The Israeli approach to airport security doesn't sound as bad as I thought.

[LLStarks]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother

Unless there's a serious catch I'm missing, even a piecemeal adoption of Ben-Gurion's policies in US airports would be a huge step up.

[babylonsister]

1. I think it would be impossible to do in the US. I've

been through security in Israel; they question everyone 'at length', myself included, and I was no threat. People here, because there are so many, would miss flights. I don't know how feasible it would be just because of the size of the different populations.

Now I'll go browse the article, thanks.

[avaistheone1]

4. It sounds like your experience was an anomaly per this article

"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."

That's the process — six layers, four hard, two soft. The goal at Ben-Gurion is to move fliers from the parking lot to the airport lounge in a maximum of 25 minutes.

K&R


It appears that the Israeli system is based on astute observations, good listening skills and critical thinking on the part of their screeners. Seems we could do that here. Of the course the Terror Industrial Complex then can not spend hundreds of millions of dollars on useless equipment.

[riderinthestorm]

10. They do a LOT of racial profiling. Would anyone in the US agree to that? No way, imho. nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. "WHAP" (The sound of a nail being hit on the head)

Seems we could do that here. Of the course the Terror Industrial Complex then can not spend hundreds of millions of dollars on useless equipment.

BINGO! We've got fucking Bingo, here.

[sally cat]

12. That's a cool image.

[sally cat]

8. "I was no threat" And they found that out using their techniques. Their equivalent of TSA's STOP

personnel actually interact with passengers, versus the TSA's method of having the trained STOP folks merely observe from a distance.

[MattBaggins]

17. Because muslims and others are used to having no rights in Israel

Profiling would go over in America like a lead ballon.

[sally cat]

18. The outrage over security theater makes me wonder if passengers would want to try the Israeli model.

[MattBaggins]

21. White people would love that model. Others not so much.

We need a third model it would seem.

[proteus_lives]

20. Muslims have rights in Israel.

Try and keep up.

[MattBaggins]

24. Yes your precious Israel was criticised.

Just as America has Driving while Black, Israel has Traveling while Muslim.

[proteus_lives]

25. Ask any Israeli Muslim if they would rather live in Israel...

Or Jordan, or Syria, or Lebanon.

You would be surprised with the answer.

[MattBaggins]

28. That's a rather silly request.

[sally cat]

32. Interesting point.

[bluestateguy]

2. They do racial and ethno-religious profiling

If you are an Israeli Jew then yes I imagine its not so bad, but for anyone else it can be very invasive.

Arab Muslims, as you might imagine, get the full over from security people.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Mexico city has adopted most of this

Due to US requirements they do some of the theater, but El Al advised Mexico after 9.11.

Usual excuse takes too long... Well AICM handles the same traffic as JFK and it is damn efficient. Knowing security I much prefer to fly out of there than oh Lindberg Field.

[BlueCheese]

5. Interesting ideas.

Some of them are easy--bomb-proof rooms so you don't evacuate the entire terminal.

Others are harder. For example, the article says they have people question you benignly as you arrive, and stare into your eyes later on to see if you betray nervousness or other suspicious behavior. That would probably require a lot of training for a lot of people.

[Gin]

6. do they screen the cargo under the plane? we can be felt up...

profiled....stared at...whatever...but until cargo is checked
it really is theater.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. They do

We mostly usevprefferred shippers status.

Oh and I forgot, cargo going onto an El Al plane is checked as well.

[sally cat]

9. One potential catch: would CAIR object to El Al advising the TSA?

[somone]

13. But that's so low-tech. We have HIGH-TECH machines

Chertoff's scanners, plus an army of genitalia inspectors

[sally cat]

14. Yet the Israelis don't do security theater. They're serious. And successful.

[DirkGently]

15. Does sound effective. It's also likely they "profile" and, non-Israelis have a different experience.

I don’t want to generalize too much from a single trip through Ben Gurion Airport, but I’d have to say that my experience leaving Tel Aviv was far and away the most unpleasant encounter I’d ever had with airport security officials in the decade. Moscow in 1998 was worse. As best I could tell, things went pretty smoothly as long as you were (a) Israeli, (b) traveling with an Israeli, or (c) traveling with some kind of well-established tour group. I think this may be how the majority of people go through the airport, which may account for its good reputation. But it took me approximately three hours to get from the initial passport check through to the food court. I was told that I couldn’t take my iPad onto the plane, and therefore would have to check a whole bag that I’d been planning to carry on so that the bag could contain the forbidden device, and the same thing happened to two of the guys I was traveling with. Each individual item from the bag I was allowed to carry on had to be separately wiped down for traces of explosive residue and several items had to be wiped multiple times.

I was groped a couple of times, yelled at by surly Russian immigrants, accused of “lying” because I’d forgotten I had a second iPod charging cord in my bag, interrogated several times about who I’d talked to, etc.

What is true is that except for the Russian immigrants, who do bring the unique Russian approach to customer service, everyone is exceedingly polite ...

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/11/israeli-airport-security/

Still, I think the emphasis on intelligent examination, as opposed to ever-more-intrusive gadgets and processes, sounds like a smarter approach. I get the distinct impression that TSA relies on people taking their shoes off, etc., more than looking for suspicious behavior.

[MattBaggins]

19. "everyone is exceedingly polite"

As long as you don't fit a certain "profile" of being Muslim or "Muslim Looking".

[DirkGently]

22. Not sure of the author's ethnicity. He / she did say the Russian Israelis were "surly."

[MattBaggins]

26. Should we have this method of Airport security imported from Israel?

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/airport-security-puts-three-bullets-through-macbook-hard-drive-survives/

[DirkGently]

30. Wow. Does seem a wee extreme, doesn't it?

[jberryhill]

16. The security perimeter is not AT the airport

http://current.com/news/89376183_humiliation-and-child-abuse-at-israeli-checkpoints-strip-searching-children.htm

Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens.

While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below.

According to interviews with women in the United States, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli border officials periodically force Christian and Muslim females of all ages to remove their clothing and submit to searches. In some cases the children are then "felt" by Israeli officials.

Sometimes mothers and children are strip-searched together, at other times little girls are taken from their parents and strip-searched alone. Women are required to remove sanitary napkins, sometimes with small daughters at their side. Sometimes women are strip searched in the presence of their young sons.

[Xithras]

23. I would less problem with the TSA if they adopted Israels model.

Instead, they chose a methodology based on intrusiveness, delay, and personal violation.

Your security model can't be based on THINGS, because the bad guys are always coming up with NEW THINGS that your security guys aren't looking for. Aviation security should be based on analyzing PEOPLE, because they are the only constant in these crimes.

[DirkGently]

31. Well said. E.g., the "Underwear bomber." Next comes the eyeball bomber and the body cavity bomber.

... and won't those new "scans" be fun?

[Subdivisions]

27. Check out this video featuring the former head of security for El Al...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#40200870

[rollin74]

29. K & R

seems like a definite improvement over what we have in the U.S. these days