Washington — Renewed threats of airborne terror have once again drawn attention to Israel’s track record of preventing terror attacks on airplanes.
American commentators and politicians, riled by the recent failure to stop terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab from boarding a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, have raised calls for “Israelification” of American airports and the adoption of the security model used at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.
But while Israel does maintain an excellent track record for preventing airplane terrorism, its unique system of security, which leans heavily on personal interaction and on group profiling, cannot easily be emulated by the United States.
“The way things work in the United States is 180 degrees opposite to the way things work in Israel,” said Yuval Bezherano, an executive at an Israeli consulting firm that designs airport security systems. “Adopting the full Israeli system won’t work, because of costs, time and legal differences.”
Abdulmuttalab’s attempt to set off an explosive device strapped to his underwear December 25, minutes before the plane landed in Detroit, revealed a series of gaps in airport security practices, beginning with authorities ignoring alerts about his possible ties with terror groups and ending with security screeners failing to detect the explosive.
While American and European security procedures rely mainly on technological solutions for screening luggage and passengers, Israel’s security philosophy is based on a mix of advanced detection devices and personal interaction with the passengers.
The multi-layer system begins outside Israel’s biggest port of entry — Ben Gurion airport. Cars approaching the terminal are stopped by guards and asked one or two questions, usually about where they are coming from or what is the purpose of their visit. A nervous response, or one revealing an Arab accent, could trigger further scrutiny even before entering the airport.
When walking into the terminal, visitors pass by another set of security agents searching for passengers behaving suspiciously. The next stop for human evaluation is before the check-in counter, where passengers are required to show their travel documents and answer a series of seemingly standard questions from trained security personnel. (Did you pack your bags by yourself? How long did you spend in Israel? What was the purpose of your visit?) Screeners are interested more in the tone and body language than in the content of passengers’ replies.
This is also the point where profiling takes place: While most Jewish Israeli citizens will be waved through after the brief conversation, others, mainly Israeli Arabs and non-Jewish visitors, will be taken aside for lengthy questioning and a thorough luggage and physical check.
An Israeli official aware of the security practices said that profiling is not based solely on ethnic, religious or national affiliation, but rather on a combination of factors that also include behavioral patterns, travel information and previous intelligence.
Adding to the personal screening process, passengers at Ben-Gurion also go through a metal detector, and an X-ray machine checks their luggage.
“We could all do a lot worse than to learn from the Israeli model,” wrote David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee on The Huffington Post. To critics of the Israeli profiling system, Harris replied that it is more sophisticated than simple classification according to groups and that “Israel’s procedures have worked, with a minimum of inconvenience for the vast majority of travelers, who spend no more time at the airport than their American counterparts.”
It is possible to learn from the Israeli model, as Harris suggested, but experts agree adopting it in its entirety would be impractical.
Israel has only one main international airport that serves, at its peak, no more than 10 million passengers a year. This is comparable to an airport the size of the San Juan airport in Puerto Rico and is much smaller than America’s major hubs such as Chicago, Atlanta or Los Angeles, which each see up to 80 million passengers a year.
“If you want to start questioning everyone who goes through U.S. airports, you’ll need to train tens of thousands of employees, to create new procedures and to take into account the impact it will have in terms of money and time,” said Bezherano, senior vice president of New Age Security Solutions, a consulting firm created by former Israeli security officials and based in Washington, D.C. The company revamped security in Boston’s Logan airport after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and has since worked with major American and international airports. The firm tries to adapt the Israeli idea of behavioral screening to the American reality by offering systems that involve personal observation and interaction with airport visitors without actually questioning each and every passenger.
Interest in Israeli security firms peaked after the September 11 terror attacks, and many former counterterrorism professionals from Israel ventured into the growing American security market.
But according to an Israeli involved in the security sector, most Israeli-run security consulting companies have since downsized or left the field of airport security due to the difficulty in overcoming cultural gaps that prevented implementing Israeli methods in American airports. “People simply won’t agree to spend all that time and money,” he said. “You can’t change the way people think.” Bezherano added another factor: “Americans find it hard to swallow a security policy that employs different standards to different groups.”
While for most Jewish Israelis the policy of profiling in airport security is viewed as acceptable, Arab citizens of the country see it as outright discrimination.
“This is the most offensive and humiliating experience I have ever had. I was immediately suspect because I am Arab,” said Saleh Yaaqubi, an Arab-Israeli student chosen to represent Tel Aviv University in an international conference alongside several other students. Yaaqubi’s story was told in a 2006 report prepared by the Arab Association for Human Rights. He said that while all Jewish members of his group passed the security checkpoints quickly, he was taken for further questioning time and again, both when leaving Israel and upon his return.
Non-Jewish tourists and academics visiting Israel also spoke of being singled out from the crowd and asked intrusive questions about their personal lives.
But in the heightened security atmosphere that has prevailed in the United States since the latest terror attempt, some find the practice of profiling based on ethnicity, religion or nationality to be more appealing.
“It’s not racial profiling. It’s profiling just like the Israelis do. Let’s use the same procedures that the Israelis do in El Al,” said Tom McInerney, a retired Air Force general, on Fox News.
And former House speaker Newt Gingrich joined the debate in a column published by the conservative newspaper Human Events: “It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information.”
Since early January, the United States has in fact introduced new requirements based on passengers’ country of origin or citizenship. Travelers from 14 countries — including Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria — are now required to undergo an extra search before boarding planes to America.
“We are already hearing calls for profiling, and we will hear more of that,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Alden, who wrote a book about American entrance policies following the September 11 attacks, said profiling “in its crude form” doesn’t work and that it could have negative implications for America in terms of its diplomatic and economic relations with other countries.
Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com
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My impression of the israelification in our airports - I feel like Arab in the Israeli block post MAKHSOM in the West Bank
I keep thinking of the price America has paid, and continues to pay, in order to protect Israel.
Also see
1] "A Jewish ‘Terrorist’ and Her Lethal Laptop" [Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 12/19/09] [Excerpt] "Lily Sussman is a young woman who is part-Jewish and traveling through the Middle East. As such, she poses an extreme danger to Israel. No, she’s not a terrorist. Since she’s non-violent she doesn’t carry weapons either. But she did have a laptop with her when she attempted to enter Israel from Egypt recently. And we all know that laptops in the hands of the wrong people (like peace activists) can be lethal weapons. God only knows what was on her machine. Perhaps an essay about non-violence and ways to aid Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. Perhaps, even (God forbid) a statement that endorsed Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) or the Goldstone Report. . . . At any rate, Lily’s laptop suffered an ignominious fate. It was blasted to smithereens by three bullets. What were they afraid of? Did they think it was a dirty bomb? Did they think she was carrying an Al Qaeda manual? Just as the U.S. did to Vietnamese villages during the war, it looks like the police had to destroy Lily’s laptop to save it." http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/12/19/a-jewish-terrorist-and-her-lethal-laptop/
and
2] Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor - [Excerpt of 2004 article and speech: "Know Respect, Know Peace; No Respect, No Peace"] "At the end of the journey I had a shocking experience. I knew that what I had said and done was viewed by some as controversial but surely not as threatening. So I did not imagine that the Israeli security force that guards Ben-Gurion Airport would abuse a 79-year- old Holocaust survivor, holding me for five hours and performing a completely unnecessary strip search of every part of my naked body. The only shame these security officials expressed was to turn their badges around so that their names were invisible. The only conceivable purpose for this gross violation of my bodily integrity was to humiliate and terrify me." http://www.cjpip.org/epstein.html
The Israeli system of security is primarily based on profiling and it has proven very effective. Unfortunately, for many on the left, when choosing between minor inconvenience and embarrassment of certain ethnic groups and dead terrorist victims, they are willing to opt for the latter.
Israelification of US airports IS happening, however, as I learned when in Houston not too long ago that they are in control of Port of Houston Security...as they are of reportedly 60% of the rest of US ports. How come a FOREIGN government is managing US PORT SECURITY at ALL??? How about the Israelification of the US GOVERNMENT?...oh...and I might add, that as a TOURIST in Israel in Jerusalem I was held at gunpoint by UNMARKED black uniformed man and woman with Uzis (no insignia, no names, no nuthin') on the street for attempting to photograph the exterior of the Supreme Court building. NO SIGNS are posted or warnings that such a typical touristy thing to do, on a busy street on a Monday morning would be considered a threat, espec by the likes of me, a 60ish grandmother, yet stop me, make me open my jeans on the street, standing there for 20 minutes waiting for "regular" police to come inspect me and "My Papers". SECURITY??? How about FASCISM?
Interesting article. Someone else thought it was interesting, as well. Too many similarities? http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/08/airport-security-is-israel-the-answer/1#c24534887
I would like to point out that tourists who visit Israel are often taken aback and offended by the security protocols here. However, you are just a visitor and don't actually live under the constant threat of bombings and shootings.
In the week leading up to Christmas a man was stopped at the border crossing at Jerusalem. He had SEVEN pipe bombs in his bag. He was headed to Jerusalem. I'm glad that he was stopped, even if there were 10 people who were offended because they too were searched.
7 years ago, a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was bombed. MANY students died, guilty of nothing other than choosing the wrong place to eat that day. The cafeteria is next to the International School, and MANY of the students there were from countries around the world. The cafeteria is open again today and I eat there regularly. And every time I walk in my bag is opened and searched by an armed security guard. And I'm ok with that. I'd rather by bag be searched than be blown up myself.
I visited Israel more than once and was never insulted by the steps the country does to protect her citizens from a well-defined enemy who wants them dead. I agree wholeheartedly with Sarah that terrorism is our sad reality and we have to deal with it appropriately, apply common sense and stay vigilant. If not for ourselves then for the future of our children. And I am sure that reasonable Arabs, majority of Muslims do not take offense - they prefer to be safe, too, and not to join their half-wit 'brothers' in the perceived 'paradise' before their time.
"'It’s not racial profiling. It’s profiling just like the Israelis do.'"
Which is to say, "ethnic profiling." Which is also to say, "ethnic discrimination." Which in my country, the US, we have learned over and over again is simply wrong. Ethnicity must not be a factor in security checks at US airports. Otherwise innocent people of one ethnicity will be subjected to harsher scrutiny than equally innocent people (or less innocent people) of another ethnicity, and that is un-American.
The fact that Israelis must put up with tight security because of daily threats is all and good, but it is clear to anyone that such a scenario cannot be qualified as "inviting" or "welcoming" to outsiders. As Sarah said, tourists are taken aback and offended by the security measures; what country can have a functioning and lucrative tourism industry when the common tourist experience is one of fear and insult? I have spent two summers in Israel for academic reasons, and although I'll have to travel there again I'll try to avoid it as much as I can. Yes there are good aspects to living/visiting in Israel, especially if you are Jewish and practicing, but I felt it was just too stressful of a place to enjoy life. And of course, it's safer to be Jewish pretty much anywhere else where you are not going to be blown up (that includes Iran!).
If the price of safe flight is "Racial Profiling", then I am for it. This is a price innocent people have to pay, and frankly speaking, it is not a too high price compared to saving your life....
Profiling intelligently, the Israeli way, prevents many innocent deaths. The Torah says that if you save one life it is as if you have saved the World. In the Middle East the moderates have little influence so the radicals are ruling the roost. If the moderates could have the courage to step forward and maybe die for their principles, then there at least would be a larger population helping everyone ferret out the radicals. Why just leave it to non-muslims to carry out responsibilities belonging to their own society. The Israelis to protect the lives of innocent Jews and Muslims must be vigilant and at times profile. If the Moderate Arabs fear death by speaking out against their radical Brothers and Sisters then who can protect the innocent? In this case the Israelis. If someone is humiliated by searches/profiling at least provide the benefit of the doubt to the security folks whose job it is to prevent Radical Muslims from killing innocents. The genesis of this security issue is not the security people anywhere in the world-not just Israel-it is radical Muslim extremists, 99% of the time Male between the ages of 18-40. That's the fact. Ignore this at ones peril.
That's interesting, A new article from Yeshiva World claims that an Israeli Firm was responsible for the Amsterdam Airport Security failure!
http://theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/43868/Israeli+Firm+Responsible+for+Amsterdam+Airport+Security+Where+Terrorist+Boarded+Aircraft.html
oh the poor Arab-Israeli was offended at being profiled, oh shame. Maybe if Arab Muslims weren't targeting Jews and others for death, there would be no need for profiling in the first place. If the Americans with their heads in the sand had bothered with profiling in the first place way back when, there would have been no 9-11 in the first place. Of course the Left, instead of blaming Poltical Correctness and multiculturalism for 9-11, blame Israel.
Newsflash - the Muslim terrorists liberals are always apologising you for, hate you anyway even if you hate the Jews just like them, you are an infidel after all.
I would rather be safely assured on an airplane that there is no one on the plane that poses a danger to anyone. America is too diplomatic, always thinking of the passenger's feelings, forget it, come down a little tough on your passengers and also remind the passenger that this is done because unfortunately there have been too many near misses, or too many unfortunate situations whereby the crew and the passengers are subject to fright. It's bad enough to suffer through turbulence in the skies, who needs to worry about some person who is threatening to the plane load of people, and the rest. Hopefully other airports will take heed, realize it is not inexpensive to fly and once again to see to the comfort of all passengers.
Like a dutiful soul, I followed the links from Michael Levin's post to read about the ordeals of Lily Sussman and Hedy Epstein. In the former, on Tikun Olam, the author, Richard Silverstein, and virtually all of the commentators, use Zionist as if it were an obscenity and see Israel and Israelis as, respectively, the worst nation and people on earth. In the latter, Hedy Epstein casually mentions she wanted to see Palestinian suffering so she went to Israel as part of a group from the International Solidarity Movement, a group with views very much like those above. She expresses her distress at seeing the division wall in Bethlehem, "the place where Jesus was born." Funny, I'm 61 years old, and I've never heard a Jew refer longingly to Bethlehem as "the place where Jesus was born." What kind of Jews are these? I know I sould give a crap about them, out of general dedication to human rights, but I can't bring myself to do so. With the survival of israel and the Jewish people daily at stake, it requires more effort than I can summon.
Richard Reid and Jose Padilla would easily evade a "Profiling" system. Additionally the Nigerian from Africa was able to board the plane despite all the Israeli-assisted security that is now in effect at US/European airports. Alqaeda is an intelligent adversary and puny measures like profiling are not going to defeat it.
Instead of adopting Israeli polices of racism and discrimination, the US should thoroughly check every passenger, their luggage and everyone who works at the airport. You can exclude the white grandmothers if you wish.