I occasionally wonder about the differences in attitudes between the US and Israel regarding security. I’ve come to the conclusion that Israelis have become somewhat blasé about it while Americans don’t understand it all.

Certainly we see this when the US requires that we release captured terrorists or remove roadblocks for peace, and Israel then complies, but it actually affects Americans more directly at home.

Israelis know what to do about security, and usually they do it right. On the other hand, there is also this “yihiyeh b’seder” attitude which seems to prevent them from going that extra mile and taking some security matters very seriously for extended periods of time.

To me this explains how Palestinian kids walked into Bat Ayin and stole the guns from sleeping soldiers, why, too often, you see soldiers manning checkpoints not looking as attentive as they could be, and other security infractions that that I need not mention here.


I just had to fly in and out of the US and I witnessed a very disturbing scene at the Kennedy x-ray station.

What I found disturbing is I too have experienced my own version of this scene which leads me to believe that the US has absolutely no clue how to protect its citizens.

A young, religious, Israeli mother was carrying her sleeping baby in a sling. I asked her about it afterwards and she explained that it was because she knew she had to put the stroller into the x-ray machine, and this way she didn’t need to disturb the baby.

As we all stood there sans shoes, the security bureaucrat told her to take the baby completely out of the sling before she went through the metal detector. She didn’t want to as it would wake the baby and he would start screaming. She explained she would either beep or not, whether or not the baby was on her.

The security bureaucrat (not a native-born American, mind you) was insistent and threatened to have her strip searched if she didn’t comply. She didn’t actually understand the threat, but her husband did, and he took the baby out, which immediately began to scream and cry and they walked through.

There are three points that disturbed me (there are more, but 3 is enough for here).

1. The guard threatened to strip search her, not because he thought she was a threat that required it, but rather as a threat to get her to comply to his bureaucratic instructions.
   
2. This woman’s long flowing dress was far more conducive to hiding a weapon or explosives (which the metal detector can’t see anyway) than the baby sling was. If there really was any suspicion then he should have had her fully checked.
   (If they were seriously concerned that the machine couldn’t detect metal between the mother and baby, then at least just have her loosen the sling and hold the baby a little out without overly disturbing it.)
   
3. He was incapable of making any decision on his own whether or not this rule made any sense, or how to modify it to fit the situation.

My own experience was when there was apparently a warning that laptops might be used to transport a bomb onto the plane.


So after having our laptops x-rayed we were told to bring it over to the table for a physical examination.

The examination consisted of opening the lid. That’s it! I asked the security bureaucrat, “You know I have a keyboard and screen here, you saw it on the x-ray. Don’t you want to turn it on to see if the battery and hard drive are real?”

He said no, those weren’t his instructions. I said, “But if they told you to check laptops, how else do you have half a chance to see if the components are real and not explosive mock-ups?”

Again he responded that those weren’t his instructions, next.

If I wasn’t flying El Al, I would have felt a certain amount of trepidation on that flight. (Just so you know Ben-Gurion security occasionally spot checks laptops, and they always make you turn it on if they have a suspicion).

After 9/11 there was a (true) story of a baby who was taken from his mother for a more serious security examination – because the baby (not the mother) was the next one to be checked in their numbered sequence. As I recall (perhaps not correctly), the mother was detained for protesting.


These US “guards” are incapable of properly fulfilling their task. They receive instructions and mindlessly fulfill them, no matter how idiotic, inappropriate, or incomplete they may be. They don’t add, they don’t subtract, and they certainly don’t use any common sense.

How safe can it be to fly on a plane from the US (or be a soldier in Iraq) when the bureaucrats in the field are given inadequate and even stupid instructions by the bureaucrats in the office, and no leeway for common sense (if they have any at all)?



I just came across these related links:

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/01/20/more_tsa_fun_robotbr.html

http://www.rense.com/general28/airportscreenersorder.htm

http://daddytypes.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=1511

In case anyone was wondering what was the story was regarding the female Palestinian hitchhiker, it turns out she was sent by a Palestinian terrorist group, and while this was apparently the first time she got caught, it was far from the first time she's done it.

Remember: If you are suspicious even to the slightest amount, then simply ask to see some ID before you let someone in the car (or pull over if you already let them in the car). Better everyone should be a little embarrassed than a lot of people (including you) be dead.

This is sure to get me some angry, knee-jerk, reactionary comments.

Chief of Staff, Lt. General Dan Halutz said that the settlers caused contempt for the Holocaust because of our propaganda.

Funny, because I thought that Sharon and his government caused (and showed) contempt for the lessons of the Holocaust when they had the “honor” of being the first government anywhere in the world, in quite a very long time, to specifically expel Jews from their homes, and then knowingly hand over synagogues and yeshivas to be desecrated and destroyed.

Silly me.

I just came across a very scary book I bought back in 1990. Published by the IASPS (Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, Jerusalem) it contains an analysis and additional essays by various military and political analysts (including I was amused to see, one Daniel Pipes). The name of the book is “Can Israeli Survive a Palestinian State”, edited by Michael Widlanski.

The premise of the book is obvious from its title, what is scary is its prescience.

It discusses the goals and methods of a potential Palestinian state, and the Israeli/regional repercussions that will (not may) result.

Occasionally limited by the RealPolitic of the day, such as the influence of the Soviet Union, the book is a far too accurate forecast describing where we are today.

I was particularly taken by the insights that religious fanaticism (fundamentalism) will rise, Hamas will be the central player in any future Palestinian state, Iran will provide influence and support on many levels, rockets will fall on the Ashdod ports and power plant, general terror attacks will rise as the Palestinian state would either directly utilize terror or simply permit it from their territory (as well as allow 3rd party terror groups in for their own purposes), and most interesting, Israel will also be severely restricted in the level of retaliation and reprisals that it will be permitted to utilize against this Palestinian state for a number of reasons.

It is unfortunate that this rather descriptive book is also a rather accurate book.

Written 16 years ago it correctly describes the inevitable escalation of events once the PLO is allowed into the Land of Israel. We have only reached halfway through the timeline of inevitable results that this book predicts, and all indications show that we are rushing down this wrong way street at full gas with no intent to stop.

I spoke with an acquaintance from the US recently and he mentioned that no matter how accurate the predictions of the Right have been over the years they are simply ignored for the policies of the Left.

That doesn’t leave much room for hope, does it?

In previous posts I discussed how certain Leftist groups take money from foreign governments to spy and run campaigns against their fellow (but Rightwing) Israeli citizens (I’ll leave it as an exercise for you to find the links).

An unspoken (by the Press at least) question floating around Israel today is how this youthful looking suicide bomber got through. The unspoken answer is that a certain Leftist organization named Machsom Watch played a central role in getting this kid get past the roadblock.

I'm sure my readers already know all about Machsom Watch, so stay tuned to see if this theory pans out. I bet it will.

We already know that the demographics demon from the territories was a false demon. Certainly the total 1.2 million registered Palestinian voters (meaning nearly all adults, though presumably including those registered twice or still as alive) puts that question to rest.

But what is interesting is that Israel is still looking for some 30 Billion dollars from the US to pay off the last disengagement and the next one. Surprisingly, certain government people actually think they have a chance to get it.

It’s a shame that these same people can’t think out of the box.

1.2 million registered voters translates down to around 250,000 households (husband, wife, wife, live-in grandparents, older children living at home). Since the concept of Pinui-Pitzui is now acceptable, we’re talking about over $100,000 per household. Since the average Palestinian household is living on much less than $10,000 a year, I’d say $100,000 is a windfall, to say the least.

Other countries claiming interest in Peace can even supply land (like the empty Sinai for instance), additional funds (Saudi Arabia) and we certainly have caravans to spare.

But that isn’t the point of this article.

Shimon Peres on more than one occasion has made ridiculous remarks regarding the strategic value of land in the missile age. And while missiles, rockets, and shells continue to hit our southern communities severely disrupting our citizen’s lives, the IDF is told to only hit back only from the air, which has proven to be remarkably (and unsurprisingly) ineffective, seriously deflating Shimon Peres’s value as an analyst of strategic/tactical military issues.

And while the Palestinians make “land incursions” in the way of suicide bombers, knifers, kidnappers, and drive-by shooters, the IDF is told to stay out of Gaza solely for one reason.

If ground forces enter Gaze en masse (and I don’t mean running in and out for 100 meters like scared chickens) to stop the missile attacks - that means that disengagement failed.

It is inevitable that Israel will have to send ground troops in, the question is how long will Israel have to wait for that, which solely depends on when certain politicians feel they can disengage the acknowledgement of disengagement’s failure from the return of the troops.

But that is also irrelevant. It still scares me most that the Israeli government feels it must wait for a successful mass/mega attack before it has the moral right to effectively fight back, as if mass failed mega-attempts aren’t moral enough reason.

I feel a little bad.

Because of me, some little Lubavitch kid is going to go home and get smacked upside the head when he asks his father who Yeshu was.

I couldn’t help myself.

I was driving through Jerusalem and was confronted by posters that said the Rebbe is the Mashiach and he is the leader Israel needs. At the red light some little kid came over and tried to give me a pamphlet. I’m already thinking J4J and Hari Krishna and so I asked him he if knew that the Rebbe was dead. The conversation went on, with me becoming more and more despondent as I saw with my own eyes how Chabbad is breaking away from Torah and Judaism right in front of us.

At some point when the conversation with this little boy was getting completely ridiculous and I asked him if he knew who Yeshu was. He, of course, didn’t. We talked a little more and the light changed.

Afterwards I felt bad that I introduced him to the idea, even though his teachers and parents are introducing him to what is turning out to be the modern version.

I stopped short of telling him that it is forbidden to eat Chabbad Shchita - there’s a Chashash of ‘Ever min Hachai‘ (concern about eating the limb of a still living animal).

Seriously though, I don’t know what can be done at this point, but Lubavitch is taking a very wrong turn. It’s no longer a joke that Chabbad is the religion closest to Judaism.

Quietly whispered in the hallways it is said that our ultimate spy was sacrificed by the establishment. He knew too much, he would return to Israel popular, powerful, untouchable. His arrival would create political complications that would cause upheavals in the corridors of power.

The rumors say that in the end he wasn’t caught and jailed by accident, but that “those in power” in Israel purposely exposed him to those in whose military heart he was so deeply embedded.


Jonathan Pollard?

No, but you would think so.

Actually, in Sephardic homes across the country this is the unspoken, but understood truth about Eli Cohen and his capture.

Eli Cohen, the non-Ashkenazi spy whose return to Israel would send the embedded Ashkenazi control of the spy establishment into a tailspin. The risk was too great that someone who wasn’t ‘one-of-them’ might be in a political position to take control - so he was exposed.

Why do I mention this?

Well, let me ask you in return, why did you immediately think Jonathan Pollard?

Is it possible that our agents abroad are being sacrificed cheaply after achieving so much?

Last weekend’s Makor Rishon reported that Rafi Eitan, the head of the Pensioner’s party, new Knesset member, potential government minister, and former operator of Jonathan Pollard allegedly said that if he had been there when Pollard came in from the cold he would have put a bullet through Pollard’s head right there and then rather then get Israel embrangled in a political mess.

At some point Pollard has said (or implied) that Eitan demanded that Pollard supply him with U.S. information on various Israeli government ministers, presumably for the purpose of blackmailing them or at least political gain (what other use is there for that kind of information) - Pollard, of course, refused to supply political information and continued to only supply military information he felt was necessary for Israel’s survival.

We know how shabbily the Israeli government has treated Jonathan Pollard. Is this the immoral attitude that the Israeli government has towards its agents, looking at them as mere assets to be thrown to the dogs when they become political or personal liabilities?

Is this the attitude we want for a minister in the State of Israel? Someone who could put a bullet in the head of an agent, a hero, because it might cause someone some political or personal damage?

I’m not into conspiracy theories but during the Iran-Contra affair you might recall that an airplane crashed with an Israeli in it.

Look up the story, and based on what I said above, think about how the Israeli government chooses to 'clean up' its messes, mistakes, and heroes, and then remember Gush Katif.

Is there a connection?

Is anyone questioning this one? I’m actually not and for good reason.

Peretz is an incredible administrator (or to use a different term, a boss, but not just a boss, but a boss’s boss – I bet he wouldn’t like that). Look what he did to the Histadrut. He took a crumbling edifice, destroyed and ransacked by its own masters (Labor) and rejuvenated and regenerated it into a monster that caused billions of shekels worth of damage to our economy over and over with the single twist of his mustache. There was never a single man in the history of this country with so much destructive power available to him at will. An economic terrorist if you will – though one without the cajones to be Prime Minister despite the opportunity handed to him on a silver platter.

But why ‘Defense Minister’? It’s actually quite simple. The Army is the largest (non-unionized too, I might add) employer in the State of Israel. It has a manpower efficiency rate worse than the even the laziest protected union employee. It is also the largest black hole this country has ever seen, gulping down public funds (not to mention US Aid) at a rate that is simply draining our economy to the max.

Can you imagine if Peretz put his hands around the IDF with a mandate to ‘thin and trim’ it to half its cost and half its size?

And it can be done. As someone who spends far too much time at various bases and installations I can tell you that there is so much wasted overhead that can be trimmed away, there are jobs and departments to be reorganized and closed down, and purchasing processes to be improved.

If there is anyone that can do it, then that would be Peretz.

And now you’re asking yourself, what about defense? Peretz knows nothing. (True).

That’s not just irrelevant to the issue, but it also fixes a major flaw in the Israeli MoD.

We’ve almost always had generals as defense minister who simply looked at the job as being an ‘uber general’ who then continued to play internal army political games with their staff as opposed to a politician who actually let the army do what it does best, while he defined the goals and missions and concerned himself with its administration and finances. It's always been the Prime Minister who has actually decided on military missions anyway.

But what does Peretz get in return for destroying/revamping the IDF?

I think that the answer is pretty clear. Every billion shekels he saves will go towards social issues.

For Olmert, Peretz (the Communist) stays clear of the Ministry of Finance, while taking advantage of his skills as a powerful and able administrator. Peretz in return gets to redirect the money he saved for his social concerns.

Time will tell.

Excellent News