Greetings from the Hills

A Palestinian girls school in Nablus was burned recently. Written on the side of the one of the charred buildings was the message "Greetings from the hills." The message was written by one of the Israeli settlers who live in the hills overlooking Nablus. It was not an isolated incident. Olive groves belonging to Palestinians are frequently targeted by Israeli settlers who uproot and burn the trees. The groves are the mainstay of the local Palestinian population. Israeli authorities are looking into the incident. They look into every incident.

There were no apologies and no remorse among the settlers who live in the hills overlooking Nablus and other Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank. Indeed, there was satisfaction and the promise of more such actions. Said one settler, "my efforts will be to assure that [the Palestinian's] future won't be here because this land belongs to the Jewish people." For settlers and their supporters, there is room for only one people in Israel and that people is the Jews.

As the West has moved steadily over the decades towards plurality and multiculturalism, many in Israel cling to an earlier time, and that time was over 3,000 years ago. The West has fallen and risen over the millennia. Empires have come and gone. The West will fall and rise again. Israel, or at least the idea of Israel, has endured and will endure. There is nothing anyone can do to change that, least of all the Palestinians and their girls schools and olive trees.

God has chastised Israel in the past. If He is ever moved to chastise Israel again, it is unlikely to be at the hands of the Palestinians. It almost certainly won't be by olive groves and girls schools.