North American airports could easily adopt similar procedures, though what might be called political willpower would be needed.
Baloney. Manpower would be needed. A LOT more, plus they would have to be skilled in a whole different way than what the TSA does right now.
Take away the profiling angle for a moment, look at the numbers. 11 million transited Ben Gurion in 2009. TSA says two million pass through checkpoints per DAY. That's 730 million annually.
How would the interviews be accomplished, and at what length? How do you get the manpower? Where would you be able to conduct those interviews?
I'm frightened and appalled at how some TSAers behave on this board, and they are the "last line of defense" as DHS/TSA folks like to say in front of microphones. They severely question my faith in them finding a true threat to aviation as the setup is right now, let alone the ability to properly execute Israeli-style security.