How Come Israel's Airline Security Doesn't Need To Touch Our Junk?: "
Fighting against terrorism, an evil which rejects all the basic moral and legal norms of civilized society, is inherently difficult for liberal democracies such as the United States. It forces the democracy to find the right balance between the protection of civil liberties on one hand with the prevention of violence on the other. It is clear that the latest TSA policy which gives passengers a choice of having your naked picture taken or having your private parts groped by a TSA official is not 'balanced'
Many of the issues in front of our policymakers have previously been faced by Israel, a country that has been under the threat terrorist attack since its inception in 1948. And we keep hearing why can't we run our airport security the same way they do in Israel? The real answer to that question is here in the US personal rights take a back seat to political correctness.
Israeli counter-terrorism efforts have a simple philosophy, “Do whatever it takes to identify and defend against potential attacks before they happen.” This approach does not change whether there is a left or right wing Prime Minister in power, which is a reflection of the continuing public support for the way things are run. For Israel, the fight against terrorism is a fight for its very survival. Thus her government and citizenry take a different view of counter-terrorism, unencumbered by the political correctness which restrains efforts in the United States.
Also understand that anyone who complains that New Yorkers are impatient, has never met an Israeli. Israelis are amongst the most impatient people in the world. Oh they have no problem waiting for an elder person to cross the road, but make them stand in line....no way! So any system that Israeli security developed couldn't make passengers spend any more time at the airport.
In Israel, ethnicity, race and religion is a factor in a profile, as well as general appearance and behavior. And it applied to passengers on outgoing flights, but on people flying into Israel on Israeli airline such as El Al, and wherever the profile is being made, it is being made by Israelis.
The ISA (Israeli Security Agency) calls it “human factor.” Some part of that human factor would cause Al Sharpton to show up to picket the Airport if it was practiced in the US. Ethnic profiling of passengers plays a central role in Israel’s multi-level approach.
All passengers travelling to and from Israel are questioned by security staff. For Jewish Israelis, the process takes a couple of minutes at most, with passengers being asked whether they packed their luggage alone, and whether anyone had access to the luggage once it was packed. Jewish tourists also usually pass through security within a few minutes, particularly if they can speak a bit of Hebrew or are frequent visitors to the Holy Land.
When my family entered the El Al terminal at Newark Airport, we were met by someone who innocently asked us where we came from and where were going. Then when we got into the terminal and were on the line to check in and get our boarding pass, an El Al employee in a jacket and tie nicely asked my 12 year old son (out of my ear's range) why we were going to Israel. As my son and I were wearing
yalmukahs our religion was obvious, so the man asked him what synagogue we went to and what was our Rabbi's name. While he was asking questions, he was staring in to his eyes and over my kid's head looking for my wife's reaction as well as mine. The whole thing took no more than thirty seconds, when he was done with my son, he moved up the line and asked me the same questions plus the typical who packed your luggage-type queries, once again gauging my reaction very closely. Then he moved up to the next group and so on.
Like the Mossad, tank drivers, and air force pilots, Israeli airport security have that super hero, no-nonsense, get to the point directness and efficiency. “Who packed your bags?” “What was your bar mitzah portion?” “Why are you even here visiting?” This quick-fire interrogation was strangely reassuring.
Non-Jewish tourists tend to be questioned a bit more thoroughly, and may be grilled over the purpose of their visit and about their accommodation. Questions may be repeated several times in a slightly different format, and family members may be asked the same questions to spot inconsistencies.
However, the procedure for Arabs and Muslims can often be lengthy and irritating, ending with a full body and baggage search. Visitors who have passport stamps from countries hostile to Israel are also questioned intensively in what can be a traumatic experience for the uninitiated.
Some foreign journalists who have arrived from states such as Syria and Iran, usually via Jordan or Cyprus, have had laptop computers and even notebooks confiscated, only to be returned weeks later. Anyone admitting to leaving their luggage at an airport or bus station left-luggage area before check-in will have their suitcases stripped, with each item individually checked and re-packed.
Only when the security staff are convinced that a passenger does not pose a security risk will the person being questioned be permitted to proceed to the check-in desk.
In 2008, Israel’s supreme court rejected a petition presented by a group of disgruntled Israeli Arab citizens, backed by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, demanding an end to ethnic profiling as discriminatory and illegal.
If I had been more attentive I would have noticed that throughout the terminal there were 'armed eyes' looking at my family as well as everyone else about to get on a plane. These observers where making the same behavioral profiles as the guy in the jacket and tie who asked the questions of the people on line.
'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.
Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of 'distress' — behavioral profiling. Sela rejects the argument that profiling is discriminatory.
'The word 'profiling' is a political invention by people who don't want to do security,' he said. 'To us, it doesn't matter if he's black, white, young or old. It's just his behavior. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I'm doing this?'
There are other differences, most importantly is that you don't just come off the street and get a job with the ISA (Israel Security Agency). These security agents are all ex-military (as most of the country is) and they are selected based on their intelligence and their ability to behavior profile.
Shlomo Harnoy, vice president of the Sdema group, an Israeli security consultancy firm which specialises in aviation security, believes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up the Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines aircraft on Christmas Day, would have been detained “within seconds ” at Ben Gurion airport. According to Harnoy, a young Muslim travelling alone, on a one-way ticket, with no luggage, was an obvious suspect.
Harnoy, who once headed the Israel Security Agency’s aviation security department, believes investing millions in new technology is not the answer. “Whoever is concentrating on stopping old ladies bringing a bottle of mineral water on to the plane will not find the terrorist, or the bomb. The old lady is not a suicide bomber and the bottle of water is not a bomb component.”
Not only do most Israeli security selectors have degree-level education, they are trained to the highest standards. The most important element in the “human factor” is that the security guards understand the threat.
And of course, on every El Al flight there are armed air marshals on every flight, you won't know who they are, but they know who you are.
As for my families first brush with Israeli Airport Security, we arrived in Ben Gurion Airport twelve hours later, tired but not even realizing that we went through a more extensive security process than we ever had before.
As the United States defends against the ever expanding threat of Muslim terror, right here on our home turf, success depends on throwing off the shackles of political correctness and adopting the methods of our ally Israel.
However the US is stuck in what seems to be an irreversible and deadly policy of treating every one the same. The ultimate result is an airport security process that gives you a choice of being abused by a machine or the groping hands of an untrained TSA agent. The present TSA policies put passengers and the X-Ray appliances that reveal their bare bodies in the same category as they are both treated like machines.
During her 62 year fight against terror, Israel has achieved a balance between protection of civil liberties and the prevention of violence. Her decision was that the sanctity of saving human lives, and preserving personal dignity, outweighs the targeting and possible inconvenient questioning of a few.
Or in the words of that great philosopher from the band KISS,
Gene Simmons ;
I think we should be racially profiling anybody from the Middle East ... and as an Israeli; I want you to look at me first. I want you to search my anal cavity and look at my tax records. I want you to look at me first, and then at every guy named Muhammad.
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