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Israeli Security
In America?

The Israeli model works there, but it could be a bad fit for here.

MATTHEW E. BERGER

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

oarding a domestic flight in the United States
could soon be as tough as boarding a flight to
Israel on El Al Airlines.
But while Israel has often been mentioned as
the model for domestic security ever since the Sept. 11 terror-
ist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
transforming America into a security-conscious land like Israel
may not be so easy. .
Whether traveling by air or walking into a movie theater,
Israelis are accustomed to their bags being checked by profes-
sional security personnel. Ordinary civilians are on the alert
for suspicious packages.
Yonah Alexander, an Israeli and professor of terrorism stud-
ies in the United States, said the United States used to view
terrorism as a nuisance, and something that would go away.
"Now it seems that the super power of the United States
and the international community is looking at Israel's experi-
ment as an experiment that worked most of the time," said
Alexander, director of the International Center for Terrorism
Studies at the Potomac Institute in suburban Washington.
He said Americans will need to take the mundane security
steps that Israel has had for years, such as frequent checks for
identification, and bag and purse searches. But he said the
United States' size and open-door policy toward immigrants
will make the security procedures more complex than Israel's
methods.
And he noted that Israel, which has experienced its own
share of terrorist assaults, knows its enemies and their tactics,
in contrast to the situation in the current war on terrorism
being waged by the United States.
"You cannot take the Israeli model and put it on America
— it's not going to fit," Alexander said. "You have to fit the
pieces of the puzzle."

The El Al Model

Still, U.S. officials are already looking at El Al's security proce-
dures. The Israeli airline is said to have one of the most
expansive security checklists and has enacted many features to
ensure passenger safety.
"Everyone knows, if you've flown on El Al, you go through
a 45-minute interview," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a
hearing last week on federal aviation security. "And there's a
separation of different folks, based on the various ways in
which they do their screening.

9/28
2001

30

"Needless to say, it's inconvenient to business, and that's one
of the reasons why it hasn't happened," Kerry said. "But I
think Americans want to know they can get on a plane and
be safe, and I know that there are adequate numbers of pro-
posals already made to empower us to be able to make that
guarantee to them, and we need to just embrace it and make
it happen here soon."
Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he
believes the El Al crew members are better trained than their
American counterparts and that a skilled staff is a requirement
for keeping the airplanes safe.
"It's having trained people simply interrogating passengers
until they are satisfied," Indyk said. "It's a very thorough
process.''
The airline is also believed to employ armed marshals on its
planes and lock the cockpit so that passengers cannot hijack

From the pages of the Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1991

An 18-year-old computer genius
from Carmiel, Israel, was formally
charged with illegally tapping into
secret U.S. Army computer memory
banks.
Arthur M. Horwitz, associate pub-
lisher of the Jewish News, was named
chair of the Alyn Hospital (Israel)
evening to be held in Detroit.

1981

British newspapers were flooded
with advertisements offering Nazi
emblems and anti-Semitic pam-
phlets for sale.
Detroiter Sol Moss was elected a
vice president of B'nai B'rith
International.
Avery M. Silverstein of Oak Park
was appointed the director of the
political and security committee for
the 1982 National Model United

Nations.

It.

An El Al spokeswoman said the airline would not discuss its
security features.
Some terrorism experts have their doubts about U.S. air-
lines emulating El Al.
"El Al has only 20 aircraft and loses $30 million a year," L.
Paul Bremer, a former chair of the U.S. National Commission
on Terrorism, said last week at a terrorism conference spon-
sored by the U.S. Institute for Peace. "It's not a good model."
Indyk said that if the El Al model is utilized in the United
States, major civil liberties questions will arise. Israel has
always treated Arabs with more scrutiny than Israelis and
American Jews, because historically they have posed the
largest threat.
"It gets very much into the question of racial profiling,"
Indyk said. "The trade off between security and civil rights is
going to be a difficult one to manage."
He said Israel has a lot it can teach the United States about
other homeland defense matters, including border control.
"Israel has experience in controlling its borders, particularly at
the crossing points," he said. "The United States has a very
large population and very long borders and controlling those
borders is going to be a real challenge."
He also said the Israeli system of giving civilians a security
derail in crisis situations could be duplicated in the United
States, as could the way Israelis work to break up terrorism
cells in their own land.
But he noted that Israel's security situation is unique, and it
is not in America's best interest to emulate all of their security
features.
"Israel faces a highly different threat," Indyk said. "There is
not a potentially hostile population on America's borders that
presents an immediate challenge to deal with."

1971

Detroiter Dr. Hyman S. Mellen
became chair of the 1971 Israel
Survey Tour of the Detroit Service
Group.
The Rothschild Foundation of
Great Britain pledged 55 million to
Jerusalem's new Shaare Zedek
Community Medical Center.
Gordon Silverman of Detroit was
named assistant director of the Hillel
Jewish Student Center in Miami.

1961

The blue flag of the United Nations
flew at half-mast over UN headquar-
ters in a no-man's land between
Israel and Jordan, marking the death
of Secretary-General Dag
Hammarskjold.
Judy Millman of Detroit was
elected International vice president
of B'nai B'rith Girls.

1951

Alfred Silver became the first Jewish
soldier from Rhode Island to lose his
life in action in the Korean war.

— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant