Airport Security Morons

The BBQ Pit
41

That point is completely invalid - planes leaving KC don’t go boom either, and we have “very lax” security. Now obviously one cannot compare the two due to Israel having it’s own “special problems” with security, but let’s examine what real, effective security measures are.

Proper security does not consist of playing “Who Want’s to be a Terrorist” with questions like “Do you speak Hebrew?” “Do you speak Yiddish?” “Do you celebrate holidays?” I have personally heard and read OL of complaints from businesswomen travelling to Israel who have been discriminated against because they are not Hebrew or Jewish - strip searches conducted by male soldiers with no cause at all AND NO FEMALE OFFICERS PRESENT, luggage taken and not returned - no explaination given, computers taken and not returned - no explaination given. And if you dare even ASK “why was I being strip searched, and where is my bag” be prepared to try and beg to call the embassy. That is IF they will let you.

Read my numerous airline-realted posts, if you are not out having some fun today. :slight_smile:

I am a number-one advocate for increased airline security and airplane safety!

But I am also the number one critic of meaningless harassment, pointless rules that are only meant to give the public the impression that security is an issue, abuses and corruption of security officers, and blatant disregard for obvious security holes (such as the baggage transfer areas).

And we agree on one point - I won’t go there. Which is a shame, cause I think Israel and the Israeli people are beautiful. But the real fear of being a woman alone, molested in a foreign country by it’s officers just, oh I don’t know, kinda bothers me? Does it bother anyone else?

I contend that Israel already does a great job with security through it’s many other measures, and does not need to conduct extended interrogation sessions of those who just happen not to be Jewish. Discrimination is UGLY in all of it’s forms, dear. Please PROVE to me that speaking Yiddish or not or celebrating holidays or not determines your likelihood to be a terrorist.

42

I am sorry to hear that someone had that experience. I believe you, and I believe the person had this experience, but I personally have never heard of this happening to anyone, so I imagine that this must be kind of rare. I have been interrogated three times - twice it was by women. There are many women in security in Ben-Gurion Airport. I think this kind of behavior is shocking. If anyone tried to do this to me, I would make a HUGE fuss (that I wanted women to do the search - not that I would refuse the search, that would probably get me thrown in jail).

Being able to speak Yiddish, well, they’re just trying to determine if you’re Jewish. I guess the rationale is: if you’re Jewish, you’re less likely to be a terrorist trying to blow up a plane leaving the airport. FTR, I answered, “No” to that question, and also to the one about following the holidays. (I’m honest to a fault.) I told the truth - that my dad is Jewish, my mom isn’t, they’re both atheists, and I think my grandmother knows some Yiddish. And nothing really bad happened to me, so clearly it takes a little more than linguistic inability to get negative attention.

43

OK, I guess in my search for whether or not this is an effective airline security issue, we come to this one very ugly point.

It seems apparent, based on your posts and other information re: their security, that the Israelis believe in the veracity of racial and ethnic profiling. You even mentioned in a previous post about a blond woman who had received extra “attention” because of her looks - am I reading that correctly?

How do they justify this? Why is this any different from allowing the police to see a car full of African Americans, decide that “they don’t look right”, and then pulling them over to find out “what are you boys up to here?”

How would the Anti Defamation League defend this action? I would really like to know. Or is it “out of sight, out of mind” since it’s not in the US?

Imagine this scenario:

At all major US airports, the security officers start giving intense, additional questioning of people to see if they are Jewish. “Do you believe in the healing power of Jesus Christ?”, “Do you have a Menorah at your house?”, etc. And then, if anyone answers that they are Jewish, or even “looks” Jewish, then they are taken and given extra questioning before being allowed to get on the flight.

I’ll tell you exactly what would happen. People would be marching in the streets in protest. The ADL would file literally trillions of dollars worth of lawsuits overnight, and Federal judges in every district would order an immediate halt to the actions.

I really, really hope that I have misunderstood what I’ve been hearing and reading, and that people are really not actually given extra questioning - with NO probable cause - simply because of the way they look and their ethnic origin or religion.

Discrimination of people by their race, religion, color, creed, sexuality, and/or nationl or historical origin is really sick. I don’t know how one can defend doing so in airline security without also saying that it is just as valid to be used elsewhere in society. Maybe we don’t want any of those “people” serving as law enforcement officers? Maybe not as teachers? Maybe they shouldn’t be allowed in certain neighborhoods either? Where does it end?

I’m terribly sorry if this sounds like a different topic, but I think it goes back to what we were discussing in this manner:

  1. Is racial or ethnic profiling a “valid” security measure for airports and airplane travel, and should it be used?
  2. If it IS valid, then what’s to stop profiling from spreading it’s black tentacles of hate throughout the rest of society?

I mean not to flame with this, but considering myself in a commonly discriminated-against group, discrimination and profiling are issues I do not take lightly.

44

If some moderator reads this and has the time, can they please fix the font in my above post? I don’t know what happened.