You know how people say the US is the envy of the rest of the world? That’s probably true, until they come here and see how screwed up we really are.
“It is mindboggling for us Israelis to look at what happens in North America, because we went through this 50 years ago,” said Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy. He’s worked with the RCMP, the U.S. Navy Seals and airports around the world.
“Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don’t take s— from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.”
That, in a nutshell is “Israelification” – a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.
Despite facing dozens of potential threats each day, the security set-up at Israel’s largest hub, Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, has not been breached since 2002, when a passenger mistakenly carried a handgun onto a flight. How do they manage that?
Read the article to find out how they solved the airport security issue. If Israel, a place one would think has a tad higher potential for terrorist activity than the US, can do things intelligently, why can’t we?
#30: I don’t think the US population is anti-Semitic. They may be anti-Israeli policy which is a political issue with the current government. Of course, that’s a political argument that exists within Israel as well and I don’t think the anti-government Jews in Israel are generally considered to be anti-Semitic.
#30 you seem to agree with everything I said except for branding an Israeli security system as “the Israeli Security system”.
IMHO, just like people like Swiss Watches and German Engineering, they would welcome an “Israeli Security System”. Trust me, all the anti-Semitic thoughts go out the door.
Nothing states about how Israel handles their hundreds of airports and the millions that move through them yearly.
Oh that’s right cos neither happens.
And Israel is such a hotbed destination.
Cursor_
Actually, Tony Soprano said you put the Jews in charge of the money, and the big guys in charge of security.
So, what is this article missing? Oh yeah, the little fact that all air travel in Israel is international travel. There is almost no internal air travel at all. So all they got to do is look at your passport. If you’re a Israeli Jew, your security check is going to be a breeze. They might even pass you on without peeking at your luggage. If you’re Arab however, you might be taken aside and checked much more thoroughly. And if you’re a tourist… expect a long list of embarrassing, intrusive questions.
27 Dallas,
Israeli airport security does NOT scale. There are some major issues with trying to scale that system. Primarily, you must know that the ISA (Israeli Security Agency) is basically the government and utilizes conscripted members of Israeli society as the front lines. Civic employees are the higher ups. So, you have a completely governmental agency using conscripts to run the gates.
Secondly, Israel has 3 airports. The US has thousands. You would have to bring up EVERY airport in the US to the Israeli level or it’s pointless. So, an airport that might handle a few hundred passengers would have to be brought up to spec with o’Hare.
Thirdly, Israel is highly racist. If you’re not an Israeli Jew, you are going to get the ultimate level of screening. And while some ‘mericans might thinks that will help, I wonder how it would catch the McVeighs…
@jbenson2 #21,
Stop using logic and reason along with facts!
@Uncle Dave #34,
Why the obsession with Israel and why such double-standards applied to their policies? Where are the regular articles on how horrible the surrounding 42 countries treat their own people let alone those that want to remove them from existence on this planet? Here is one example of the “Religion of Peace” that pervades the region (there are five more like it each day) – why should Israel worry? MLK Jr. himself equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
41 ethanol,
Ahh… I love the old “they’re doing it even worse than I am” argument.
So, but that standard, we should seek out the worst regime in the world and be just a little bit better so we can always point down to the worst player? Stupid.
Israel is behaving almost exactly as an abused child that grows up to abuse their own.
And if you want to read up on some intelligent writing on Israel from a former member of the Knesset and part of the army that was there during the creation of Israel, go check out Uri Avnery…
#40 It’s not perfect but it certainly scales a lot better than the system we have now.
The notion of screening for each item known to possibly provide for a threat is ridiculous and unsustainable – that is fact. The flying public is already pushing back in tolerating unacceptable intrusions.
Write it down. Within 5 years this TSA nonsense will be replaced or augmented with the Israeli method in some form.
@Named,
Where are the posts regularly complaining about the 42 other countries? What only focus on Israel? I’ll help you with your answer Named from Lorrie Goldstein:
“Not all criticism of Israel indicates Jew hatred, but all Jew haters criticize Israel. What’s more, they criticize Israel exclusively and obsessively and never with any context. The Jew hater never admits or mentions that if Israeli policies seem brutal to Canadians, part of the reason is that Israel resides in a much rougher neighbourhood — the Mideast, not North America. The Jew hater never admits or mentions that the Occupied Territories were occupied for a reason — the repeated attempts of its Arab neighbours, starting on the day after Israel was created in 1948, to drive it into the sea. The Jew hater condemns Israel for brutalities against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, while remaining silent about atrocities carried out against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims by other Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. That’s because the Jew hater isn’t motivated by love of anyone else, just hatred of Jews. Taking his or her cue from Hamas, the Jew hater no longer even pretends to support a two-state solution in the Mideast — an independent Palestine living in peace beside a secure Israel — but today advocates a “one-state” solution, arguing the very idea of a Jewish state is racist. To be sure, arguing in favour of a one-state solution isn’t in itself evidence of Jew hatred. It could be motivated by idealism, although, in my view, painfully naive. The way to flush out the Jew haters, however, is to ask them whether they would make the same argument in favour of eliminating, say, the Islamic character of The Islamic Republic of Iran?
If the response is stunned silence or indignant doubletalk, that’s a Jew hater.
Admittedly, it’s harder to smoke out Jew haters than it used to be. In the old days, they were pretty obvious — the folks in love with Hitler, who simultaneously argue Jews control the world, the banks, the media and Hollywood, and who started the Second World War in order that …. uh … Hitler could kill six million Jews in the Holocaust, which …. uh … never really happened anyway. (Hey, I said they were Jew haters, I didn’t say they were smart.) Today, however, Jew hatred more often comes in the guise of a professed concern for human rights.
Except, of course, for Jews.”
44 ethanol
“Where are the posts regularly complaining about the 42 other countries? What only focus on Israel?”
Israel proclaims itself better than it’s neighbours, and that it is a “democracy” and that it’s a shining light in the desert and that they are America’s best friend… But their actions are far different. When you hold your hand up and say “I’m the best” you better be when people take a closer look.
And Israel is failing badly when you look closely.
43 Dallas
“The notion of screening for each item known to possibly provide for a threat is ridiculous and unsustainable – that is fact. ”
So, you’re saying that bringing every airport in the U.S. to the standard required in Israel is even remotely possible? Do you realize how much that would cost? Do you realize you would have to have road blocks to every single dinky regional airport in the US just to START the process of Israelification of airports? It’s not feasible.
The TSA is not doing it correctly yes, but the process of a small country like Israel does not scale to one like the US.
43 Dallas,
Something else I wanted to mention. While Israel may have a safer airport, they are still subject to a vast array of attacks on civilian targets. I guess this would be the “low hanging fruit” concept of targets. If you can’t blow up a plane, or the airport, pick a bus.
44 ethanol,
Oh, and just to be clear:
To be sure, arguing in favour of a one-state solution isn’t in itself evidence of Jew hatred. It could be motivated by idealism, although, in my view, painfully naive. The way to flush out the Jew haters, however, is to ask them whether they would make the same argument in favour of eliminating, say, the Islamic character of The Islamic Republic of Iran?
Yes. I am in favour of eliminating ALL theocracies. I don’t care which kind. They all have to go. And now that Israel is proposing that people have to pledge allegiance to a theocratic state, i.e. it is the Jewish state, it is now moving into theocracy. Secularism is the only way for a democracy.
#47 Soft targets are also prevalent in the US. In fact, it is astonishing to me that a shopping mall has not been a target.
Anyway, you’re arguing over implementing the extreme Israeli methods as being unscalable. While your arguments are valid, throwing out the baby with the bath water is nonsense because their system has merit.
When the next Muslim Macgyver takes down a plane with a set of false dentures and urine, I’d like to see how well your screening system holds up.
The entire debate is completely irrational. There is no such thing as completely safe. Any method used, beyond what’s been done for the past 30 years, can only provide for a false sense of security. Anybody who really wants to kill others is going to be willing to go through extraordinary measures to get the job done. They will find a way. You don’t have to blow up a plane to wreak havoc. A blast in the middle of any major American airport, outside the security area, would likely net higher casualties. Meanwhile TSA could sit there with your junk in their hand exclaiming that it didn’t happen on their watch.
49 Dallas,
“When the next Muslim Macgyver takes down a plane with a set of false dentures and urine, I’d like to see how well your screening system holds up.”
Hey, it’s not my system. I’m from Soviet Cannuckistan. We have body scanners, but you opt-IN to them instead. We do the standard detector, and if you beep, they bring out a more sensitive want to scope over your body. If you beep in a spot, you reveal what it is. Seems pretty reasonable.
Now, as for “throwing out the baby” thingy… well, you either go whole hog or not. Let’s say you secure the major airports with bomb proof rooms et al, well, now you just move your tactics to the smaller regional airports. This is the problem. Once you reveal the soft spots in the system, you give the solution to the problem.
As for bombing shopping malls, yes. Why not? Possibly because it doesn’t really make much of an impact. Hijacking a plane is a powerful message. But, to be honest, I don’t really know how psycho’s think…
USA has killed innocent people in the name of WMD and War on Terror, the same tactics used by the Israelis to kill innocent Palestinians under the same accusations.
So why not follow their way of Airport Security. I mean there is little difference between Uncle Sam and his pet rodent called Israel? Like father like son No? 😉
I could use a more colloquial or vulgar expression but instead I’ll just say that the USA just can’t seem to get it right. The TSA is just another example of the stupidity and outright perversion of the so-called government. They are really geniuses at doing exactly the wrong thing every time.
Personally, I will never fly again to or from the USA until a more sensible security policy is established. But I am not holding my breath because doing some kind of rational screening policy based on ethnic, religious, and criminal screening is obviously the right thing to do, therefore here in the US the government won’t do it.
What really angers me is the passiveness of the American people. I know that if someone had tried to grope my grandfather, he would have punched him out immediately. There was a time when normal American men would not tolerate mistreatment from anyone. There are still a few of us left of that kind, so the government better wake up fast before it’s too late.
I want to see MS. Napolitano going through the enhanced pat down as an example to us hicks that dont know any better. Put it on youtube. I have faith in the Israeli security , as I was taken aside at Ben Gurion in 1970 as I was leaving, must have fit a profile as I was leaving. They had been dealing with Mr. Arafat and company for a while by that time. We are just recently joining the fray.