A friend who goes back with me to the days when I served as an American war correspondent in Israel, asks me if I changed anything.

Yes, I tried, but they left Israel the same way they came, with a chip on the shoulder. I tried reasoning with some of them.

Rashi talks about this, concerning 10 of those 12 Spies…that as they entered Canaan with evil in their hearts, so they left, unchanged.

The Evil Report was destined.

A few times I succeeded with my group of sour pusses. Mostly, though, it was a lost cause. Against their mendacity, my voice was a cry in the wilderness.

Hence, says my friend, we have a generation that buys what Mark Ruffalo is selling, allegedly accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

So it is today, and so it was then. From so much misinformation, from Hamas to TikTok, we have indeed a Lost Generation.

They have been educated and conditioned to think the worst of the Jewish State, and even of more lies, they practice bigotry against Jews altogether.

We were The Boys on the Bus. About 50 of us, journalists, and we came from all over the United States and Canada.

We were supposed to be neutral observers, and that became a joke even before we landed, while still on the plane.

I noticed the hostility that began with whispers. I was being cornered. They had read my columns. No secret, then, that I was pro-Israel. Me, and me alone.

But, and I had let this be known, that I was coming and going as a novelist in search of material for both Indecent Proposal, and The Days of the Bitter End.

So already I was not one of them, and it kept getting worse. Our driver, Moshe, on the third day, he stopped driving the bus.

He refused to go on. I knew why. Anyway, after a stop for some coffee, near the border with Lebanon, known then as The Good Fence, he got us moving again

After another stop, I asked him why he was crying. He’d been sobbing, mostly when they stepped outside for interviews and photos.

Predictably at an Arab village. They refused the same stops for Jewish splendors.

“Can’t you see," he said. “It is hopeless."

“I know," I said. “What’s the use."

“How can we tell our story to these people, who refused to leave the bus even to visit Yad Vashem, or even the Western Wall."

True, they only wanted “Arab suffering."

Tell them how Israel faces Arab militancy on all sides, and they turn on their radios for rock and roll.

Moshe’s point was true then as it is today…what’s the use.

But we can’t ever give up. We must never give up. Our duty to speak up for Israel, against all odds, is holy;

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."