The reasonable way to secure airports from terrorists attempting to smuggle explosives on board.

[Xicano]

Terror Fighting Dogs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Y7pBN7toE

Two other examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQLWRxR5pJA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHiaCN1cPzo

[baldguy]

1. Israeli air security interviews each passenger before they get on the plane.

That's right - They TALK to them. Sometimes the best security is the simplest.

[struggle4progress]

3. "... my experience leaving Tel Aviv was far and away the most unpleasant encounter I’d ever had with

airport security officials in the decade. Moscow in 1998 was worse. As best I could tell, things went pretty smoothly as long as you were (a) Israeli, (b) traveling with an Israeli, or (c) traveling with some kind of well-established tour group. I think this may be how the majority of people go through the airport, which may account for its good reputation. But it took me approximately three hours to get from the initial passport check through to the food court. I was told that I couldn’t take my iPad onto the plane, and therefore would have to check a whole bag that I’d been planning to carry on so that the bag could contain the forbidden device, and the same thing happened to two of the guys I was traveling with. Each individual item from the bad I was allowed to carry on had to be separately wiped down for traces of explosive residue and several items had to be wiped multiple times.

I was groped a couple of times, yelled at by surly Russian immigrants, accused of “lying” because I’d forgotten I had a second iPod charging cord in my bag, interrogated several times about who I’d talked to, etc.

What is true is that except for the Russian immigrants, who do bring the unique Russian approach to customer service, everyone is exceedingly polite. That said, the process took three hours! ..."

Israeli Airport Security
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/11/israeli-airport-security/

[jobendorfer]

4. minor problem of scale

Israel has 30 airfields with paved runways. Two of those provide international air service.
The United States has 5,000 airfields with paved runways. Hundreds of airports that provide international service.
The Atlanta airport ALONE moves the equivalent of the entire population of Israel in about 8 weeks of normal operation.

I'm sure the Israelis have things to teach us about airport security.
That said: the small size of Israel, both in terms of population and geography, lets them do things that simply will not scale up to work here.

Even a 30 second interview per passenger implies a 2-hour (or more) load time for a single flight.
We do how many hundreds of thousands of flights a year here in the U.S.?

J.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Mexico city moves the same traffic as JFK every day

They consulted El Al after 911, and yes the system was israelized.

No it is not Ben Gurion but it is much tougher than ours, but they started from a higher standard.

We think we can't, and follow the money.

[hedgehog]

7. Don't forget, people taking domestic flights in the US also

have to be checked.

[katnapped]

2. No profits to be made from that....sorry! n/t

[MineralMan]

5. Do you have any idea how many people fly within the United States

on a typical weekday? How many trained dogs do you suppose would be needed to sniff every one of them and their luggage? How many trained bomb-sniffing dogs are there now?

Lots of questions. Do you have any answers to them?