Newsstand - Experts doubt U.S. airlines can or should emulate Israeli carrier's security standard

El Al stands alone
Experts doubt U.S. airlines can or should emulate Israeli carrier's security standards
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/07/13/BU82734.DTL

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Although El Al passengers have been attacked in airports (notably in Europe in the 1980s), no El Al aircraft has been hijacked since 1968, and the Israeli carrier is widely regarded as having the best airline security in the world.

By contrast, in the United States, ground security is left to airports and a welter of overlapping local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to sort out.</font>

After 9/11 this topic was discussed on the boards many times. The sheer volume of flights in the US made the comparison impractical, although certain elements of EL AL's program could be used w/o causing further delays to passengers.

Let's not even start with the pretty blatent profiling they do on El Al. That would never, ever, ever fly here. If you're an Israeli Jew, you skate right through. If you're a Palestinian Muslim, you may as well forget about it.

Just two weeks ago The New York Times carried a story reporting that Israel was installing new baggage screening machines (just like here) which would help eliminate the questioning and interrogation that pax endure to fly El Al.

www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/004469.html (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/004469.html)

I'd prefer the Israel approach - since I'm a loyal American (with service to the US to back it up) - I'd qualify for the fast track through the current insanity of searching every passenger as though they were the next OBL. Better than Mineta the Clown's approach of treating everyone like a criminal.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mdtony:
Let's not even start with the pretty blatent profiling they do on El Al. That would never, ever, ever fly here. If you're an Israeli Jew, you skate right through. If you're a Palestinian Muslim, you may as well forget about it.</font>

And what percentage of terrorism worldwide is caused by members of that group?

I think it absurd if we continue with our "all equal " policy of screening sweedish american world war 2 veterans, grandmothers and 9 year old girls.

Screen the group that is most likely to contain the murderers. In this case it is exactly the group you have mentioned.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Thumper:
And what percentage of terrorism worldwide is caused by members of that group?

Screen the group that is most likely to contain the murderers. In this case it is exactly the group you have mentioned.</font>

I agree with you, but let's face it. There was already a huge stink when young Arabs were asked to voluntarily meet with the FBI to see if they knew of any strange happenings in their community.

With the TSA taking over security, and the government not being allowed to discriminate, you just can't have profiling beyond a certain point. I am sure that in the secret formula they have regarding who to pick out for extra screening, young Arab males get some points. But you can't be as blatent about it as El Al is.