Necessary Force?

In the news today, a jury in Winnfield, La. yesterday found a former police officer not guilty of manslaughter in the death of Baron Pikes. Pikes died after officer Scott Nugent used a taser gun on him repeatedly. Pikes was even tased as he lay on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. The reason for the repeated tasings according to Nugent is that Pikes refused orders to get up. Nugent tased Pikes again later while in the back seat of the police car for refusing to get out when ordered. In all, Pikes was tased eight times. Nugent was later fired for his actions.

Pikes was not armed and posed no threat Nugent. It was not mentioned in the article why a trained police officer felt it necessary to resort to using a taser against a hand cuffed man, even when that man was sitting in the back seat of his patrol car. Perhaps Nugent had just had his nails done and didn't want to risk breaking or scuffing them. Maybe he just didn't want to get his dress dirty.

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.