Flying the not-so-friendly skies from Israel
The always interesting Jewish journalist Shraga Elam questions the supposed effectiveness of Israel’s airport security services, praised around the world:
As an example we can take the Israeli Ben-Gurion Airport, which boasts of having one of the tightest “security” operations in the world, allegedly effectively eliminating terrorist hijackings. In fact, Ben-Gurion’s safety ranking is nothing to brag about. In November 2008 even the US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Israel’s aviation safety ranking and since then there has been no improvement.
It is difficult to believe that Ben-Gurion’s tough “security” measures really raise Israel’s safety; the ever extending profiling creates fuming passengers whose feelings toward Israel are ever more hostile. “Special treatment” applies not only to Arabs but also to Israeli peace activists and foreign tourists. Even Israeli Jews living abroad have to declare if they are members of a Jewish community, visit a synagogue etc. The tough measures are not only racist but are based on a primitive psychological assumption: if a passenger reacts aggressively to an intrusive personal question they are automatically suspect.