I just want to point out that this article was meant to bring to light the very real problem of balancing freedom and security in a society which is constantly under attack. Even the Jerusalem Post, a right-wing paper, acknowledges the dangers from the perspective of civil liberties. While no Israeli would say "Hey let's stick it to the Arabs because we can" they sadly are the ones who attempt to kill Jews. Therefore, nobody is going to waste as much time on an Israeli Jew, or an American Jew, or a gentile from the deep south as they are on a single 25 year old Arab male from Jenin with a one way ticket to Bangkok on El Al. It is a sad and terrible state of affairs but that's the way things are.

There seems to be a view that Israelis do this because they are cruel people. They aren't and would like to not have to. Sadly, they must profile to ensure that they can live safely. Such profiling has led to the drastic drop in homicide bombings (with the construction of the West Bank Fence) and the security of El Al.

El Al continues to face threats from the SAMs fired at a 757? in Africa to the recent plot to fire SAMs at LY aircraft in Switzerland. In both cases it wasn't Christian fundamentalists planning to bring down the jetliners.

It is worth mentioning that Hindawi's BRITISH girlfriend, who was pregnant and the stooge for his cowardly attack (he was not present on the flight she took) had less-than-kind words to say of her former fiancé at his most recent parole hearing. Ironically, she was on his "side" in her opinion of Israelis, Israeli Security, and the situation in the Middle East before hand. Needless to say she does thank El Al for saving her life and has had a drastic change in her worldview.