In Israel, racial profiling doesn't warrant debate, or apologies

[azurnoir]

A couple of months ago, I toured the IDF Ground Forces Command's substances laboratory, a nondescript cluster of prefabricated huts at the Tel Hashomer army base near Tel Aviv, which serves as Israel's brain-trust for every type of explosive used by armies and terrorists in the Middle East.

So why, I asked, are we still allowed to board airplanes at Ben-Gurion International Airport with bottles and tubes of liquid brought from home, while in Heathrow or JFK they confiscate our face cream and toothpaste?

"Oh, that's simple," he answered matter of factly. "We use racial profiling, they don't."

Perhaps they are right. Racial profiling seems to work. Since the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, in which 26 people were murdered, there have been no successful attacks on Israeli air-traffic and almost all the attempts that did take place were carried out on foreign soil. (In the Entebbe hijacking, the terrorists boarded the plane with their weapons during a stopover in Athens.)

Does that mean that while the rest of the civilized world, to which we aspire to belong, are agonizing over these questions, we are exempt from any form of public debate?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1141297.html

[mdmc]

1. Isreal is a war zone

USA ain't far behind..

[Fumesucker]

2. Arabs and Jews are both Semitic peoples, the same "race" if you will

So in reality what you have is religious, or maybe ethnic, profiling..

Let's call a spade a spade, eh?

[VermeerLives]

3. The IDF uses behavior profiling

and they're very good at it. The IDF's methods could benefit us greatly. Instead, TSA employees ask about peoples' incomes....what does that have to do with security when boarding a plane?