald Trump, but some 10 years go England’s leading novelist Martin Amis faced the same howls of disapproval.

Trump’s complaint is Mexico. They are sending us their worst, he says, illegally and even legally. He was halfway to the truth.

Too bad the GOP White House contender kept running at the mouth.

In his books and in his journalism Martin Amis fanned emotions when he wrote that Muslims were arriving in London wild and unchecked.

Leftists were outraged. They accused him of Islamophobia. But what about context? Something must have happened to inflame Mr. Amis.

On July 7, 2005 Islamic terrorists targeted London’s underground train system. Fifty-two civilians were killed, 700 injured. That’s when Martin Amis spoke up. He spoke up again in 2006 when British police foiled another Muslim terrorist attempt at mass murder, this time against a trans-Atlantic airliner.

Ellis Island, the entry point for so many of our ancestors, allowed them in only after they were examined and found to be clear of communicable diseases.
 “What can we do to raise the price of them doing this?” Amis rhetorically asked The Times of London.

He continued: “The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.”

So he recommended “not letting them travel…strip searching…deportation.”

Until, he said, “They get tough with their children.”

Martin Amis paid the price for speaking his mind. His later published books were panned from London to New York regardless of their literary merits.

He shared the same treatment this writer got for “The Bathsheba Deadline” where tough-talking Editor Jay Garfield announces, “The Koran has arrived and it has come to devour the Bible.” Ouch and Oh brother! Lesson learned that the truth will not set you free. The PC Police are everywhere.

They’ll come after you for that as they came after Martin Amis for Islam, and Donald Trump for Mexico.

A friend who supports unsecured borders loudly proclaimed that our borders ought to be completely open to anyone from anywhere, no background checks required, but turned silent when I asked her if she’d be okay with it if they, these people from anywhere, moved into her pretty tree-lined neighborhood.

Trump was onto something all right. He’s got the nation talking.

He simply did not know when to shut up. For in fact (legal) Mexican-Americans have been triumphant for America.

Beyond their ratio, they serve honorably as soldiers, Marines and law enforcement officers. They are good citizens. Or as good and bad as all the rest.

So Trump is wrong.

But he is absolutely correct about the thousands, even the millions who arrive here undocumented, unannounced and uninvited. We do not know what crimes they bring with them, nor do we know what diseases they carry. Ellis Island, the entry point for so many of our ancestors, allowed them in only after they were examined and found to be clear of communicable diseases. 

Do we still care about this? Apparently not if you listen to the advocates for come-in, come-all.

They should not be here, if the word illegal means anything, but they keep on coming.

What’s worse is it that more than 200 American districts provide sanctuary havens even for those who come here with rap sheets.

Right now that’s the hot topic throughout the nation because through misguided compassion an illegally arrived felon from Mexico, five times deported but released from an American prison, got his hands on a gun and murdered Kate Steinle in San Francisco, a city that gladly invites all comers. 

A Jewish adage appropriately states: “He who becomes compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.”

That defines sanctuary cities in a nutshell.

That’s how every one of us is in jeopardy from thousands of these people being dumped onto our streets and neighborhoods. Trump is right about this.

Martin Amis is right about Islam unchecked. His beef is London. It’s no different in New York and along the rest of the United States.

The FBI tells us that Muslims gone rogue exist in every state.

We don’t need the FBI to tell us that coast-to-coast entire communities have been turned into Muslim-only no-go zones.

Monitoring them seems to be the solution of the moment. Stopping them from coming in – how about giving that a try?

Many of these people are good citizens. Many are not. Many are here legally. Many are not.

Democrats and Republican leaders all agree that we have a problem. They also agree that even those who overstay their visas must NOT be deported.

Why not? If they pose a threat to our safety and security, who comes first, them or us?

The Tsarnaev brothers overstayed their welcome and we know what they did in Boston.

Our politicians say we can’t place millions of them into box cars and ship them back home. I agree.

But for those who don’t belong here, I recommend instead that they be granted first-class one-way airline tickets back home.

Sounds harsh? Many of those who survived the London blasts are without arms.

A number of those who survived the Boston Marathon bombings are without legs.

That’s harsh.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal 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

GILAD SHARON PROVES THERE'S NO HOPE FOR THE DELUSIONAL LEFT - JULY 7, 2015

When I read this I realized all over again that the Left will never cease being delusional.

Or one of us is nuts…them or me.

I’m not even talking about Obama’s concessions to Iran. That too is delusion and insanity. I’ve covered this before and will do so again.

Today it’s about father and son.

Gilad Sharon is the latest to insist that the Gaza expulsion was a success. His father did the right thing. So says Ariel’s son. People like Gilad can’t do the math? One and one equal two. Two and two equal four and 10,000 Israelis expelled from Gush Katif equal 10,000 rockets fired from Hamas.

I’m not even sure if Gilad belongs to the Left. Several times he’s quacked like a hawk. But not on Gaza, at least this time.

This time he sounds positively thrilled about what happened 10 years ago, August 15, 2005, another Jewish date that will live in infamy. So the anniversary comes up in a month and if they’ll be handing out candy in Ramallah there’ll be backslapping and towel-snapping in the newsrooms of Haaretz and The New York Times.

Name the mistake and the Left will never say “Oops. We goofed. Sorry.” In fact, they double down, as does Gilad.

I can’t quote from the article in which he defends his father and all the rest of them who adore the fact that Gaza is completely judenrein. Because it makes no sense. What he says is so utterly convoluted. I interpret his comments like this: “Israelis don’t want Gaza because it is so dangerous. The place is full of terrorists.”

Huh?

The place is full of terrorists, silly, because 10,000 productive law-abiding Jewish Israelis were forcibly removed to make room for Palestinian Arabs, who in turn gave it over to maniacs from the Palestinian Authority, who then fled when an even more diabolical tribe took over, Hamas.

That is not politics. It is mathematics.

For creeps like William Schabas and the UN Human RightsCouncil, Sharon’s Pogrom is the gift that keeps on giving.
Gaza was never that dangerous before all that, and in fact the Gush Katif farming communities therein produced cutting edge agriculture that delighted the world.

Everything changed when sitting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon changed colors overnight. He remained hawkish, but oddly so.

He became a hawk to the Jews but a dove to the Arabs. This happened awfully fast and surprised many Israelis who’d been under the impression that “this land is our land.” Not so. On June 6, 2004, Sharon inaugurated the Disengagement Plan and from that moment on it was hell on earth for any Israeli who demurred.

Sharon fired any cabinet member who voiced doubt or dissent and replaced them with cronies.

The newspapers were silenced into submission. Protesters were rounded up and it made no difference if they were 11-year-old girls carrying signs.

They too were whisked off to jail.

So exactly what is Gilad so happy about? Three wars came and went due to Sharon’s generosity, with a fourth war in the offing any day.

IDF heroes died in all three conflicts. A million Israelis who reside nearby Gaza still can’t sleep properly. They are constantly on edge. For those 10 years they’ve endured constant shelling and rocket fire. 

Even when it’s relatively quiet nothing can quiet the children, and the adults, suffering from nightmares.

On top of all that Israel’s enemies repeatedly have something to crow about – alleged “disproportionate response.”

For creeps like William Schabas and the UN Human Rights Council, Sharon’s Pogrom is the gift that keeps on giving.

We need Gilad to further explain himself. Understood. Some people refuse to apologize even for their most horrendous mistakes. Also understood that Gilad was trying to honor his father. This is entirely proper. But silence would have been the golden approach for that Biblical imperative.

As it is, Gilad is only rubbing it in. Gush Katif was a tragedy. To gloat over it as a success is shameful and preposterous.

If apologies are too much to ask from Gilad and the entire Left, an explanation for everything gone wrong will do for a start.

We need to know if these people are merely stubborn, or absolutely hopeless.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from theNew York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal 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

A FINAL WORD ON SAME SEX MARRIAGE - JULY 6, 2015

So it’s official that gay marriage is okay throughout the United States of America. Thus ruled the Supreme Court 5 to 4.

Everybody’s still talking about this, rather heatedly. I’ve been asked why I’ve kept silent. Okay, silent no more.

I’ll take my chances on a lose-lose proposition.

Mostly, I feel that there is too much talk about this altogether. When I was a kid growing up in Montreal sex was taboo, straight or gay.

When I was a kid growing up in Montreal sex was taboo, straight or gay.

Today, people are gay, and proud.

That’s like saying I’m straight and I’m proud. I am straight but not proud. What’s there to be proud about? That’s like saying I eat fish and I’m proud.

Personally, I never cared about your sexual preferences. I don’t judge you, you don’t judge me. That’s my motto. I spent four years in Greenwich Village where suddenly everybody was gay, so I was never in the business of approving or disapproving. Live and let live. That’s my motto.

I have relatives who are gay. That has never been a problem between us. Everybody has relatives who are gay. Who cares?

The problem comes about when we square or try to square the Culture with Scriptures. We know what the Bible says. The lenient congregations in both Judaism and Christianity have been accepting of gays for years. The Orthodox? Not so fast. Again, the Bible.

We call it the Torah and we, the traditionalists, like myself, believe that every word of it is Divine. Let me make this clear. We do not believe that the Torah is “divinely inspired.” We believe that the Torah was handed down to us “from the lips of G-d to the hand of Moses.”

This is absolute. So, personally, in perfect faith I accept the Torah’s verdict on homosexuality to be lasting and true. But hold on!

I also believe that gays, like my gay relatives, for example, deserve my full respect. How do I resolve this conflict?

I don’t. I simply understand that in life so many issues that confront us must and will remain unresolved.

Within a single lifetime we cannot answer every single question.

It’s up to us to live with opposing views and, in the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, “still retain the ability to function.”

A day may come when everything will be sorted out. Mashiach (hopefully this afternoon) will tell us what we got right and wrong.

Meanwhile, life needs to be taken and shared as harmoniously as possible.

This leaves us with the Geezer question. This is the generation that is having trouble catching up with a generation galloping past them at blinding speed. They, the Geezers, well, they are trying but cannot seem to totally reconcile. Are they bigots?  On behalf of the Geezers, I say, play fair. Don’t be so quick to judge.

Give them time to catch up. Generally they have accommodated themselves to your point of view, to your “new-fangled” culture. You asked them to like it and finally, reluctantly, they said okay we like it – but now you are asking them to love it, and this will take time.

Give them the time.

If you start calling them names because they are not joining you quickly enough, well then, now who’s guilty of being intolerant?

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal 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

JULY FOURTH, ENJOY, BUT BEWARE OF RAMADAN - JULY 3, 2015

I’ll bet nobody knows this, that July 1 was “Canada Day.” They have it every year to celebrate Canada’s birthday.

Only a few days later comes July Fourth for those of us here in the United States and we celebrate our Independence (from Great Britain July 4, 1776) by having one big fat national party – parades, picnics, fireworks and whatever else it takes to make us glad that no more are we subject to the tyranny of foreign monarchs.

They do it like this in Canada as well and likewise in Israel when the Jewish State celebrates Yom Ha’atzmaut. Parties galore and always harmonious.

Three great democracies, all sharing Micah’s vision.

Micah dreamed of a day when everyone shall sit under the shade of his vine and fig tree…”and none shall make us afraid.”

But we are afraid.

What they did to us on 9/11 was only a calling card.
A different tyranny has imposed itself upon us, global jihad, and it has us on edge, and please let’s not get into a discussion that teeters on whether all of Islam is to blame. Let’s agree that it’s only a spin-off. Most Muslims are virtuous. Let’s put it like that, but there is no denying that almost all acts of terrorism are the result of individuals and groups who’ve become intoxicated by extremist interpreters of their faith.

Ramadan, my Arab friends tell me, is supposed to be about allegiance to Allah.

“It’s supposed to be a time of devotion and reflection,” Waji says, “and there’s nothing in the Koran about killing people. Not my Koran.”

Waji, who runs a news shop in Manhattan, has been my friend for years and it pains him to what they’re doing to his religion. I used him frequently in this book to counterpoint and balance Jay Garfield’s lonely newspaper crusade against Radical Islam.

“We are not all like that,” Waji says. He says that every time we talk.

Because the people who are not like Waji have been on a rampage ever since Ramadan began. They have been on a killing spree across continents.

In Israel the Jews keep burying sons and trembling over their daughters as the mosques, within Israel itself, keep demanding more Jewish blood.

All that in the name of Ramadan and Islamic supremacy. Mahmoud Abbas will soon be naming a street for the murderer of Malachi Rosenfeld.

Has he already done so for the murderer of Danny Gonen?

A thousand Israelis have approached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act forcefully in order to prevent Ramadan Terror.

One thousand? Until it’s one million at the rally nothing will be done.

Liron Yisraeli was serving with her Border Guard unit around Rachel’s Tomb when a Palestinian Arab celebrated Ramadan by stabbing her in the neck. As of this writing she is recovering. Liron, 19, happens to be gorgeous. The terrorists always pick the best of Israel, the most beautiful.

They hate beauty. They hate liberty.

What they did to us on 9/11 was only a calling card and at this moment New York City is on full alert to prevent what the experts see coming.

Every day now we are warned that the coming of July Fourth coincides with the coming of Ramadan.

They don’t put it quite that way. Mr. Obama wants no mention of Islam unless it’s something good. He has Radical Islam stricken from the FBI.

So the FBI says to beware, to expect trouble from people with no name. Could be anybody, sure thing. 

The announcements on our commuter trains tell us that “if you see it, report it,” as if that really means anything to the typical American en route to grandma’s for apple pie and backyard baseball.

No, when we see a package unattended it means somebody forgot something. In Israel it can mean anything and it’s time to call the cops pronto.

They’re pros at this.

Exactly what are we supposed to do when on the train in walk a group speaking Arabic and walking and talking with that particular swagger?

If we report them for being suspicious, we are bigots. If we let it go who knows what can happen from our being timorous and lax?

Anything is possible in a world where people observe their festivals by committing bloodshed, call them what you will. Or call them Ishmael.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal 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