42 thoughts on “U.S. Homeland Security to Study Israeli Airline Security (I Kid You Not) – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. You must be kidding,
    nobody will care to check a guy that flyis in his own private aircraft. Therefore, your president will pass unchecked.

    1. It’s not a “private aircraft.” And certainly those who fly to Israel in private aircraft have to pass security. Otherwise, what’s to stop a terrorist from flying such a plane to Israel?

    2. Didn’t Berlusconi once get held up at Ben Gurion? I don’t remember exactly but I think he was asked to leave the aircraft and it was then searched for over an hour.

        1. Hehehe, probably! I just can’t find the source anymore.

          Andre Marty wrote about other cases though, for example that of the daughter of the Brazilian ambassador who came in to see her parents and was kept for hours as she arrived. or the 10 year old son of the german deputy ambassador who was kept and questioned for hours. he also wrote that members of the Alvin Ailey dance group were asked to perform in front of security officers because a member had the ‘wrong’ name. it’s nuts!

          if this is supposed to be a model for airport security in the us – help us the almighty.

          talking of arrivals, increasingly I am being questioned when I arrive and often have my luggage searched and swiped for explosives and I have to walk through a metal detector etc, just as on departures, in a little room in the baggage claim area. that’s when coming on flights from the us or the eu where of course i could just board with my rifle in the suitcase and thus need to be checked again. seriously.

  2. By far the worst impact of the “special relationship” is not that it has enabled israel to get away with all kinds of crimes, but the “Israelization” of many aspects of US policy.

    Israel has been murdering its opponents abroad for decades, and now the United States has adopted the same policy but on a much larger scale. The drone attacks in Pakistan which have killed thousands of so-called “militants” (plus many woment and children) are the chief example.

    1. Give me a break. The US has been murdering its opponents abroad years before Israel even came into existence. You’re not that innocent. Israel is not responsible for everything that is wrong in the US. In fact, the US and its military-industrial-complex serving government have a lot to answer for for facilitating the Israeli occupation with the military “aid” that goes straight to American companies. The US is the one gaining from this “special relationship”, not Israel. Israel would be much better off without it.

  3. That’s a shame. I have a friend who is a Catholic and wanted to visit the holy sites in Israel. He said there must have been someone watching him, because as soon as he walked through the gate someone, sure enough, stopped him to ask him 1001 questions in a bothersome way.

    It might interest you to know that El Al was on nearly all the major American television networks touting their “great” security methods after everyone started complaining about the body scan devices, and the opt-out that would earn them a molestation instead. Michael Chertoff, the owner of the Security Group making a lot of money off of that, was the very man whose former department failed to fulfill its primary mandate when a Nigerian national lit his crotch on fire in economy class.

    More about Chertoff was revealed from his mother’s obituary:
    “Livia Chertoff, 73, El Al flight attendant

    Services for Mrs. Livia Chertoff, 73, of Delray Beach, Fla., mother of former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Michael Chertoff, will be held at 1 p.m. today in the Kreitzman’s Memorial Home, 1500 Morris Ave., Union. Mrs. Chertoff died Saturday in the Ashbrook Nursing Home, Scotch Plains.

    She was the first airline hostess for El Al Airlines and participated in Operation Magic Carpet, the famous airlift of Yemenite Jews to Israel.

    Mrs. Chertoff also operated L’Artigue, an art gallery in Elizabeth.

    Her son, Michael, served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 through 1987 and as First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1987 through 1990. He was U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1990 through 1994 and during the Whitewater investigation in 1995 and 1996, he was counsel for the Senate Banking Committee.

    Born in Poland, Mrs. Chertoff lived in Palestine and Elizabeth before moving to Florida several years ago.

    Also surviving are three sisters, a brother and two grandchildren. ”

    Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Dec. 21, 1998

    More about that: http://www.rense.com/general63/GCEHER.HTM

    No surprise that there’s yet another conflict of interest here. Everyone knows about his clear ethical issues. There are sites upon sites about it.

    1. Persian Advocate, you should advise your Catholic friend to visit the Christian holy sites in Syria instead of Israel. The Syrians will not bother him at all. On the contrary, they will be pleased and happy to welcome him and share their Christian history with him. He may also be surprised to find a number of sites in Syria that are holy to Muslims as well as Christians, and for the same reasons. One such example is Seydnayya, one of the oldest continuously working convents in the world, where a very ancient portrait of Jesus’ mother, Mary, resides. Muslims as well as Christians visit this site to view the picture.

      He might also be surprised to find that in the middle of the Prayer area of the great Omayyid mosque in Damascus is a shrine to John the Baptist (aka Prophet Yahya), and on one side of the courtyard is a shrine to Imam Hussein, revered of both Sunnis and Shi`as. As a result of the latter the place is always filled with Persians.

        1. What’s stopping you?

          Lebanon is beautiful, and they do a much better job of keeping their seacoast nice. However, there is plenty of beauty in Syria, and the Syrians are much more genuine people. So many Lebanese are obsessed with artificiality.

        2. # Shai)
          As an Israeli, you could go to Jordan, couldn’t you ? It’s a beautiful country too, and you could meet Palestinians with whom you could talk more freely than anywhere else. I mean from their point of view, not being in the OT. Amman is a nice place, lots of cultural stuff going on, good Arabic courses, I’ve heard. But I don’t really know if Israelis go there on their own. Petra by itself is worth the trip.

        1. Syria is really where so much biblical history took place. Remember, it was on the road to Damascus that Saul saw the light and became Paul, and it was in Damascus that he was lowered to the ground hidden in a basket to escape his enemies. Ma`lula, where St Teqla is reputed to have escaped her enemies by cleaving the mountain is near Seydnayya, and you can walk through that cleft in the mountain – I have done it. There is a church there that dates to the first (or is it second – I don’t recall now) century. There are also prehistoric caves in the hills, which I also explored a bit. The church of St. Teqla in Ma`lula is an important destination for pilgrims.

          Not being a Christian, I do not have great knowledge of Christian history or theology, though I have learned a lot from Syrians, and it is quite fascinating. I am sure there are organized tours for exploring Christian history as it took place in Syria. I have learned my history piecemeal from Syrians, both Christian and Muslim.

          There are also a lot of Christian sites, both historic and modern, in Lebanon. In fact, Christian history aside, I recommend to anyone who visits Syria that they should also spend some time in Lebanon, even if only to visit Baalbek, which is quite amazing.

          Oh – one other interesting tidbit about the Omayyid mosque in Damascus, which is a must-see. It has quite a history as a religious site dating well before Christianity, and for a time it was a church. After the Muslims conquered Damascus it was for about 80 years simultaneously a church and a mosque. That situation changed when the Muslim ruler decided to build on the site the most fabulous mosque in the world. So, for purely political, and not for religious reasons, Christians were forced to find another location for their church. Much of the splendor of the mosque is still apparent, and has to be seen to be believed.

          1. Thank you for the information again! You are quite the resource on this subject 🙂

  4. Ever since September 11, 2001, the Israelis have appeared on the security scene and presented themselves as “experts” in the area of “security.” Rather interesting when you consider that the Israeli firm ICTS ran airport security on all of the airports where the planes were hijacked from, as well as Schipol International, were the Underwear Bomber was escorted onto the plane without proper identification.

    Of course all of this is lost on Janet Nazipalitano. Check out FOX News promoting that US airports adopt Israel’s airport security practices because of “Arab Muslim terrorism”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEN4n26JXV0

    1. # Atticus)
      “Of course this is lost on Janet NAZIpalitano”.
      Did you do that on purpose, or was your subconscience speaking ?
      Personnally, I admit that I find some pleasure writing “Gaby Ashkenazi” 🙂

        1. Dear Richard,

          Of course it’s over the top to compare Napalitano to a Nazi! But it is also over the top that it is now US policy (not law) for perfectly random morons to stick their hands down your pants without washing them first and for US politicians to travel to to Israel to learn how to be better racists.

          There are no Nazis, and you have to admit that it rolls off your tounge rather well.

        2. I think I’ve never heard “Gaby’s” family name pronounced in English, but the Hebrew zayin is also pronounced as a sounded z in French, and though he’s of course no Nazi, he looks highly unsympathetic. In fact, he looks like the job he’s been doing.

  5. Let’s see, being virtually strip searched with involuntary exposure to x-rays, and/or aggressively sexually groped versus racial profiling – hmmmm. Oh wait, here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave (TM) we actually have both simultaneously. The government just won’t admit to the latter.

    To tell the truth, I was rather pleased to hear the Israelis stating without hesitation that the digital strip-search/aggressive sexual grope approach is useless. I’m not endorsing their harassment-based-on-racial-profiling technique, I’m just saying…

  6. well, it’s sad, but it works. the exact same thing you are bashing hear would have stopped the 9/11 plot. in our modern world most terrorists are Arabs, and i am not saying that most Arabs are terrorists.

      1. Am I wrong? if you check all the suicide bombers in the last 3 years, how many of them were Arabs or Muslims?
        would the 9/11 tragedy happened if the Americans used Israeli security measures?

          1. i did not understand you
            but pls answer my questions:

            if you check all the suicide bombers in the last 3 years, how many of them were Arabs or Muslims?
            would the 9/11 tragedy happened if the Americans used Israeli security measures?

          2. You don’t understand me? You can’t go back & look at yr own comment & see how you’ve changed the original terms?

            I’m not interested in delving into the history of suicide bombing around the world. Terrorism comes in all forms and your original claim that most terrorists are Arab is WRONG. Period. Now get off the subject & get onto something else. If you return again to this subject in yr next comment you will be moderated for not following the comment rules, which I urge you to do.

          3. # Mo)
            You apparently don’t even realize that you’re equating Arabs and Muslims. Well, we don’t have to tell you that all Arabs are not Muslims, and that all Muslims are not Arabs, do we ??

            We could also check which ethnic group dropped most White Phosphorus in the last three years, couldn’t we ? And what would you conclude from that ? Nothing, hopefully.

          4. @Deïr Yassin – I know the diff.
            i am stating that for airliners those 2 groups poses greater risk than the average group. my whole debate is on airline security.
            if you want to debate the Gaza war then we can do it in another thread, but I think you will be surprised that my onions will be very similar to yours .

          5. # Mo)

            “but I think you will be surprised that my ONIONS will be very similar to yours”.

            Well, I don’t grow onions, but where I live “it’s none of your onions” means “it’s none of your business”. I don’t know whether that expression exist in English, too.

            Still, you started out talking about ‘Arabs’ and when Richard made a remark, you changed that to ‘Arabs and Muslims’.

          6. LOL, never trust a speller….
            i meant to write opinions (as I am sure you understood).
            and yes, i wrote Arabs but in second though the more appropriate thing to write Arabs and Muslims and even more appropriate will be Arabs, not including Christian Arabs, and Muslims.
            and please forgive me if i am not cretin weather Yemenis are Muslim Arabs or just Muslims, however i think that does not change my core debate here

    1. Why do you mention only the suicide bombers? Why not speak about all terrorist acts and bombs.

      In Middle East are constantly bombings that do not make little sense and it is almost impossible to see any benefit of those to any Arab/Muslim religious / political movement. It would be easy to put a bomb in somebody’s car and then categorize the explosion as a suicide bombing. I suppose that the guys in the intelligence services have realized that fact already long ago.

      Would any terrorist group (claimed wanting WMD technology ) in a rather organized way be assassinating in Iraq and other Muslim countries the scientific elite killing hundreds of academics? Would Iran finance and arm terrorists attacking own Iranian minorities and majority or would Israel and USA be rather behind those. What happened in the 80’s in Afghanistan is not a unique period in history. Why is Mo Israel supporting Sudanese independence and resistance movements and lets them have offices in Jerusalem? Compared to the Hamas’ and other’s offices in Damascus the Syrians have at least a much better morally justifiable reason for that help. Israel is helping only some South-Sudanese to create chaos (and to earn money).

      It has been publicly many times admitted, even by Israelis, that Israel benefits (= Israel’s existence and Jewish unity demands) from religious and ethnic turbulence in Middle East. Israeli “goal” are tens of small undeveloped ethnic countries in the region. Let’s “analyse” this sudden increased tensions in Egypt with Copts. Who is behind the bombs? Mossad or Al Qaida? Why is Al Qaida suddenly now interested about Copts in Egypt, just when Israel is facing of serious defeats in the diplomatic and PR struggle with Palestinians. Surely the timing is nearly perfect for Israel, but certainly not for the “Arab / Muslim” side, not even for the ruling US “puppet” and his “democratic” son. And there are numerous equal “episodes” from the past years and decades.

      Surely there is much internal fighting among the world’s over one billion Muslims, like there is among the over one billion Christians. But proportionately “watching” the world’s 12.5 million Jews have managed to create asthonishing bitter internal relations between their subgroups. It is likely that internal fighting, using less words and more bombs, among Jews will start in near future when Israel is forced to peace, so no need to a early schadenfreude with the Muslims’ problems. History has proved that Jews are very talented on many fields. But nation building has never belonged to those talents. Managing to have a united (Jewish) Israel for a couple of hundreds of years during the past 4000 years and having numerous civil wars is not a very convincing achievement.

      1. but I am talking about airline\railway safety… it a much smaller picture in which, sadly, Arabs or Muslims tend to do some naughty things, at least in much greater percentage than any others.
        not that I agree on the other stuff you wrote, i think its total BS, but that distract us from the main point of this debate
        .

        1. Nonsense. Your original comment said nothing about airline or railway safety. This is now the 2nd time you’re trying to change yr original terms.

          Terrorism is committed in many forms by those of many ethnic & religious origins. Your original comment was puerile & racist. If you continue trying to justify it you will be moderated. Again, I suggest you get off this subject, now.

          1. Richard
            your original post is about air line safety, I commented on that. trying to diverse the argument to technicalities is a way to avoid answering the main question here.
            I ask again, even thou i know you do not feel comfortable answering the question (and I will rephrase so we would not get distracted by technicalities and to make my question very focused on the original topic).
            in the past 3 year, if you check all the attempts to harm an air line – how many of them were by Arabs or Muslims?
            would the 9/11 tragedy happened if the Americans used Israeli security measures?

          2. Since you’ve violated both the comment rules & my specific request that you not repeat yrself about this subject, you’ll be moderated. If you repeat yrself again, you’ll lose comment privileges.

            When you make a claim and I say it’s wrong, you don’t get to change the terms & say you meant to ask something else when you clearly didn’t. If you either lie or speak untruths you will be called on it and will receive no understanding fr. me.

          3. this is very typical to neu liberalism pseudo fascist dialog. you can’ stand anybody who doesn’t think like you. i am amazed in how much effort you invest in going around the issue and not answering or debating. it is very easy group a bunch of flaks thinking the same as you, stating stuff and hearing all the yeses and i agrees from everybody.

            since debating culture on your site is not something i would like take part in, you don’t need to moderate ban or whatever you wish to do. i though that at a place like this a serious descation take place, i see that i was wrong. i am removing myself from your dest. list. i am sure you will be extremely sorry and sad, but you’ll have you group of yes-i-agree-with-you-we-are-saints-Israelis-are-devil to comfort you

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