An interview isn’t an interrogation and while Israel’s security can be inconvenient, Iran’s is terrifying. - by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein

Comparing an interview to an interrogation, or implicitly equating a democracy with a dictatorship, may be an effective way of getting publicity. But it comes at the price of legitimizing and emboldening evil regimes, which can use the comparison as an excuse for further atrocities.

Mr. Beinart

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein..
Wall St. Journal..
19 August '18..
Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-interview-isnt-an-interrogation-1534707856

I stepped up to the counter at Ben Gurion Airport and handed the young woman my Swedish passport. She eyed me up and down as she typed on her computer. I had taken that same flight, Stockholm to Tel Aviv, dozens of times, but this day was different. The clerk kept my passport and told me to take a seat in a room at the back of the hall.

Two hours later, a member of the Israeli security service interviewed me. She asked about my travel patterns, my family history, my professional and political affiliations. She even asked to see texts on my phone. After a total of four hours, I was free to enter Israel.

I have also been questioned at length while flying into Ethiopia, Germany, Morocco, Russia, Tunisia and the U.S. The inquiries each time followed a similar pattern. So I was surprised to read Peter Beinart’s recent article in the Forward complaining about his “detention” at Ben Gurion.

Which airport? Speeding truck ignores security, smashes through checkpoint... and no one dies in the shooting.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
03 September '13..

It takes very little imagination to contemplate how badly this morning's events at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv might have ended if the security personnel were less disciplined, trained less well, and less restrained.

The facts are still not entirely clear. But the main elements of what happened in the dark of early Tuesday morning are more or less evident. The account reported by Times of Israel is a good place to start:

"Palestinians in speeding truck penetrate airport security | Vehicle stopped, two men arrested; perpetrators claim they are car thieves; airport resumes normal functioning".

In thinking about how much more bloodily this night have ended, there are some aspects of this we might ponder:

Israel attracts terrorists on a world-class scale. Elaboration unnecessary.

Those acts of terror continue right up until this week. For instance, this.

Ben Gurion Airport knows what it means to experience terrorism on a horrifying scale

Airports in general are prime targets for the terrorism-minded. Securing airports is a huge industry.

The security personnel who guard the entrances to Ben Gurion are very well-armed, and come with years of training in how to protect and, if necessary, how to permanently stop attackers.

Notwithstanding, there is endless criticism of how 'heavy-handed' and 'intrusive' the security at Israel's major airport can be.

This morning's penetration of Israel's major airport happened two days before the Jewish New Year, a time when relatively huge numbers of travelers pass through it checkpoints and halls. It happened in the dark, a time when even the best trained security personnel can be subject to major misunderstandings. In the circumstances, if any of the guards had itchy trigger fingers, it's difficult to envisage them being criticized by their superiors.

(Continue)

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More Media Distortion of Airport Security Issue

...Finally it was discovered that metallic buttons on the baby carrier had set off the security scanner alarm. I mention this as just one example of how, in a post-9/11 world, all of us have been affected by the increasing levels of security checks at airports. But it seems that Israel’s airport security procedures are the only ones that can induce almost righteous indignation in the media.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
25 April '13..

Just this week, en route to Israel through a British airport, I observed a young family being held up at security. Despite the fact that he had a newborn infant strapped to his chest in a baby carrier and was accompanying his wife and young daughter, the young man was subjected to multiple pat downs.

Struggling to hand over the baby while juggling with items of clothing and luggage, this was clearly an inconvenient and unpleasant experience being meted out to a family that should not have raised any security concerns. Finally it was discovered that metallic buttons on the baby carrier had set off the security scanner alarm.

I mention this as just one example of how, in a post-9/11 world, all of us have been affected by the increasing levels of security checks at airports.

But it seems that Israel’s airport security procedures are the only ones that can induce almost righteous indignation in the media.

As the Associated Press reported: “Israel’s attorney general on Wednesday upheld a practice to allow security personnel to read people’s email accounts when they arrive at the airport, arguing it prevents militants from entering the country.”

Cue dramatic headlines that overstated the story to the point of being misleading as well as adding a sinister backdrop to the story. For example, this headline in The Australian:

'Are you a terrorist?' The simple question being asked at an airport which could rumble a suicide bomber

Airport security checks are not only intrusive, demeaning and a mind-numbing drain on our precious time. They don't actually work. But as David Rose reports from Israel, a new generation of scanning systems are so good they can pick out a terrorist by asking a terribly simple question: Are you or are you not a terrorist?

David Rose
dailymail.co.uk
15 December '10
h/t Elder of Ziyon



The security checks at Ben Gurion, Israel's main international airport near Tel Aviv, are intense. But they are surprisingly discreet. There are no groups of armed police patrolling through the concourses (though if necessary, of course, they will appear very rapidly).

The new intrusive body scanners that reveal naked bodies beneath clothing - recently introduced in America amid passenger resentment - are not in use. Instead, Ben Gurion's critical line of defence consists of polite, highly trained agents, most of them women. Fluent in several languages, they will speak to every passenger while they wait to drop their luggage or check in.

'We operate on the principle that it's much more effective to detect the would-be terrorist than try to find his bomb,' says a senior Israeli o fficial.
'The 9/11 hijackers killed 3,000 people without real weapons or explosives. To be safe, you have to be able to stop the person who has hostile intentions. That's how our system works.'

The Israelis call this method 'behaviour pattern analysis', and it starts beyond the airport: the passenger who pays cash for a one-way ticket at an airline offi ce will be more likely to attract attention than someone who uses a credit card to purchase a return over the internet.

Its first physical layer lies more than a mile from the terminal: a checkpoint for every vehicle on the only airport access road. I've passed through Ben Gurion many times, and once I was stopped and had my baggage searched there - apparently because I wasn't in a taxi, but in a somewhat ancient private car being driven by an Arab friend.

But the system's most crucial element is those polite young agents - the 'selectors'. In most cases, their questions won't take long, and those who pass their examination will soon be en route to their gate.

(Read full 'Are you a terrorist?')

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Forget the 'porn machines'

How Israelis secure airports

Michael J. Totten
New York Post
18 November '10

Air travelers in the United States are now given two options at the security gate -- be groin-groped by gloved Transportation Security Administration agents, or photographed "naked" in the back-scatter X-ray device that Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic calls "the porn machine."

You can thank failed "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for this one. While armies tragically tend to fight the last war, the TSA looks for the item the most recent terrorist used.

After 9/11, everything sharp -- even tweezers -- was banned. Ever since Richard Reid tried and failed to light his loafers on fire, security agents have forced us to take off our shoes. British authorities rounded up terrorists who planned to bring liquid explosives on board, and we've all been prohibited from carrying shampoo through the gate ever since.

Terrorists have yet to use the same weapon twice, and the TSA isn't even looking for whatever they'll try to use next. I can think of all sorts of things a person could use to wreak havoc on a plane that aren't banned. Security officials should pay less attention to objects, and more attention to people.

The Israelis do. They are, out of dreadful necessity, the world's foremost experts in counterterrorism. And they couldn't care less about what your grandmother brings on a plane. Instead, officials at Ben Gurion International Airport interview everyone in line before they're even allowed to check in.

And Israeli officials profile. They don't profile racially, but they profile. Israeli Arabs breeze through rather quickly, but thanks to the dozens of dubious-looking stamps in my passport -- almost half are from Lebanon and Iraq -- I get pulled off to the side for more questioning every time. And I'm a white, nominally Christian American.

(Read full story)

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After Detroit Terror Attack Fails, Diane Sawyer Profiles Israel

Dr. Alex Safian
CAMERA Media Analysis
31 December 09

posted before Shabbat

Covering the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to destroy a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Michigan, ABC's new anchor, Diane Sawyer, brought up the perennial question of Israeli airport security (World News with Diane Sawyer, December 28, 2009). While the veteran journalist allowed that Israeli security measures were "legendary," she also emphatically and falsely charged that Israel "openly, openly tried to profile the passengers. One critic called it flying while Muslim."

ABC's Justice correspondent, Peirre Thomas, then weighed in, adding to the misinformation with his claim, citing unnamed experts, that Israelis "routinely profile Muslims and Arabs and they're unapologetic."

(Transcript)

DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) A quick question to you, Pierre, about Israel. As we know its legendary security there for boarding airplanes and they openly, openly tried to profile the passengers. One critic called it flying while Muslim. What about that?

PIERRE THOMAS (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Well, we spoke to some Israeli security officials today and they were blunt. They do routinely profile Muslims and Arabs and they're unapologetic. One private security official told me today not all Muslims all terrorists but nearly all terrorists are Muslim. The official acknowledged that this approach might make many Americans uncomfortable but said the Israelis have not had a successful attack on an airplane for more than 30 years.

DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Okay, Pierre, thanks to you. And as we know, of course, Israel has far fewer flights per day than in the US.

(Read full article plus video clip)

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The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother

Cathal Kelly
Toronto Star
30 December 09

While North America's airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification.

That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel's, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience.

"It is mindboggling for us Israelis to look at what happens in North America, because we went through this 50 years ago," said Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy. He's worked with the RCMP, the U.S. Navy Seals and airports around the world.

"Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don't take s--- from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, 'We're not going to do this. You're going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport."

That, in a nutshell is "Israelification" - a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.

Despite facing dozens of potential threats each day, the security set-up at Israel's largest hub, Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, has not been breached since 2002, when a passenger mistakenly carried a handgun onto a flight. How do they manage that?

"The first thing you do is to look at who is coming into your airport," said Sela.

The first layer of actual security that greets travellers at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport is a roadside check. All drivers are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from?

"Two benign questions. The questions aren't important. The way people act when they answer them is," Sela said.

(Read full article)

Related: Sometimes MSM loves the Sabra experts
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Sometimes, the MSM Loves Sabra Experts

Honest Reporting/Backspin
30 December 09

It's interesting how people naturally relate to "Jewish wisdom" when an Israeli is interviewed about something other than politics or the Mideast conflict. It's been awhile since I've seen a "watchable sabra" on the air.

Just listen to the interplay between the Fox interview team and Isaac Yeffet.



Related: The "Israelification" of airports
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