Leaving Tel Aviv Day 4 Wednesday part 2

Ok, the infamous 'Israeli security check.'

Before we depart, some background. Many of you know about this (BS) firsthand and some of you HATE it. Some know nothing.

Way back in the early days of Israel some Arabs decided to hijack planes. They took a plane to Uganda, 'The Raid at Entebbe', one of my favorite movies, they hijacked planes to Jordan and blew them up. Planes were hijacked, Israel saw a need for tight security, more than most countries in the world could ever imagine.

I will give you there is a need for security. Do the Israelis go overboard? Yes they do.

We were sitting at a Delta gate at LAX after a nice Thai dinner with Brian, my friend in Paris, and an American friend of his who lives in Europe. He happens to do business in Israel. Somehow the subject of the Israeli security check came up and I thought he was joking. He had to convince me he was actually serious.

The guys' travel agent mistakenly put on the same ticket Israel to Europe, he lived in Paris, then to Algeria.
Well, needless to say, the Israelis didn't like that all too much. He was questioned to death, in private, for over 3 hours. Why they tell you to get there 3/4 hours early. They ain't kidding. He said it was mentally exhaustive and basically called it hell. He shared another story that I won't share, not good. I am trying to think if that got him out of going to Israel again on business. He hated it. I cringed at hearing this.

My dad's secretary flew ELAL (mistake, the Pastor should be shot ) with a church tourgroup. She put it this way.
She is big and strong. Few things humble her, these people humbled me and said how the security questions drove her crazy. They asked her about everyone else in her group. The questions were long and arduous. She loved Israel, but didn't care for this.

I called BA and asked about a fare to Israel. She happened to have gone to Israel and the BA agents' response is very similar to what I hear from most people: "great trip to Israel, had a wonderful time, but with the security hassles at the end, no thanks." And consequently and sadly, many never come back. If you come here once and see everything, ok.

I have a friend who was a flight attendant for a US charter carrier. He worked Hajj charters and so he had a Saudi work visa in his passport. Never thought of it til this charter flight landed in Israel. An Israeli flight attendant had a great idea and collected all the crews' passports and handed them in together. The Israeli officer still found the visa. He was kept in a cell, they gave him steak and were kind to him, but was not allowed to leave the airport. More details but we'll just say, he didn't like it, but the Israelis tried to be cordial. When he left with the crew the Israelis put a huge deported stamp in his passport. He took that passport to the airline and said, no more Israel.

I have witnessed ELAL security. It is a b*tch, to be blunt. I stood there at JFK and watched them intensely interrogate the passengers. Let's just say politely, the less Jewish you are, the more you are going to be checked, and that is exactly what happened. An image that I will never get out of my mind was at the JFK ELAL area.
They had a woman sitting at a chair, looked frazzled, I don't know what word to use, she stared into space, while the security staff vehemently x-rayed everything by a manual wand type of instrument. Her look haunted me for a while, thinking about her on my AA flight to LA. Oh and they saw me watching and I got out of there. They didn't like that.
Same at other airports as well. I am amazed they don't do that garbage in private. The other airlines into Israel are nothing compared to ELAL, why I wouldn't even consider fying ELAL into Israel. Out of Israel, apparently, everyone gets the same treatment, though out of logic and common sense, I have to assume there is more protection toward ELAL.

In any case, and I am sure many have their own stories, Israeli security is a pain in the ...(ymptote).

I have people who won't go back to Israel because of it, I have to say that it helped to put me off, and I have people that along with suicide bombings and the like allow it to put them off.
Ask a few questions, obviously x-ray the bag, but let's not go overboard.

One more, then will go to the flight out. I e-mailed the US Embassy in a neighboring country, not Israel, and asked them if security was as tough as in Israel. Oh no, the XXX's are not as bad as the Israelis and 2 hours are fine.
Ok.......

I wanted to give some background as to my concern over the whole thing. I have other war stories, but you get the idea.

With that, let us depart.