US Airport Security vs Israel's Security

[davidj]

Maybe I'm unenlightened but it seems that Israel never has problems at their airports with security.

They have security problems other places but it seems not at their airports.

Our news is full daily, of problems with our scanners & TSA.

Why do we not follow Israel's leadership on this problem?

The Ron Paul incident kinda made me think maybe he thinks Government officials should get different treatment than us tax payers.

If the alarm sounds on him he should go through the same processes that we do.

After all, our officials are responsible because they voted for the TSA fiasco we face when trying to fly.

Where am I going wrong?

[daddyo]

Call me paranoid or suspicious, but I'm having a tough time believing Rand Paul wasn't singled out. He is a pretty high profile politician, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the TSA had their sights on him, knowing how he would react to the prospect of a pat down.

I'm personally glad he refused to submit to it and admire him for doing so.

[leroy]

david: Ya make a great point here. I've wondered this myself. If ya take the time to read how the Israelis do it; it's completely different from our system. The Israeli's are masters of this stuff. They live with real threats every day. Our gubment has created an ineffective, bloated bureauracy that is destined to fail because it is operated by "politically correct" rules. My take is that it is lots safer to pat down well known polititians, babies, and old ladies than it is mullahs and young middle eastern men. The cryin shame of all this is that both parties went along with this heinous and idiotic scheme under the guise of "making us all safer". I say "baloney".

leroy

[Guest drv2fst]

Rand Paul has been very outspoken against the TSA. It shouldn't be a real surprise that they reached out to cause him some grief.

I did not get the impression that Rand Paul was asking for any special treatment due to his position. He was protesting the treatment that any of us could have been a victim of.

There are MANY special cases where our elected leaders don't follow the same rules that they make for us common folk. It's the best example that they (as a group) really don't give a rats a$$ about us. They are only in the politics game for their and their families benefit. I'm sure there are a few exceptions to that rule but I think it applies to 99% of them.

[Oh Shoot]

The Israelis have a variety of methods that have proven to be effective -- many of them are based on profiling, which is a bad word in US. They just see it as logical, which of course it is.

Much more human to human interaction there, too, rather than random sampling.

- OS

[DaveTN]

The Ron Paul incident kinda made me think maybe he thinks Government officials should get different treatment than us tax payers.

You mean the Rand Paul incident in Nashville?

[mikegideon]

The Israelis have a variety of methods that have proven to be effective -- many of them are based on profiling, which is a bad word in US. They just see it as logical, which of course it is.

Much more human to human interaction there, too, rather than random sampling.

- OS

They don't have the luxury of being idiots. Has the TSA EVER stopped a valid threat? Useless waste of time, money and dignity.

[davidj]

Leroy, baloney is right!

[Caster]

The Israelis have a variety of methods that have proven to be effective -- many of them are based on profiling, which is a bad word in US. They just see it as logical, which of course it is.

Much more human to human interaction there, too, rather than random sampling.

- OS

Yep. You look the part over there, they walk over and have a chat with you. Get an attitude and they send you to meet the god of your choice. Very effective and makes lots of sense. Americans would protest in disgust at this. All I say is....Shalom.

[mav]

While Israel's airport security is better than our's, one must take into account the amount of traffic through Ben Gurion versus some of our metropolitian airports. It isn't even close. We could adopt security measures that closer resemble what the Israelis are doing, but we are going to have a different type of worker than what is employed by TSA, and we will need a lot of them.

[enfield]

Israel undoubtedly bases their security procedures in reality. Our government bases ours in politics, appearances and political correctness. When you bend reality, it snaps back and whacks you. We'll get whacked, again.

[mikegideon]

Israel undoubtedly bases their security procedures in reality. Our government bases ours in politics, appearances and political correctness. When you bend reality, it snaps back and whacks you. We'll get whacked, again.

Maybe, but granny won't get away with it. It would have to be someone we wouldn't expect, like those nice Muslim guys.

[Oh Shoot]

Maybe, but granny won't get away with it. It would have to be someone we wouldn't expect, like those nice Muslim guys.

Gave you a like, but still had to add :biglol:.

Nothing more ironically hilarious than the truth in this pore ole USA no more.

- OS

[mikegideon]

Yep. Warm, fuzzy, and stupid.

[Guest BungieCord]

We're hung up on identifying the terrorists' weapons. The Israelis focus on identifying the terrorist.

El Al's own employees do their security. As soon as you book your ticket, they check your name against FBI, Interpol and Shin Bet databases, at a minimum. People with Arabic names automatically are targeted for extra scrutiny.

Every passenger gets an interview with a security specialist before they board the plane. They call it an interview but it's actually an interrogation administered by a professional interrogator. The first question usually is whether you speak Hebrew. An interview conducted in Hebrew usually is shorter than those that are not.

They ask you pointed questions about where you've been, where you're going, who you're traveling with, and why. And about your luggage, especially carry-ons, particularly anything you're treating differently or special, like gift-wrapped boxes or carried in a shopping bag. They watch your face and body language closely, looking for deception cues or undue jitteriness. Based on a number of criteria -- the first of which is race or ethnicity -- they determine how much additional security you merit.

All luggage is x-rayed, then put in a decompression chamber as a precaution against barometrically-activated devices.

They also have several armed security personnel scattered among the passengers on every flight.

We don't have the stones to openly engage in racial profiling. Nor is the federal government likely to hire or train competent interrogators and then turn them loose to do their job.

El Al recommends you arrive three hours before scheduled departure. By design, their boarding process makes all the passengers uncomfortable ...until the door is closed and the engines are started.

[JeffL]

Sounds like you're reaching with your Rand Paul comment. He doesn't want special treatment for being a politician, he doesn't want anyone treated like that.

[LagerHead]

I might be missing something here...hell, I almost undoubtedly am. But it seems like the biggest gripe people in general, and here included, have about the TSA is the loss of our rights and invasion of privacy when we board a flight. If so, how could you possibly support a more Isreal-like system? Hell yes it's effective, because they'll bitch slap you back into the stone age if you try and fight it. They are far more invasive and couldn't care less about your "rights." They are the TSA on high grade crack. The only real difference between the TSA and the Isrealis is that the Isrealis are good at what they do.

The Isrealis also live in a world where races don't mix like they do here. Yes there are Arabs in Isreal but it's not the norm. When you travel in the Middle East you either go through Isreal or you go through Arab countries. If you enjoy being harassed and accused of all sorts of unsavory things then by all means do both.

And their harassment is limited to Arabs either. Some of them don't particularly like Americans and will confiscate your belongings for "further inspection" and you won't get them back until they feel ready to give them back to you. I don't think a person on this board wouldn't pitch a fit like they've never seen before if our TSA trained up to Isreali standards and started with that kind of B.S.

Yea, the Isreali world is different than ours. And I wouldn't trade with them in a million years. I'll take an incompetent bureaucracy over a competent one any day. Remember, "Those that would trade a little freedom for a little security deserve neither."

[mikegideon]

I might be missing something here...hell, I almost undoubtedly am. But it seems like the biggest gripe people in general, and here included, have about the TSA is the loss of our rights and invasion of privacy when we board a flight. If so, how could you possibly support a more Isreal-like system? Hell yes it's effective, because they'll bitch slap you back into the stone age if you try and fight it. They are far more invasive and couldn't care less about your "rights." They are the TSA on high grade crack. The only real difference between the TSA and the Isrealis is that the Isrealis are good at what they do.

The Isrealis also live in a world where races don't mix like they do here. Yes there are Arabs in Isreal but it's not the norm. When you travel in the Middle East you either go through Isreal or you go through Arab countries. If you enjoy being harassed and accused of all sorts of unsavory things then by all means do both.

And their harassment is limited to Arabs either. Some of them don't particularly like Americans and will confiscate your belongings for "further inspection" and you won't get them back until they feel ready to give them back to you. I don't think a person on this board wouldn't pitch a fit like they've never seen before if our TSA trained up to Isreali standards and started with that kind of B.S.

Yea, the Isreali world is different than ours. And I wouldn't trade with them in a million years. I'll take an incompetent bureaucracy over a competent one any day. Remember, "Those that would trade a little freedom for a little security deserve neither."

I object to the TSA because they are friggin' idiots. I wouldn't mind so much, maybe not at all, if they were part of a real security effort. What they really are is a feel good, ad hoc, bunch of former fast food workers that are not only wastiing my time, but doing it with a false sense of superiority because they aren't flipping burgers anymore. I absolutely hate those guys.

The Israelis are pros. I figure there's a real reason if they gotta fondle my junk.

[peejman]

While Israel's airport security is better than our's, one must take into account the amount of traffic through Ben Gurion versus some of our metropolitian airports. It isn't even close. We could adopt security measures that closer resemble what the Israelis are doing, but we are going to have a different type of worker than what is employed by TSA, and we will need a lot of them.

Exactly. How do you think the sheep would feel if there were squads of fully kitted soldiers with K9's patrolling the halls. People whine when the TSA singles them out for a "random" search. Think they'd make the same complaints if the guy doing the searching and 4 of his friends had machine guns?

Careful what you wish for.

[strickj]

I might be missing something here...hell, I almost undoubtedly am. But it seems like the biggest gripe people in general, and here included, have about the TSA is the loss of our rights and invasion of privacy when we board a flight. If so, how could you possibly support a more Isreal-like system? Hell yes it's effective, because they'll bitch slap you back into the stone age if you try and fight it. They are far more invasive and couldn't care less about your "rights." They are the TSA on high grade crack. The only real difference between the TSA and the Isrealis is that the Isrealis are good at what they do.

The Isrealis also live in a world where races don't mix like they do here. Yes there are Arabs in Isreal but it's not the norm. When you travel in the Middle East you either go through Isreal or you go through Arab countries. If you enjoy being harassed and accused of all sorts of unsavory things then by all means do both.

And their harassment is limited to Arabs either. Some of them don't particularly like Americans and will confiscate your belongings for "further inspection" and you won't get them back until they feel ready to give them back to you. I don't think a person on this board wouldn't pitch a fit like they've never seen before if our TSA trained up to Isreali standards and started with that kind of B.S.

Yea, the Isreali world is different than ours. And I wouldn't trade with them in a million years. I'll take an incompetent bureaucracy over a competent one any day. Remember, "Those that would trade a little freedom for a little security deserve neither."

Well stated.

What amazes me is the open desire to profile based on skin color and looks here.

How many here supporting the idea of Israeli security would be profiled right along with those with brown faces? Extremely conservative, gun-toting, flannel wearing government haters.

How quickly we forget....

Homeland Security Report Warns Of Rising Right-Wing Extremism

Course, I'd be all for adopting their security. I'm not extremely conservative, I have nie a brown face nor wear flannel. I would slip right through...

Strick, will visit y'all in the concentration camp, J

Edited February 1, 2012 by strickj

[TMF]

I might be missing something here...hell, I almost undoubtedly am. But it seems like the biggest gripe people in general, and here included, have about the TSA is the loss of our rights and invasion of privacy when we board a flight. If so, how could you possibly support a more Isreal-like system? Hell yes it's effective, because they'll bitch slap you back into the stone age if you try and fight it. They are far more invasive and couldn't care less about your "rights." They are the TSA on high grade crack. The only real difference between the TSA and the Isrealis is that the Isrealis are good at what they do.

The Isrealis also live in a world where races don't mix like they do here. Yes there are Arabs in Isreal but it's not the norm. When you travel in the Middle East you either go through Isreal or you go through Arab countries. If you enjoy being harassed and accused of all sorts of unsavory things then by all means do both.

And their harassment is limited to Arabs either. Some of them don't particularly like Americans and will confiscate your belongings for "further inspection" and you won't get them back until they feel ready to give them back to you. I don't think a person on this board wouldn't pitch a fit like they've never seen before if our TSA trained up to Isreali standards and started with that kind of B.S.

Yea, the Isreali world is different than ours. And I wouldn't trade with them in a million years. I'll take an incompetent bureaucracy over a competent one any day. Remember, "Those that would trade a little freedom for a little security deserve neither."

Wow, that is some logic there. I guess I never thought about it like that, but a competent TSA would be a helluva lot scarier than the incompetent one we have. I still hate the TSA. I'm having to fly again in a few days and am not looking forward to it.

[LagerHead]

Wow, that is some logic there. I guess I never thought about it like that, but a competent TSA would be a helluva lot scarier than the incompetent one we have. I still hate the TSA. I'm having to fly again in a few days and am not looking forward to it.

I'm obviously not a TSA fan either. There's a simple way to correct all this B.S. Remember when you used to pick smoking or non-smoking when you flew? Let us pick armed or unarmed. If you pick armed you fly with others who did so as well. If you pick unarmed you take your chances.

[daddyo]

Flying was once an enjoyable experience. The TSA just proves, once again, that anytime the federal government gets involved in something, all the joy is sucked out of it.