Scott --

Unfortunately, the current security measures being implimented by the US would not have done anything to stop the tragedy of what happened before.

And yes, El Al does do tremendous amounts of screening and checking before people get on the planes.

However, they also have significant machinery (procedurally) to handle anything that might go wrong once the plane is in the air. They know that it's not possible to have 100% security in advance. They recognize that even an El Al Pilot could be a terrorist, and have plans to deal with that.

As the head of El Al security has said before congress multiple times in the past 10 years, as long as the US continues to pay security screeners minimum wage salaries, and give them days/weeks of training instead of hours, they will perform minimum wage work, and no procedural/policy changes will enhance security. End of story.