Timely article:

B-G 'safer' than any European airport


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JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 8, 2007

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Travelers consider Ben-Gurion Airport safer and more secure than any other European
airport, a report published by the International Airport Council (ACI) revealed.

Obtained by Army Radio on Wednesday, the report listed Amsterdam's Schipool Airport, Spata Airport in Athens, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Fiumicino in Rome, Cointrin in Geneva, and London's Heathrow as also faring well with passengers' feelings of security.

The ranking came as officials in the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) prepared to modernize the security process at Ben-Gurion by employing a new cutting-edge computerized security check system.

The high-tech system will involve a scanner which will be connected to a national database. Tourists will have their passports and their hands scanned in order to verify their identity.

According to airport officials, the system is designed to prevent friction which often arises between security handlers and Arab tourists, as well as to prevent discrimination between Jews and Arabs.

"Our goal is to continue the process which the [Airport] Authority has focused on for many years," an airport official said. "We want to speed up [the security checks], and to implement technology that will utilize security check methods and technological equipment which are among the best in the world."

In related news, starting in September, Ben-Gurion Airport security will stop using color-coded stickers to differentiate between suitcases belonging to Jews and those of non-Jews, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz announced Tuesday.

OK, I'm stumped. How do they know whether you and your suitcase are Jewish or not? Is that why they asked our religion before they let us in the terminal?

I'm Jewish and they still gave me the third degree.

Also, they never asked if I was Jewish or not...

That's why I'm stumped. My Presbyterian suitcase did not get any shiksa sticker.

just curious....are they allowed to ask?

The article is somewhat misleading. The system does not differentiate between Jews and non-Jews. It differentiates between Jewish Israelis and everybody else (including non-Jewish Israelis). Moreover, in itself it subjects nobody to any more intensive scrutiny -- it only allocates resources more sensibly.

It starts with the fact that no Israeli Jew has ever attempted to blow up an airplane (especially not a plane flying out of Israel). Therefore, while such a thing is possible, it is more improbable.

Each person is asked to show his passport. In fact, in the main departures area (not where LLM went) there are separate lines for Israelis and non-Israelis.

There are two different types of scanners for checked baggage. One is less expensive and has a lesser resolution. The other, conversely, is more expensive with a higher resolution.

A large percentage of passengers (most?) are Israeli Jews. Unless something comes up under questioning (like them saying they have been asked to carry something on board) their bags are sent to the less expensive scanners.

Israeli non-Jews (and they don't have to ask your religion -- the name on your passport will show if you are Jewish or not in 99.9% of the cases), all foreigners (no matter what their religion), and Israeli Jews who, when questioned, gave some answer that raised slight suspicions, will have their bags sent to the more expensive scanners.

Ironically, this form of profiling can actually work in favor of those sent to the better scanners. They take no longer, but they are more accurate and leave less room for doubt.

On one trip TLV-MXP, I was carrying a large bottle of body lotion that my girlfriend had asked me to bring. I was sent to the less expensive scanners, it could not clearly identify what it was, and I was sent to a second security person who opened my luggage to inspect the bottle visually.

Had I been sent to the better scanners I most likely would not have had to have this second check.

Good summary, excepting a little issue that could be had with the above.

1. Blow a Libyan passenger plane out of the sky wasn't done on the orders of the jewish Israeli chief of staff at the time?

2. Failed attempts -- particularly when not repeated with an eventual "success" -- can go unaccounted.

We don't know of any successful attempts by jewish Israelis to blow up an airplane flying out of TLV.

great explanation ^ and now here annduer question for you....

goalie-parents have been to israel (about 20 years ago) and of course things were different back then and goalie-dad was travelling on u.s. gov't. sponsored trip. goalie-dad was born in cario (turns the big 75 this october but i digress), came to u.s in '48 and became a citizen while serving in the u.s army during the korean conflict and like me, he usues his passport for i/d when travelling even domestically and has gotten a few funny looks from the tsa i/d checkers. so, after all that, what type of issue (if any) would this create for goalie-dad now in travelling to israel? the reason i ask, is that there are (or at least in the works) plans for a family (cdg, sfo, dca & tlv) get together in israel next year (and btw, the whole goalie-family is jewish but with an italian last name [it was a very prominent sephardic name (spain) before the family left in 1492, went to italy and changed it to "sound more italian"]

We also don't know of any unsuccessful attempts. We know of no attempts at all by Israeli Jews.

It should cause no problem at all. The majority of Israeli Jews were either born in Arab countries or are the children/grandchildren of people who were. It is not at all rare here and the screeners will not be suprised about it.

Moreover, even if your father were born in Cairo, was not Jewish, and still lives in Egypt there is no legal impediment for him to visit Israel. The two countries have signed a peace treaty which allows that. (Although he would probably get more questioning in that case.)

thanks as that was what i wanted to hear ^ (and still trying for pbi in october).

That "little issue", which has absolutely nothing to do with what we are discussing, could only be injected here by someone who is not only trying to be misleading and who is trying to be "technically right" while most likely being "technically" wrong.

To set the record straight: The Libyan jet in question was heading directly for Tel Aviv. It made no radio contact with Israel. It refused to answer Israel's calls. Israeli jets scrambled and flew directly to the plane, trying to reach the pilot on air-to-air radio. He did not answer.

They then flew along side of him and gave visual instructions for the pilot to change course. The pilot ignored them.

Shot were fired at the wingtipss of the Libyan plane. This, too was ignored, and the pilot stayed on course for the heart of the city.

At this point, Israel did, indeed, shoot it down.

(The world, of course, was outraged. After all, it is completely inconceivable that a plane might be used as a weapon and crash into a city, right? It was just another case of those damned racist/tribalist/groupists being racist/tribalist and groupist.)

And now, in the middle of discussing security steps taken to avoid having a terrorist put luggage on a plane which will blow it up, you ask if a Jewish Israeli Chief of Staff didn't give orders to "a Libyan passenger plane out of the sky."

Actually, probably not. Let's face it, if you want to be "technically right" you have to first get the correct details. The plane was not blown out of the sky and the chief of staff probably never gave that order.

The shots were fired at its wing roots and the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing but crashed into a sand dune.

Moreover, as I run that scenario through in my mind, the order given was most not "blow it up" but rather "shoot it down" or the Hebrew equivalent of the military's "splash it" or "take it out".

Now, I am, admittedly nitpicking here -- but isn't that exactly what you were doing when you brought this incident into this discussion?

Goalie, I hope you can make it to PBI but if you can't, perhaps we can get together when your family gets to Israel.

Do you mind if I make some suggestions?

Do not come from mid-April to mid-October. The planes, and the airport, are jammed during Passover/Easter, Rosh HaShanah, and Succot. They are also jammed during July and August. Prices are higher both for flights and hotels during that entire period and in August you are lucky if you can find a hotel at all (Israel is a very popular destination for the French and they all seem to take their vacations in August).

On top of that, the weather here can be unbearable hot during that entire period.

In the heart of winter (December through mid-March) Israel can be chilly and rainy.

The best weather here is in October, November, mid-March through mid-April. The prices are also at their lowest as few tourist come them. Make your plans for those dates.

Thank you! It's always nice to hear the full story rather than a conveniently placed, out-of-context "fact".

Security of a passenger plane that was, as you said, "heading directly to Tel Aviv", does have to do with "security in Israel".

Who ordered that plane taken out is what I asked about. Wheter by "take it out", other euphemism or other words -- including "blow it out of the sky" -- the question was about the religious and national affiliation of the person who authorized or was in charge of that destruction of a commerical passenger plane.

Well, actually, it was not limited to commercial planes.

It is my understanding that the RAF destroyed a tremendous number of planes during the Battle of Britain. Are you contending that every British passenger should have his luggage checked to make certain that he is not concealing a Spitfire inside?

It would make about as much sense as bringing the Libyan jet incident into a discussion of what steps Israel takes at its airport to prevent terrorist attacks.