As I prepare to leave Israel Monday (so this space may have a one-day break for the long flight home), can’t help but relate last night’s/early morning today’s episode. Headed back to my place here at 11:45 p.m. to run right into a massive shutdown of the entire highway system of the central part of the country around Tel Aviv because of an alert that a group of terrorists had penetrated into the area.

We were standing on the highway—along with tens of thousands of others—for three hours. Heavily-armed border guards and police swept through the lines of cars to check cars, a helicopter hovered over head, sweeping the area with a powerful searchlight and police cars sped, sirens screaming, back and forth down the highway.

About 90 minutes into the event, there was a huge commotion about 20 rows behind us: a driver bolted from a small van and ran, leaving his passengers behind. Inside the car were four Palestinian men. they were surrounded and taken out of the car and placed on the road near the guardrail, each one sitting along, guarded by armed soldiers.

So, here was the personal experience of the larger political struggle: thousands of Israelis tense from the threat of violence, while the Palestinian men sat on the pavement not being sure what would happen to them. The next day it turned out that their only “crime” was to be in the area without permission; it’s still not clear whether they were the sought-after group.

Upshot: violence begets a security state that imposes fear and control on all who live under it, and you are a victim whether you control the state or not.