It's Time To Dump The TSA And Adopt The Israeli Way Of Airport Protection

Last week we learned that a test of the TSA failed to identify a security breach 90% of the time, this week we learned that over 70 TSA workers have terrorist connections. These news items do not inspire confidence in U.S. airport security.  There is a better way, that our government probably never adopt even though it would be much safer.

Allow me to suggest that it is time to toss out the entire TSA system, and all the employees, and screen passengers and people in airports the "Israeli way" which involves hiring agents based on their intelligence and their ability to behavior profile and profiling passengers as they make their way through the airport.

The real difference between the Israeli and American approach is the goal. Israel tries to identify and stop the terrorist while the U.S. tries to stop the bomb or other weapon. The Israeli approach is totally void of politics, consistent no matter who the Prime Minister is because the Israeli government realizes the fight against terrorism is a fight for its very survival and its economy is dependent on tourism. Thus her government and citizenry have a view of preventing terrorism that is unencumbered by the political correctness which restrains efforts in the United States.

The ISA (Israeli Security Agency) calls their approach looks for the “human factor.”

Some parts of that human factor would cause Al Sharpton's ears to bleed  just before he shows up to picket the Airport because Ethnic profiling of passengers plays a role in Israel’s multilevel approach. However ethnicity is only one element of the profiling, country of origin, religion, general appearance and the most important element, behavior are also part of the information used to profile. Wherever that profile is being made, no matter what country a flight is leaving from, if the destination is Israel, an Israeli doing the profile. Israel does not believe in trusting its security to citizens of other countries.

All passengers traveling 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.

When my family entered the El Al terminal at Newark Airport before our last trip to Israel, we were greeted at the entrance by someone who asked where we came from and where were going.

When we made our way to the check in line, a ISA security employee in a suit and tie asked my son (who was 12 at the time) out of my ear’s range why we were going to Israel. He was asked if we were Jewish and when my son answered yes, the screener followed up by asking the name of our Synagogue and our Rabbi’s name. The entire time he was asking my son questions he was looking at my wife and me, gauging our reaction to the "interrogation." The entire process with my son took less than 30 seconds.

When the security guy was done with my son, he came to me and asked me the same questions (plus the typical who packed your luggage-type queries) once again gauging my reaction very closely.

Like the Mossad, tank drivers, and air force pilots, Israeli airport security has that super hero, no-nonsense, get to the point directness and efficiency and professionalism,

"Who packed your bags?” “What was your Bar Mitzvah portion?” “Why are you even here visiting?” 

This quick-fire interrogation was not bothersome but reassuring. We got the feeling that we were dealing with people who knew what they were doing, and after all it was much more important to us that when we returned to the ground it was because our plane was landing and not because it was blown to smithereens.

My Daughter and Son Await Screening At Ben Gurion Airport

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.

… 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.

But then again it still beats a country like the UAE, where if your passport has a stamp on it that you've visited Israel you are not allowed in the country.

….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.

The individual check also happens with "wise-asses," like the people who were in line in front of me of me in line during that trip. These security people are serious but polite and expect the same out of the passengers.

Being Muslim or Arab won't get you the extreme treatment, but it will make the questioners pay a bit more attention to your behavior.

If I had been more attentive when traveling to Israel, I would have noticed that throughout the terminal there were “armed eyes” surreptitiously looking at my family as well as everyone else in the terminal. These observers were making the same behavioral profiles as the guy who questioned people on line.

“It is mind-boggling 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.,.

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?”

Another important difference is that you don’t just come off the street and get a job with the ISA (Israel Security Agency). These security agents are ex-military (as most of the country is) and are selected based on their intelligence and their ability to behavior profile. The agents are rotated out of the airports every few months to keep them sharp.

Shlomo Harnoy, vice president of the Sdema group, an Israeli security consultancy firm which specializes in aviation security, believes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up the Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines aircraft on Christmas Day a few years ago, would have been detained “within seconds ” at Ben Gurion airport. According to Harnoy, a young Muslim traveling 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 security guards understand the threat to the country.

Additionally on every El Al flight there are armed air marshals. You won’t know who they are, but I strongly recommend that you don't make a mid-air fuss to find out.

As for my family's 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.

The TSA needs to adapt the entire process; not just the behavioral screening but the ethnic elements; not just the screening at the gates, but throughout the terminal and on the plans, not just the training, but the selection of agents (personally I think it would be a great job for Special Forces vets).

During her 67 year fight against terror, Israel has achieved a balance between protection of civil liberties and the prevention of violence. Her decision about airport security is the sanctity of saving human lives outweighs possible targeting and inconvenience of the extra questioning of a few.

And face it getting to your destination alive and whole is what we all want.




Gene Simmons the sage from the band KISS who was born in Israel put it this way:

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.