Israelis have the answer

All day long, with the TV news channel blabbing in a corner of my office, I’ve been listening to comments about how strict the Israelis’ airport security has become.

No kidding?

I know what they mean.

This past June, I departed Israel and witnessed first hand just how airport security ought to be while the civilized world is at war with international terrorists. David Ben-Gurion International Airport, just outside Tel Aviv, has this security thing down to the letter.

I had been in the country for five weeks, touring it as part of a Rotary International Group Study Exchange team. My wife joined me for a week of vacation at the end of the tour. We spent another few days enjoying the sights and sounds of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv, Masada and the Dead Sea.

Then we got to the airport. We were told to get there three hours early. We arrived nearly four hours ahead of time. We needed all of it.

We were greeted by a young airport security officer, who quizzed us thoroughly: Why were we there? Who did we see? Where did we go? How long were we in Israel? He took our luggage and ran it through an enormous scanner. Then we were told to show our bags’ contents to another agent. We answered more questions.

All this took about an hour

Then we got to the ticket counter. We showed our passports and then went through the routine security check at the gate. Full disclosure here: I mistakenly left a Swiss Army knife in my carry-on bag. The young security officer took it from me. Darn!

But the point is this: The Israelis are very careful with every passenger who enters the airport departure terminal. They take no chances. And who can blame them? They’ve been through hell with terrorists since the nation was created in 1948. They know how to protect themselves against these madmen.

In the wake of the near-tragedy involving the Nigerian Muslim fanatic who came within a whisker of blowing a Northwest Airlines jet to bits, perhaps every airport in the world ought to adopt the Israeli method of securing air travel. So what if it makes air travel even more unpleasant that it has become since 9/11?

It works for them.