cestmoi123

To choose my words very carefully, I think it suffices to say that Ben Gurion security has succeeded in hardening what would otherwise be a very attractive target (Israeli aircraft) to the point that those who would otherwise find it something appealing to attack have deemed it not worthwhile to pursue. I say that under the assumption (well-grounded, I think), that if Hamas thought that it had a real chance of regularly dropping an El Al 747 into the Med, it would leap at the chance, given the high (if you'll excuse the expression) bang for the buck.

LLM

Now that makes sense.

jonesing

I had one of those "roommates" as well! I was going to charge her rent but she was rather, um, unconcerned about her state of dress when parading around our room

Ha, I'm sure there's not a good translation of "esse" into Hebrew.

What's with the fetish about if a pax knows Hebrew? What if you tell them you only have enough brain power to be able to hit on the babes in Rio using a little Portuguese?

SJCFlyerLG

I used to travel to Israel regularly on business. I agree that the interrogators are polite and they treat you with dignity, and I understand that they are trying to see if there is anything odd about a passenger. But I inevitably got a trainee, so I had to endure the process twice. I got sufficiently annoyed and finally developed some techniques to shorten the process:

1. Whenever possible act like a hostile witness (don't be hostile, just answer yes or no if possible
2. Never volunteer ANY additional information - answer the question directly and shut up. Don't offer an opportunity to explore a tangent
3. Have your hotel bill handy, and an invitation letter (if applicable) from the company you work for / visited
4. Be aware that they will thumb through your passport and ask you why you visited certain countries that are sometimes belligerent to Israel (including those that they have full relationships with, such as Egypt). Have a simple answer ready, such as a business visit.
5. If you are traveling with a colleague who will be screened separately, arrange with the colleague beforehand to say that you traveled alone. Otherwise, the screeners will get together to compare notes and then re-interview you - a significant delay.
6. Never admit to having friends in Israel - stick to business colleagues only, even if you consider them to be friends.

I employed these rules, and never got additional questioning or screening. Of course, I have not been there since 2001, so I don't know what has changed.

Rambuster

The last time I left TLV, they confiscated my laptop charger and said it couldn't travel with me and that they would send it on to VIE. (I was flying TLV-VIE-DUS). I had a bit of an argument with them, stating that if they only sent it to VIE they might as well throw it away right now, as I was going to DUS and one day later to NRT.

They then agreed to send it to DUS, where I could pick it up two days later at the lost luggage counter.

As I was travelling to NRT the next day, I ended up having to buy a new charger at great hassle (not to mention cost).

After all of this harrassment, I vowed NEVER to visit Israel again !

N830MH

That's it! I certainly remember what happened from years ago when the Arabs were stormed to the cockpit but, it was attempted hijacker on LY. When I saw Air Marshals was takedown the terrorist off the planes. He has already spent 5 years in Turkish prison as charge of attempted hijacker on LY flight from TLV-IST by equipment 757 aircraft. Some of these witness were saw the man were trying to stab by F/A. When air marshals gotten off the seat then he taking him down on the floors. Where she was screaming him when he was trying to entrance the cockpit. It was brought the pocketknives on the plane but, it was slip through by security at TLV. Israeli Security didn't realized know the knives brought onboard the aircraft. They should need to be discard the sharper objected from security checkpoint but, its must be placed into checked baggage instead onboard the aircraft. It's could be very extremely dangerous the weapons onboard the commercial aircraft. Security need to do retraining for improvable by aviation security. It's extremely important where passengers must to be discard the sharp objected from carry-on bags. I thinks security need more stricted due to attempted hijacking onboard of LY from TLV-IST.

catandmouse

This reflects my experience at TLV. My wife and I were questioned separately (not interrogated). A total of no more than 2 minutes, the officers questioning us then consulted each other. Then off we were on our way. Neither of us speaks Hebrew. As others have said check-in, WTMD were simple and painless. It's a clean professional operation. No intimidation, no barkers.

GUWonder

SJCFlyerLG's advice is something that often works just as suggested.

Terrorists have flown from and via TLV without Israeli security figuring it out. That the passenger-terrorists' targets were not their own flights or TLV airport at those times constitutes having "succeeded in hardening" if the primary is to identify terrorists and not the proverbial guns and bombs or prohibited items as suggested by some?

Going after passenger planes anywhere -- not just Israel -- is low bang for the buck. That is why terrorist organizations -- Hamas included -- routinely chose not to focus on commercial passenger aviation targets when the alternative is a lot more guns and bombs on the ground which are more easily used. "High ... bang for the buck" is gotten at lower costs and with more persistent, routine acts than a small handful of huge terrorist attacks that require larger investments with greater risk of no "positive" return or being caught before an attack goes off. Commercial passenger planes and airports are not usually terrorists' favorite target and it's not just because of how "hardened" an airport or plane may be.