Both the State of Israel and post-colonial Africa were culminations of long-held messianic dreams, the first held by a two-thousand-year Jewish diaspora, the second by nations or tribes that chaffed for centuries under colonial oppression in their own lands.
The decision to drop charges against Pastor Brunson and let him go home was strictly a judicial determination, says the Turkish government, but anyone familiar with Turkish President Erdogan's efforts in recent years to bend the judges to his party's will is entitled to accept this elegant claim cum grano salis, indeed, with a larger than usual grain of salt.