Is Israeli airport security the way to go?

December 31, 2009 - 10:37 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Technology, Travel 

ben-gurion-airportWhenever the American comedians who make up the annual Comedy for Koby shows in Israel gather fresh material upon their arrival here, they usually end up commenting on the security personnel at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Like the Mossad, tank drivers, and air force pilots, Israeli airport security have that reputation for super hero, no-nonsense, get to the point directness and efficiency. “Who packed your bags?” “What was your bar mitzah portion?” “Why are you even here visiting?” The rat-a-tat- interrogation can be disarming, but most of us here now take it for granted.

In light of the recent attempt to detonate explosives aboard an airliner from Amsterdam, the tactics employed at Ben-Gurion are increasingly being looked at as the way to go to safeguard passengers.

The Toronto Star recently ran a story touting the ‘Israelification’ of North American airports, that is, how to make airports more like Israel’s, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience.

“It is mindboggling for us Israelis to look at what happens in North America, because we went through this 50 years ago,” said Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy. He’s worked with the RCMP, the U.S. Navy Seals and airports around the world.

“Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don’t take s— from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.”

That, in a nutshell is “Israelification” – a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.

I’ve met Rafi Sela, and he’s a straight shooter, one of those Israelis who you know you would immediately trust in an emergency to know exactly what to do. According to Rafi, the whole issue of profiling has been distorted as a political catchword. What the screeners are targeting isn’t race, but behavior.

The layer of actual security that greets travellers at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport is a roadside check. All drivers are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from?

“Two benign questions. The questions aren’t important. The way people act when they answer them is,” Sela said.

Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of “distress” — behavioural profiling. Sela rejects the argument that profiling is discriminatory.

“The word ‘profiling’ is a political invention by people who don’t want to do security,” he said. “To us, it doesn’t matter if he’s black, white, young or old. It’s just his behavior. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I’m doing this?”

Whether the methods employed at Ben-Gurion are eventually adopted elsewhere remains to be seen. But I know that I breathe a sigh of relief whenever one of those earnest young security personnel start asking me who packed my bags.

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Life in Tel Aviv is a beach

June 8, 2009 - 9:19 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

ta-beachIf you can’t make it Tel Aviv this summer to enjoy one of the greatest beaches in the world, Israel can bring the beach to you.

Artificial beach fronts, complete with ‘arcticim’ (ice pops), ‘matkot’ (paddle ball), DJs, food, and live musical performances will be set up this summer in honor of Tel Aviv’s 100th birthday in three locations – New York’s Central Park on June 21, Vienna (from April 28 to September 1) and Copenhagen (from July 25 to August 2)

Sponsored by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Centennial Administration, the Foreign and Tourism ministries, and corporate partner El Al Israel Airways, the Tel Aviv beach project is attempting to give people a taste of what our Mediterranean coast is really like.

In New York, that means shipping in 30 tons of sand to cover the 15 yard by 15 yard ‘beach’ that’s being erected at the Naumberg Bandshell in Central Park. That costs money, and $200,000 is being allocated to the NY-Tel Aviv beach, an expenditure that Mayor Ron Huldai thinks is money well spent.

“If tourists are going to come to Israel, it will cover the project tenfold,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “There is another Israel, not only wars and crisis.”

The one-day event, which is free to the public, will start at 11 a.m. and finish at 6 p.m. At noon, DJ Hadar Marks will host a beach party and Israeli reggae band Hatikva 6 and rock band Flow will perform.

The notion that most Americans don’t have a notion that the Tel Aviv beach is one happening place was brought home during a comedy routine Sunday night by US comic David Crowe, one of four American funnymen currently touring Israel on behalf of Comedy For Koby.

Crowe, along with fellow comics Avi Liberman, AJ Jamal, and Jeffrey Ross, wowed the sold out Jerusalem show, and the Catholic-raised Crowe (“My grandfather was a priest… evidently not a very good one”) described his first experience in the Holy Land.

“I go down to the beach outside my hotel in Tel Aviv, and I can’t believe it. There’s bronzed-skin women in tiny bikinis, drum circles, dance music. I know the Jews wanted a homeland, but I didn’t know it was Brazil!”

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Comedy for Koby

May 27, 2009 - 12:35 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Pop Culture, Profiles, War 

The Mandells and their son Koby

The Mandells and their son Koby

For a while, back when we were all relative newlylweds, my wife and I were friendly acqaintances of Sherri and Seth Mandel. We had met Sherri through the Livnot U’Lehibanot program in Safed, and in the ensuing few years, our paths occassionally crossed. I remember even going to their apartment in Jerusalem one time for cake and coffee.

That was 25 years ago, but as time went on, and we drifted apart amid the child rearing and careers. The next time I remember hearing about the Mandells was when they were in the news in 2001, after their son Koby was stoned to death by terrorists near their home in Tekoa.

I should have gone to pay a shiva call, but I was frozen in fear – Koby was about the same age as my oldest child, and all I could think of was how horrible it would be to lose her. In cowardly fashion, I wanted to stay as far away from dealing with that as possible.

Thankfully, the Mandells weren’t cowards. They bravely turned their tragedy into a gift to mankind with the Koby Mandell Foundation - a terror victims outreach organization they founded a few years after Koby’s death.

Next week, for the second year, a slew of Comedy for Koby shows will be taking place around the country to benefit the foundation, featuring four American stand up comedians under the auspices of Stand Up For Israel.

A rousing success since it was first launched by fellow American Jewish comic Avi Liberman during the Second Intifada, Stand Up For Israel was designed to raise the morale of English-speaking Israelis via some old country comedic entertainment. Each year since then, Liberman has returned to Israel with three different comedic friends and donated the proceeds to various worthy causes, the current one being The Koby Mandell Foundation.

This year’s shows, hosted by Liberman, feature stand up comics Jeffrey Ross, David Crowe and AJ (‘Almost Jewish’) Jamal. The tour features shows in six locations: June 3 – Ra’anana at Yad Labanim, June 4 – Beit Shemesh at Eshkol Hapayis, June 7 – Jerusalem at The Lab, June 9 – Modi’in at the Azrielli Theater, June 10 – Tel Aviv at the ZOA House, and June 11 – Efrat, at Mishkan Zippora.

Ross aka the ‘Roastmaster General’ is the ‘dean’ of insult comics, having been named ‘the meanest man in comedy’ for having led the renown Friar Club roasts of luminaries like William Shatner, Hugh Hefner, Donald Trump and Pamela Anderson.

I spoke to him this week, and we got on the topic of the prevalence of Jewish comedians.

”We’ve been trying to figure that out for a long time – it’s something no scientist can understand. I think maybe it’s that Jewish people are born with a brutal honesty that nurtures and breeds comedians. Maybe it’s something to do with being circumcised.”

Whatever the reasons, come out and laugh for a good cause with Liberman, Ross and their cohorts. It’s the least we can do for the Mandells and their worthy cause.

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