There have been other threads you can refer to about Israel's security (and the security on ALL flights in and out of Israel, administered in foreign airports too), but the one main difference I would give is that they practically do a psychological profile on every passenger. You are questioned as to your motives for travel, why so much or little baggage, who do you work for, where were you born, who are you going to meet, where are you staying, do you have reservations, etc. THAT is the kind of thing that will stop a hijacking, not taking away peoples' nail clippers. And that is the way we are headed, I suspect (actually, that's what I hope, as I think it will make flying safer, as it does to and from Israel). The thing is, that Americans, we are used to a different standard of freedom, and the questions I state above and the actions taken based on the answers to those questions probably violate current laws. So we cannot take that kind of jump lightly. The other thing is that each profiler has to be pretty highly trained (and that means highly paid). Not $6/hr people who stand around security checkpoints waiting for beeps to go off.

(by the way: I have flown to and from Israel several times with a small swiss army knife in my carry-on)