The mental versus the material

Liss said a large number of the security personnel at Ben Gurion are “high-quality students” in or out of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). “We find that this way we get the highest quality and capable people,” he told HSToday.

Despite Israel’s hands-down success in focusing on people—El Al and Ben Gurion security screeners have effectively unmasked terror threats during their scrutiny of peoples’ behavior—some in and out of TSA continue to assert the people-focused concept is unproven, potentially ineffectual and institutes state-based racism. It’s these critics who have problems with TSA’s SPOT initiative, which has already trained several thousand employees in behavior pattern recognition.

Still, TSA’s overall security approach remains focused on material things.

TSA’s Hawley assured lawmakers in November that he has confidence in SPOT and said its use will increase commensurate with funding. However, under a Democratic Congress ideologically opposed to anything threatening privacy rights, funding may not soon be forthcoming—regardless of the Israelis’ proven track record—according to some Capitol Hill observers.

“You have to ask yourself whether any of these lawmakers have ever taken the time to understand how this works or least of all visited Ben Gurion,” quipped Alon Stivi, president and founder of Direct Measures International, an Orange, Calif.-based security consulting company, and a former veteran Israeli Special Forces member.

The Israelis make no apologies for finding many airports’ security procedures foolish—as well as potentially lethal, like the continuing practice of curbside luggage check-in.

“From a security point of view, curbside check-in is very dangerous,” Liss said, shaking his head in disbelief that the practice even exists—anywhere!

As for luggage, within a few years Ben Gurion plans to implement yet another $70 million layer of scanning technology to fully examine 100 percent of checked-in items prior to stowage on any aircraft. Interestingly, though, Liss said the airport does not have plans to incorporate Z-backscatter technology, which can look through clothing. Liss said the technology has not yet been approved for use in Israel, not because of any safety concerns but rather because security authorities haven’t determined is efficacy.

Liss said the progressive levels of screening designed to identify threats so far has removed the need to employ Z-backscatter scanners.

When it comes to overall physical security, Ben Gurion’s armed forces and defensive systems are unrivaled, effective and lethal.

Analysis

Extrapolating Ben Gurion security to the United States is problematic on many levels. For one, to deploy the same degree of physical scanning technologies that are at Ben Gurion at every airport in America would, in today’s fiscal climate, come with an unpalatable price tag. Even planned technology deployments have yet to be achieved.

As for having equivalent armed forces, the problem would likely be Americans’ unease over seeing the kind of weaponry that Israelis are all too accustomed to seeing every day—everywhere.

But as for implementing a broad, SPOT-like frontline defense, well, that might just be within reach, authorities say. Yet, even SPOT’s widespread implementation will inspire certain political and cultural heartburn. A tougher hurdle to overcome than the cost would be constitutional concerns that it’s simply racist profiling, no matter how effective it is in thwarting terrorists at Ben Gurion.

America is slow to act until the unthinkable happens.

But as an American-born Israeli now in Israel serving in the IDF put it to me: “Your whole thinking changes when you’re confronted with non-stop terrorism on your doorstep.” HST

Editor’s Note: This article was based on reporting done during The Ultimate Counter Terror Mission to Israel, a briefing and tour conducted by Shaneson Consulting Group, Long Beach, NY. HSToday was the media sponsor of that tour.

Tips for travelers

It’s easy to see how Ben Gurion’s intensely people-based security focus frequently upsets non-Israelis’ sensibilities.

If you Google “Ben Gurion security,” you’ll see what I mean. While some of the rants that can be found—and I can’t help but believe they’re exaggerated—the unsurprising experiences of other complainers probably were provoked by their expressed indignance over the personalized security process to which they were subjected.

It’s not that Ben Gurion’s people-focused security staffers are inherently sadistic or enjoy going out of their way to be ultra-personally intrusive. Rather, they’ve refined a behavioral profiling process for identifying potentially suspicious conduct. Once detected, the process triggers a progressive ratcheting up of an inquisitiveness that has been effectively designed and refined over many years to ultimately isolate outright lying and deception—for whatever reason. The goal is to determine if a person is an actual threat.

Simply put: If you’re not a terrorist, you’ll be getting on your flight. And if you’re just inordinately disgruntled, well, you’re likely to find yourself subjected to increasing isolation and interrogation to determine if there’s more to your irritability than meets the eye.

These people are very serious. It’s why, coming or going, travelers should give themselves a minimum of three or more hours to get through security. Even if you’re a “mokadon” passenger like I was—someone who security already knows and awards a wee bit of courtesy—it only lets you bypass everyone else in line; it does not excuse you from being subjected to the same security once you’re in front of everyone else.

Unless you’re a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, with the right to walk past all security unimpeded, you’re going to be subjected to the same security procedures as everyone else. But, as I learned from the head of security at the Knesset, there was an as-yet publicly undisclosed potential security problem a while back with a former Arab Knesset member and his driver—who had been identified as a member of a known terrorist organization—that put even the latitude afforded Knesset members into question.