The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother

[gorfle]

"While North America's airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification.

That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel's, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience."

""The first thing you do is to look at who is coming into your airport," said Sela."

"First, it's fast — there's almost no line. That's because they're not looking for liquids, they're not looking at your shoes. They're not looking for everything they look for in North America. They just look at you," said Sela. "Even today with the heightened security in North America, they will check your items to death. But they will never look at you, at how you behave. They will never look into your eyes ... and that's how you figure out the bad guys from the good guys."

An interesting article on how airport security is handled in Israel. They don't focus on things, they focus on people.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hekate]

3. The OP was talking about our AIRPORTS. As I discovered years ago, if you want to discuss ...

... Israeli/Palestinian problems, there is a separate forum for that. I mention this because I got flamed when I first got here, and it was not a pleasant experience.

As to the airport security situation, the Israelis do seem to have a much better handle on it than we do in the US, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with apartheid. I have flown a lot inside the continental US since 9-11, and it has gotten worse and worse--exacerbated by my belief that TSA is being run incompetently and stupidly, and therefore inefficiently.

Hekate

[KharmaTrain]

4. I Guess It's Fine With You When Someone Walks Into A Restaurant With A Bomb...

You'd probably favor giving them an escort as well. Sheesh.

While I don't support either the Likud or the building of the wall and wish for co-existance of all people in the region, the wall was built as an act of self defense...to stop from having their people blown up.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. one slight problem, israeli security is PROFESSIONAL

We would just give the same TSA assholes uzi's and call it a day,

[Hekate]

5. I don't think uzi's are really the answer, do you? You are spot on about professionalism, though...

Give the current bozos any more weaponry than they already have and someone will get killed. TSA needs to be disbanded and started over.

The Bush admin could have studied how other countries have dealt with terrorism, and in particular how Israel handles its airports. But in the Bush admin's lust for revenge and arrogance about exceptionalism, I think they completely overlooked how many other countries have been dealing with this generations longer than we have.

Oh all right I know TSA won't be disbanded. But it needs an overhaul from top to bottom and bottom to top.

Forget privatization; make the TSA screeners civil servants who have to pass a relevant civil service test to get the job in the first place and go through serious training.
Give them a meaningful salary and benefits.
For gods' sake, get OSHA on site to check how much radiation the screeners are being exposed to day after day.
The above points would constitute a good start to upgrading the employees and professionalizing the operation.

Hekate

[Clintonista2]

11. A former co-worker of my mom's recently became a TSA agent

Which is astonishing considering she had zero background in security (she worked in an office previously). She literally took a course and presto, she's screening for terrorists. Pretty scary when you think about it.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

28. well if she had a job, she is already head and shoulders above her peers

[Violet_Crumble]

7. There's nothing professional about shooting some American students laptop...

I read about that happening a few weeks ago, and they're also renowned for profiling passengers.

[gorfle]

8. Exactly.

I think you are exactly right.

The Israelis no doubt are using highly trained, professional security personnel who can look at people and interpret their body language accurately.

We, on the other hand, hire drones who are not paid to think but rather simply go down a security check list of "things this week deemed dangerous to carry on airplanes".

I have no doubt it's easier to screen things rather than people. It probably takes less skill to identify things rather than personality traits, and it's politically far safer to screen things rather than people.

[Scurrilous]

6. South Africa slams El AL for stringent security checks (12/15/09)

<sni>

"The flight route between Israel and South Africa is in danger of being cancelled, El Al airline said on Monday.

The Israeli airline was criticized by the South African government for its stringent security checkups, as documented on a South African television research show.

A reporter with a hidden camera filmed an El Al security guard allegedly discriminating against dark-skinned passengers at the airport check in.

As a result of the broadcast the South African government issued a request that Israel change its security procedures in the country, which El Al has denied on the basis that they are part of the company's flight regulations."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1135011.html


El Al security officer deported from South Africa (11/20/09)

http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3808129,00.html

Foreign Ministry attempting to solve diplomatic crisis following TV program revealing Israeli airline's 'racist policy'

<snip>

"The South African authorities several days ago deported a security officer working for Israel's El Al airlines, who is employed by the Israeli Embassy in the country and has a diplomatic passport.

The authorities issued an ultimatum to Israel, saying that if an arrangement on the employment of El Al security guards is not reached by the end of the month, they would all be deported from South Africa.

The Yedioth Ahronoth daily has learned that the Foreign Ministry immediately sent out a team of diplomats to South Africa to negotiate the matter, in a bid to have security guards stay in the county in favor of El Al's Johannesburg-Tel Aviv flights.

The affair began about two months ago, when Jonathan Garb, who had worked as a security guard for El Al for 19 years, was fired. In an act of revenge, he revealed the Israeli airline' security methods to a prestigious South African investigative television program.

"We classify people on a racist, ethnic and even religious basis," he claimed. Garb said that during his training he had been sent to Israel for advanced studies and was hired by the Israeli security services. "We trained with weapons at a secret base where the special Israeli forces train. We used guns and submachine guns in face-to-face combat."

The program also sent a Muslim investigator with a hidden camera to El Al's security check station at a local airport. Within seconds, the man was stopped by an El Al security guard, who was later deported from the country. The program's reporter accused El Al of having a racist policy, of deceiving the South African authorities and of seriously violating the constitution."

[1]

9. nobody fucks with el al. game, set, match...

[proteus_lives]

15. +1

They are safe and professional.

[Clintonista2]

10. Bingo! I had a prof who would frequently talk about this subject

How in Israeli airports they are trained to read people like a book, and how there have been no more than a couple of slip ups in the past 40+ years (which is astonishing when you really think about how hated Israel is in that region and how many people have probably tried to board a flight with the intention of highjacking it).

[breadandwine]

12. I take issue with the opening post.

The premise seems to be, "I don't like the increased security at American airports (possibly a legitimate beef), so let's blame it on the Jews to get everyone worked up to oppose the increased security." I'm sick of this sort of crap.

[Clintonista2]

13. I'm embarassed on your behalf

The article is actually PROMOTING the Israeli system. If you had read beyond the first paragraph you wouldn't have ended up making such a fool of yourself.

[breadandwine]

14. I'm not taking issue with the article. I'm taking issue with the opening post which has its own view

Pot meet kettle.

[Clintonista2]

22. The opening post said nothing objectionable

n/m

[gorfle]

18. which "opening post"?

If you are referring to reply #1, it has been deleted, so I have no comment.

If you are referring to my post, I am all for the way the Israelis are handling airport security, and find their approach superior to the American approach, which is the same tone as the article I cited.

I think it is ineffective, time consuming, and politically correct that we screen things, while the Israelis quite effectively and quickly screen people.

[Sal Minella]

21. Someone lauds Israeli security procedures as effective and efficient,

and you manage to read it as "blame it on the Jews?"

DU just never ceases to amaze me.
Such an amazing spectrum of intellectual capacities is on display here.

[SmileyRose]

23. You misunderstood.

either that I don't understand your post at all.

[CaliCompadre]

16. Sounds reasonable

The failure in Detroit was mainly due to lack of response to warnings. It could have been prevented by good intelligence.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. So you're supporting increased profiling?

It seems to me that American flights have enough incidents of people being suspected because they speak a foreign language already. And the extra delays in flying to Israel has been known about for years. I'm not sure where the 'far less inconvenience' comes from. See, for instance:

Long Haul Flights 3 HOURS prior to departure (El Al passengers should allow 3½ hours)

http://www.heathrowinformation.co.uk/heathrow-airport-INF-passengers-guide.php

[gorfle]

19. I support screening PEOPLE.

The Israelis are screening people, rather than things. According to the article, they seem to realize that people, not things commit terror acts, and they focus on the people, rather than the things that people carry.

I'm not sure where the 'far less inconvenience' comes from.

It came from the article.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Yeah, but that 'article' is just a copy of something anonymous

and we have no idea of who is making that claim, or how they attempt to back it up. Whereas I linked to an official site showing that El Al security takes an extra half hour. That's inconvenient.

Yeah, screening people is what profiling is. It means the screeners think "I don't like the look of that person", and discriminate on the basis of prejudices (ie they pre-judge people). Now, Israel doesn't give a shit about being prejudicial. But you should realise you're asking the US government to be officially prejudiced. And that's a big step to take.

[SmileyRose]

24. I do support more profiling

not of a religion or a race or a language. The few professionals I personally know who handle security don't look at things either. They park a couple "flunkies" out at the gates to make a show of it but the real security work is done where no one sees it. A professional is watching the people, not the water bottles. There is a set of behaviors, a look in the eye, subtle things they look for. And they catch the crooked gamblers, thieves, troublemakers at places like casinos, theme parks, professional ball fields, state fairs etc 99.9% of the time.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. But that's all pseudo-scientific guesswork, really

People who claim they can spot 'troublemakers'. As opposed to nervous fliers, people who've never travelled before, people with other things on their mind ... it's like 'graphology' - people set themselves up as 'experts' and fleece gullible companies who pay for it. If people can learn to fool lie detectors, they can certainly keep calm enough that people won't spot "a look in the eye". It's called acting. Or practice. If I thought my saftey depended on someone catching a 'look in the eye', I'd never fly again.

[SmileyRose]

26. With all respect

you should probably stay off airplanes. People determined to blow one up will find a way to get the bomb in. Period.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. I find it hard to believe that they can't train somebody to look the security guard in the eye

I also find it odd that supposedly a one way ticket with no checked bags is a red flag when somebody could easily just check bags and buy a round trip ticket to conceal that supposed red flag.