Today on the front page of the Lubbock paper is a story about a terrorist, attacking a people on a normally quiet and busy beach in Jaffa. With a 9 + inch blade he killed an American, visiting from Lubbock. The young man from Lubbock, Taylor Force, had just graduated from Vandervilt Univerity and served his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to lose his life to senseless killing on a tourist beach. The attacker ran on, brandishing his knife and appearing ready to kill more people. He ran toward a man playing a guitar. Now this young man had also served his country in the military. Thinking quickly, he raised his guitar and smashed the attacker, who was disoriented by this. The Guitar Player, named Yishay Montgomery ran after the attacker, yelling “terrorist” until the Israeli authorities subdued the killer.

The amazing thing was that Montgomery’s father and grandparents are also from Lubbock. More information can be found on Israel Police Foreign Press social media.

Typically, the American press does not report terrorist attacks in Israel, whether because they are so common or because there is an antipathy toward our closest ally in the regioun in the current administration. Discussion in senior universities, perhaps except for Texas Tech, is even more skewed. Lectures are funded for pro-Palestinian view, with any contrary dissent or discussion disallowed — in fashion very contrary to the putative mission of senior universities.An odd occurrence of a common hometown in a town in West Texas, however, has brought the issue of this apparently random, but conciously and intentionally  incited terrorism to home.

Incidentally, when Montgomery, the Israeli, returned to his former seat on the beach, he found every one of his personal items in place; none had been disturbed. All of the points in this story, of course, suggest comparison of behavior, rooted in training, rooted in culture, rooted in religion. We prefer the one(s) that promote the most well=being for the greatest number. Let the reader understand.