A few thoughts on El Al security and junk

The kerfuffle over TSA groping reminds me of my experiences three years ago when I went through El Al security on a flight from Greece to Israel. My girlfriend and I had to report to the terminal three hours before our flight, not an easy task when you are driving from Glyfada, a fashionable suburb of Athens, to the Athens International Airport. Along the way we got caught in a traffic jam behind a flat bed truck that was home to a family of gypsies. My girlfriend's irate grandfather, a large, rectangular Greek native, cajoled and gesticulated his way through Athens traffic, and despite my fear that we wouldn't make it in time, managed to deliver us to the airport in a timely fashion.

When we arrived at the terminal we were approached by a young man who spoke flawless English. He took our passports, examined them, and handed them off to another sentinel who I presume took them to a back room to check them against whatever Mossad database they likely have access to. The young man took his place behind a kind of lectern and very politely began to interview us. His questions at first were rather innocuous: What are your names? Where are you from? What is the purpose of your trip? How long do you plan on staying in Israel? It felt like one of those scenes in a POW escape movie where the characters are questioned by a incredulous gendarme. We quickly got through these questions, but they were soon followed by more prying questions: Where are you staying? What hotels or hostels are you staying in? Do you have an itinerary? Luckily we had been provided (by my girlfriend's mother) with a very detailed itinerary. This pleased our interrogator.

But the questions didn't stop there, they became still more prying: What is the nature of your relationship? How long have you been together? Do you sleep together?

Er. . . This was feeling less and less like a POW escape movie and more like couples therapy. At the time I wondered just what the point of asking if we slept together could be, but later I thought that perhaps the interrogator was trained to notice physical responses or cues which might clue him in to whether this "relationship" was only a ruse.

After 20 or 30 minutes of interview our passports were returned and we were allowed to enter the secure area of the terminal. The idea of flying on an Israeli airline is somewhat unsettling; it brings to mind hijackings and the PFLP. Athens International Airport itself was the scene of a PFLP attack on an El Al aircraft in 1968, which resulted in the death of an Israeli mechanic. But after having been through the interview process I felt very secure - more secure than I've felt in any airport terminal or on any aircraft. And during the process no one actually touched my person. I was never frisked or asked to undress.

My "junk" was not abused.

I'm not saying this method of security is a perfect fit for the U.S., but it offers us some valuable lessons. The U.S. is of course much larger than Israel and experiences a higher volume of traffic. In this respect it might not be ideal. Yes, the Israelis profile people (the horror!). We in the United States seem to be of the opinion that if profiling were to ever be enacted that the Constitution would spontaneously combust and the nation would become a jack-booted autocracy (which, according to whoever is currently out of power every 4 to 8 years, is just around the corner). Regardless of what pundits and professors may tell you, the United States is not in danger of becoming a herrenvolk democracy (again). Those who would surrender liberty for security deserve neither, we're told. But isn't that a false dilemma? What is liberty without security? An Ayn Rand wet dream perhaps.

What the vast majority of people want is dialogue between the two. The question I would like to pose is what is more tolerable, having a total stranger touch your "junk" or have to answer prying questions about who gets to touch that "junk." If people expect security (and liberty), then some level of prying by security officials will have to be accepted. I am of the opinion that security screening should be more based on detecting the person rather than the object - whether bomb, gun, or box cutter.