I recently moved to the U.S from Israel. If there's a country that knows about Airport security, it's Israel, for obvious reasons.
Let me tell you this - most of the security procedures in U.S airports are pointless and ridicules. Taking off your shoes and your belt. Holding your hands in front of a screen. Pat downs. We have the technology to avoid this (and have had it for the past 20+ years). If you've been to Israel, you know it's a completely different procedure, and I can guarantee you it's way more secure. They focus more on behavior profiling through multiple inspection points and with a series of questions they ask you AS YOU WAIT IN LINE for checking in your luggage. No fuss, no body strip checks, no taking off pieces of clothing. X-ray screening is done by simply walking through the machine, while your baggage passes a different machine.
Airport security in the U.S feels like the result of bureaucracy and procedure for the sake of appearance.
As an Israeli, you see the "easy" side of Israeli security.
As someone who has flown to Israel for work, I can tell you that if you're not Israeli or Jewish, you don't get such a great experience. And according to one of my Arab American coworkers, it can get much much worse than what I experienced.
I just don't see how the profiling that takes place in Israel would ever work in a multicultural society like the US.
You should read the article in the comment below yours to understand what I mean by "profiling". I did not mean special treatment by race or religion - crazy fanatics and terrorists come in all shapes and sizes.
Israel is very multicultural; there are over 1.5 million Arab Muslim Israelis, and Israeli Jews include Americans, Europeans, Russians, Ethiopians, and various flavors of Arab/mizrachi Jew.
FWIW, I had the rare pleasure of flying into Gaza airport shortly before its runways were bombed by the IDF. It took me 4 hours to get through security and back into Israel, and I'm a pointy hat short of a Viking (blond hair, blue eyes, the works). Can you imagine the treatment an ordinary Palestinian gets?
Its not an issue of it not working -- it would be illegal. Illegal things can not happen in plain site in the US, and the airport is one of those places.
Everyone knows the TSA is a joke, these are people who are qualified to do very little else. The TSA procedures are just noise to make the racial profiling look less obvious.
You make it sound as if Israeli security is uninvasive. I'm an American who visited Israel last September on business. The security checkpoint before getting on the plane in Frankfurt was quite stringent and was separated from all other security checkpoints with its own entrance. I had a metal detector passed over my whole body, including the bottom of my feet. When I entered the country I was asked many questions about why I was there. When leaving the country, all my baggage was opened, the contents removed, and every inch inspected for explosives. This was done in two phases, first for checked baggage and the second time for carry-on bags. It seemed like this was also done for every passenger as I didn't see anyone being passed through without having to go through this procedure. Before walking through the metal detector, I did not have to remove my shoes, but I'm almost certain I did have to remove my belt and empty my pockets, as seems to be standard procedure everywhere now.
It's not standard procedure in Israel. You were scanned by local airport security personnel, and each place has its own procedures. I had to go through something similar when leaving on a direct flight from NYC to TLV - additional security at the gate leaving to Israel. Those are probably in place because Israel is considered a high-risk country at the moment - but they have nothing to do with how airport security is handled in Israel.
There are two problems with it, I think. First, it requires a fairly well-trained interrogator or it's no better than window dressing. Second, when it's effective, it's almost always perceived as rude. U.S. border guards have been doing it for years, and it's one reason they get such a bad reputation vs. those friendly Canadians on the other side. Deployed on a large scale, I bet more folks here on hn would be complaining about it than about the nude scanners. "What do you mean I have to tell an agent of the government what I'm planning on doing in LA?"
I've found the best way to avoid them is to wear a suit and to constantly look at your smartphone like you're an executive who's aggravated with a business problem. If they question you give terse responses with a hint of being annoyed but without being rude. Or even be a little rude but apologize highlighting how you're dealing with a problem at work. They tend to move on.
I asked friends who have traveled to Israel about the situation there, and one friend shared this recent news story, "Shocked Dudamel reconsiders Israel future after double airport harrassment,"
suggesting that once in a while a foreign visitor to Israel finds the security procedures there annoying.
Another friend recommends giving a careful read to the United States Department of State travel information for United States citizens planning to travel to Israel:
You should check the article in one of the comments in this thread - Israeli methods actually reduce security overhead. If there's anything the U.S is good at, it's logistics - I'm sure they can scale it just fine.
I had to take off my pants in Ben-Gurion on my way from the Google Tel Aviv office. It was more invasive than any security check I've ever heard of in the United States.
Let me tell you this - most of the security procedures in U.S airports are pointless and ridicules. Taking off your shoes and your belt. Holding your hands in front of a screen. Pat downs. We have the technology to avoid this (and have had it for the past 20+ years). If you've been to Israel, you know it's a completely different procedure, and I can guarantee you it's way more secure. They focus more on behavior profiling through multiple inspection points and with a series of questions they ask you AS YOU WAIT IN LINE for checking in your luggage. No fuss, no body strip checks, no taking off pieces of clothing. X-ray screening is done by simply walking through the machine, while your baggage passes a different machine.
Airport security in the U.S feels like the result of bureaucracy and procedure for the sake of appearance.
EDIT: clarified what I meant by profiling.