We've got an aggressive 6-month plan and we need your help. Contribute now!

We Can Do Better than the Israelis

December 1, 2010 By
  • email

Everybody wants alternatives to the TSA security theater. Think back to the 2003 California recall election. The recallers didn’t pick up steam until Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his intention to terminate Gray Davis as governor. Similarly, people are looking for a security theater replacement before kicking TSA to the curb. This is a good sign. The debate has moved on. People know the TSA is broken. What are we going to replace it with?

The answer is not as simple as replacing oil with solar power or Coca-Cola with Coke Zero. The federal government’s TSA is broken by design. It is Goliath to Al-Qaeda’s David. It is the US Army to Al-Qaeda’s Viet Cong. A top-down, lumbering bureaucracy will never be a match for the agile, peer-to-peer Al-Qaeda, if you think they are the threat. Various solutions should come forth from those closest to the business. Passengers must have choice in order for the best security to rise to the top. The TSA offers a one-size-fits-all mentality. The decision-makers have exempted themselves from their own security theater. That’s un-American.

But the first step is to rebut the naysayers. They want us to believe that no viable alternatives exist. The TSA way is the only way to provide airport security, they say. That’s ridiculous on its face. Want to spend money but not carry cash? Credit cards or debit cards, checks or money orders, IOUs or loans. Even barter is an option. Want to feed, clothe or shelter yourself? Visit any supermarket, clothing store or real estate agent to see just how many options intrepid entrepreneurs are vying to sell you. Practically all problems have multiple solutions.

One prominent alternative is stuck in the naysayers’ craw: behavioral pattern recognition. It’s also known as behavioral (not necessarily racial!) profiling. It’s one of several security layers used in Israeli airports. After 30 plus years without terrorist attack, behavioral pattern recognition has earned its reputation for effectiveness. But the naysayers can’t move on. And that’s fine, because I’m not a big fan of Israeli airport security. They don’t routinely strip-search random grandmas but it can get overbearing. I’m not pushing it as The Solution. I’m simply saying that it proves the naysayers wrong. We can do better than TSA security theater.

One argument goes that Israel’s Ben Gurion airport sees only 10 million travelers per year. Large American airports, on the other hand, see 25 to 40 million. So Israeli behavioral pattern recognition won’t scale. But that’s dumb. New products and services are regularly tested on small groups of people before being rolled out to larger populations. If you like, consider Ben Gurion a trial, and a large one to boot. So many say they are so willing to trade so much for perfect airport security. Surely they should be supporting a tactic battle-tested in the fires of the Middle East for 30 years. Don’t you think?

Is behavioral pattern recognition, Israeli-style interrogations and any resulting strip searches a violation of our civil liberties? If it’s done by the TSA, you bet. If it’s done by an airline, not so much. The airlines are not limited by the constitution. You don’t have to do business with them. If they can’t be satisfied of your good intentions, they don’t have to make a contract to transport you. If one airline’s security is too overbearing, people can patronize one that has a softer touch. Again, choice is the solution.

A more useful debate will focus on enabling the inventiveness and decision-making ability of the air traveler (the customer) to dictate airport security. We are the ones who have to live with it. We are the ones who are accountable for it. (We are risking our lives.) Top government officials can fly in private jets or be exempted from TSA security screening. They are not qualified to decide for us.

The solution is freedom. That’s what the terrorists hate us for, right? That’s what has been lost in 8 years of TSA security theater. As we travelers continue to give the TSA a populist strip search of its own, let’s sneak in a big injection of freedom. Just give ‘em a big ole freedom shot in the butt when they’re not looking.

P.S.: The Israeli solutions appear to be promoted in significant part by people who run airport security consulting firms. They have something to gain. Don’t be fooled. If we don’t succeed in steering the debate towards freedom, we could end up with a privatized Blackwater-like disaster in our airports. Cronyism and privatization will not advance our cause.

Filed Under: Analysis, Featured Tagged With: airport, alternatives, El Al, Israel, security
  • randy mcbride

    Good article and for you frequent flyers out there wanting to look into private aircraft utilization as a choice, here is some research on how low-budget aircraft partnerships can work (I’m not talking luxury jets here). I am looking into one. For non-pilots like me, there are competent pilots who hire out a $350 a day. He’ll also oversee plane maintenance for you and your partners in a plane for say $150 a month plus the maintenance cost and plane insurance which I didn’t learn yet. Depending on the distances you typically travel, single prop or multi-prop aircraft can run around $50,000 to $200,000 (primarily used aircraft). So if you partner with say one other owner, you might be talking about financing or paying a one-time amount of $25,000 to $100,000. You’ll recapture a lot of that when you sell the plane some day. After that, really not too bad. Your pilot’s $350 a day rate plus fuel might not heavily exceed ticket costs. And NO MORE TSA!!!You go get on your plane, go whereever, get off and get into your rental car. I’m in Houston, Texas. Anyone interested on going in with me?

    • http://www.rainbow-websites.com Lydia Shelley, Hollywood FL

      Why not make a website where people can connect to share charters?

  • Steven Jackson

    I think the behavioral pattern thing is pretty easy to scale in reality. It’s a matter of who would like to fly and what are they willing to do in order to make it happen. If the ridiculous TSA budget were spent on a passenger education program, I think you achieve the same goal with the highest stake-holders in charge of their own safety. Let trained passengers be vigil to notice their own potential killers. Not only would it serve each flight, the airline industry, and our freedoms as Americans, but it would also teach citizens proven patterns for spotting terrorism in other places like shopping malls or sports stadiums.

    To get this to happen, just a couple little prerequisites have to be met: First all the race baiting BS has to stop and we have to get realistic about the differences between racial profiling and the description of the suspects. The second thing is we as a nation are going to have to get our heads out of the sand about our situation in the world.

    • http://GeorgeDonnelly.com George Donnelly

      Great comment, thanks!

      • Steven Jackson

        Thanks! It probably makes too much sense to ever really get traction. One disparaging remark often made about Americans outside the US is that we are lazy. I wish I could refute that, but it is probably the single biggest breach in my plan.

  • e

    It would not be RACIAL PROFILING, as Muslims come in all colors. There are a billion of them worldwide, as soon half the world will be Muslim. It would be religious profiling.

    That is if you want to consider Islam a religion… some consider it more a socio-political movement in the guise of religion… some consider it a cult.

    I know Italy refuses to grant Islam the status of a religion (they have for buhddism, and many other “religions”). They view Islam’s tenets of setting up one world Islamic government as inherently political and not religious.

  • Jorg

    Israeli security is scaled to their needs. We can take a simplified version of what they use and it will be very effective. Ask a few basic questions, metal detectors, and marshals. And is any of this really needed for short haul flights on small planes? You could probably have no security on trips under an hour and everything would be fine. 9/11 was all transcontinental planes. Richard Reid and Abdulmutallab were trans-atlantic. Short haul flights are just not worth it to terrorists.

  • Jorg

    I also meant to add that I agree that it should be up to the airline, not the government.

  • solatic

    It’s possible to do better than the Israelis? BULL S***. Security isn’t like a jacket where you have a wide range of options and you can choose on a spectrum of cost vs. comfort/luxury. Security either works or it’s worthless. The 30 year zero-incident Israeli record is the ONLY thing anyone should need to know.

    You can’t say that the airlines will do the best, most effective job purely because they are motivated by the free market to do it right. Hello, pre-9/11 security, run by the airlines, didn’t stop 9/11! And multiple airlines were attacked, too!

    The problem that we have with pat-downs and other measures that contradict our 4th Amendment rights isn’t that they are invasive but *because they contradict the 4th Amendment*! Random selection is NOT probable cause. But once the government has probable cause, they can seize whatever they like and it IS Constitutional. How does the government get probable cause? BEHAVIORAL PROFILING.

    You mention that there’s always multiple solutions to a problem. That’s true. But you don’t have to look for other solutions when the best one is staring you right in the face! The only solution other than profiling that could even theoretically work is to get everyone to strip nude before flying and x-ray them to make sure they haven’t swallowed any explosives. But of course that would never happen because, despite being another way to solve the problem, it’s infinitely worse.

    For anyone who really thinks that behavioral profiling doesn’t scale, WAKE UP. There are THOUSANDS of veterans coming back from the Middle East. Send them to Israel for 6 months before coming back and put them to work in the airports. Better yet, just make it part of their tour of duty. Do time in Afghanistan and then do time in an American airport at the end.

    • http://GeorgeDonnelly.com George Donnelly

      The fact that Israeli airport security has 30 years of success means it it something worth considering, a viable TSA alternative. It does not mean that it will suffice for the next 30 years.

  • http://www.rainbow-websites.com Lydia Shelley, Hollywood FL

    I still say that trained dogs are our best defense for our Constitutional rights AND our REAL safety. If the TSA were truly concerned they would already have begun employing the dogs. Let the DOGS select who’s pulled out of line, based on the substances they’ve been trained to alert upon. I’ll bet dollars to donuts if this were tested on even a limited scale the dogs would catch 100% of the attempts to smuggle explosives or drugs, even if the perp swallowed them.

    • http://GeorgeDonnelly.com George Donnelly

      Dogs don’t scale. Many people are scared of dogs. Dogs are not the solution. The solution is freedom.

  • Neferhuri

    George, I do think we could emulate behavioral profiling in this country. And with metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs, and whatever that thing is the Dutch use–forget what it’s called, but it doesn’t take pornographic pictures–we’d be fine.

    I do know that I, a 66-year-old grandmother of three, will forego all my trips overseas to see relatives in the U.K. and Australia, and all trips to see other relatives in Texas, because of the pornoscanners and sexual groping. Hell, I didn’t even like the taking off shoes and jacket bit–but this latest outrage is too much. I’m not a terrorist and I refuse to be treated like one. Apart from anything else, this smacks of “guilty until proven innocent”–not what you expect to find in a supposedly free country.

  • http://MaverickSolutions.biz Brian ‘Maverick’ Blum

    Terrific article! Coincidentally, I independently came up with the idea of letting airlines create a marketplace of security options from which travelers could choose, voting with their airfare dollars as to what level of security they wanted. It came to me while I was debating the airline security issue with family over Thanksgiving weekend. I think it’s a wonderful idea! DISBAND THE TSA!

  • Disgusted in TN

    I agree with Lydia. Dogs are the best. They guard Russia’s airports and they are the U.S. Army’s choice in Afghanistan, where accuracy is essential. Plus they are way cheaper. Not to mention all the dogs in the pound that could be rescued and trained.

  • randy mcbride

    ok for one person who asked this to be put on a website, I’ll think about it. Frac jet companies and aviation clubs say phone traffic is very high regarding people opting out of flying commercially until TSA monster is put under control. Plane operating costs for a twin prop baron including fuel, ins., maintenance, etc. can run about $1.28 per mile. So if a few partners go in on this type of aircraft, say 2 persons at $100k each down, or 4 partners who fly a little less frequently at $50k each, then after that the partner using the plane can anticipate $1000 to $1200 for roundtrip costs including fuel plus pilot at $350 per day. You can do the math. Expensive, but perhaps somewhat comparable to first class tickets. The Cessna and single prop aircraft costs, both initial investment and operating costs, would be quite a bit less if the partners’ travel are regional or local rather than long distance.

  • Jonathan

    Nice article. A few comments from someone who has experienced Ben Gurion Airport (Israel) security more than once:

    (1) The author does not specify why he doesn’t like the Israeli model. The security line wait time formerly was considered a bit long, but now it is no longer than the standard U.S. airport security checkpoint. My experience is that the Israeli security officials are very friendly, certainly more so than the TSA officials. Perhaps some people don’t realize that being professional, with serious consequences riding on erroneous decisions, means that not every Israeli airport security official can be “jovial” (as defined by Americans) at all times. I repeat, however, that they are not rude; nor are they mean-spirited.

    (2) When leaving Ben Gurion Airport, I felt more safe and secure from terrorist threats than anywhere else in the world I have flown on a commercial flight.

    (3) The idea of leaving security up to the individual airlines or airports sounds very good from a “freedom” perspective. However, the argument rests on the presumption that the risks of poor security screening fall only on the airline and its passengers. As the events of 9/11 prove, the risks of poor security screening can cause great harm to people who are not on the plane. The United States should have minimum standards that apply to all airports and airlines. However, the Department of Homeland Security / TSA solutions to date are disastrous, ineffective, insulting, and a waste of tax dollars. I agree with the author that we should look to other countries for help.

    (4) The Israeli behavioral profiling system is NOT based on apparent race, ethnicity, or religion. A nervous ultra-Orthodox Jew is just as likely to be pulled aside for special questioning as anyone else who behaves as if he or she has something to hide, etc. Those who argue otherwise do not understand behavioral profiling. What’s more, at Ben Gurion Airport, EVERYONE’s baggage is scanned and then searched, right in front of the passenger. Seems more democratic than even the U.S. system!

Read previous post:
TSAnta_Claus69bStandard
Funny Christmas-Themed TSA Shirt: TSAnta Claus

Santa Claus gets groped by his elves before flying. How embarassing!

Close