JINSA LEEP Participant in California Sheriff’s Magazine
Reflections on Law Enforcement in Israel
By David Myers, Commander San Diego Sheriff’s Department
Reflections on Law Enforcement in Israel
By David Myers, Commander San Diego Sheriff’s Department
In early November of this year, I visited Israel as part of a law enforcement exchange program sponsored by the US-based policy group JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs). Along with about a dozen other law enforcement officers from across the US, we got a first-hand perspective of the everyday – and sometimes heartbreaking – realities faced by law enforcement officers in an area of the world caught between modern ways and ancient grievances that create a perpetual state of crisis, threats, and violence. In just the nine days that we were in Israel, Palestinians fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier and woman, not to mention several skirmishes between Muslims, Jews and Druses and numerous plots to kill Israelis that were discovered before they could be implemented. On our last day in Israel, two Palestinian cousins wielding a gun and butcher knives attacked during morning prayers, killing four rabbis and a policeman. I bring these up to provide some context to the kind of environment in which not only Israeli law enforcement officers have to work, but the daily reality that confronts each and every resident of this country, from the shopkeepers to schoolchildren to the rabbis and imams.