About a month ago, I described an unwelcome encounter I’d had at work with the Department of Homeland Security (ICE). Today I had one with the Israeli authorities–while sitting at a desk in Iselin, New Jersey.

A friend of mine, along with his wife and several small children, is literally going hungry in the West Bank, has had nothing to eat for days. They’ve been fully locked down since 2023: no work, no money, nowhere to go. The army is in their village every day, smashes into their house every now and then. The world a mile outside of their village is a shooting gallery where violent death lurks around every corner. The IDF told them flat out to leave now or die later. They’ve opted for “die later.”

I offered (insanely) to come and take my friends’ kids off his hands at least, but he said no. I’m not even sure how I would have “taken” them, or where. Not that it matters. Dad won’t have it. I’ve basically kept the family (and to some extent the tribe) alive by sending them regular cuts of my paycheck via Western Union since 2023. I guess I’ll just keep doing this until I hear that they’re all dead. 

Every time I send money, the regulations tighten. This time, the Israelis forced me to write a groveling letter in which I accept their version of why I’m sending the money, and then accept “full legal responsibility” for any untoward use made of the money once it’s disbursed. I guess my reasons for sending my own money abroad aren’t good enough for these people. They rejected a typed version of the letter they demanded of me, then made me re-write several drafts of a handwritten version until I got it exactly right. Then they demanded my passport information, along with a photo of my passport. Evidently, we’re still not done.

The money is sitting there in a Western Union in the West Bank–has been for twelve hours–but my friend still hasn’t been given access to it. All told, we’ve been at this for 24 hours. What next? Show up in person at COGAT headquarters and apologize for my bad penmanship?

What does “full legal responsibility” mean, anyway? Full legal responsibility for what? For “terrorism,” obviously. Put it this way: if my friend buys groceries, and the grocer makes change with one of the bills he gets, and one of those bills finds its way into the hands of someone who stabs a border guard at Checkpoint 300, I guess I’ll become a “material supporter” of the “terrorism” involved, and liable to arrest either upon setting foot within Israeli jurisdiction or through extradition. There’s nothing else for it to mean.

As I write this, I see a message on my phone of an announcement making its way through a bunch of Jersey neighborhoods: “Report Illegal Aliens!” it says. “In your neighborhood, at schools, at work, at church, at restaurants. There is Nowhere to Hide!” 

They got that right. There’s nowhere to hide. But not much of a desire to, either.