"TSA will not disclose which airports will be conducting the additional screening, although it will be at some airports with direct flights to the U.S. Industry data show that more than 250 foreign airports offer nonstop service to the U.S."
Prediction: after some time, they will just roll out this policy everywhere - including US domestic airports.
And this is why it pisses me off that the TSA (I'm only guessing someone official is controlling the account, even if not Mr. Feinstien)responded to my bitching by saying it's only international.
Observant Jews don't fly on planes, drive in cars, or use money on the Sabbath, either. So it's fairly unlikely that someone who observes the Sabbath would be asked to turn on a cellphone by the TSA at that time.
This is actually a very good point...I wonder if there will be a religious exemption. Some Orthodox Jews can be exceptionally strict (I once was on a delayed flight where we had to offload some of the passengers, since due to the delays their connecting flight would have taken place on the Sabbath).
While an Orthodox Jew cannot directly ask you to take his cellphone and turn it on, he or she will be indifferent to you taking and power cycling it voluntarily. It's the intent and activity that's considered sinful, not state of the device per se.
Also it's perfectly normal to leave a phone powered on for a Sabbath, if you don't actively use it. Same applies to e.g. elevators, that just cruise in an endless loop and stop on every floor. You can ride in it, as long as you aren't the operator.
It's unlikely that an Orthodox Jew will fly an El Al plane. Possible, but unlikely.
As for the fact that El Al doesn't fly on the Sabbath: It used to, and stopped doing so thanks to a combination of coalition politics (since it was a state-owned airline) and business reasons. True, El Al would make lots of money if it also flew on the Sabbath -- but it would lose the business of many observant Jews, who fly because of its adherence to these rules.
However, El Al has a subsidiary called Sandor that does fly on Saturdays. I'm not sure about its recently launched low-cost subsidiary, called Up.
I wouldn't mind it if El Al were to fly on the Sabbath, despite the fact that I observe Jewish law. However, I've taken El Al flights on several occasions because they were the only ones who gave me enough time to get from my house to the airport on Saturday night, after the Sabbath ended.
It's unlikely that an Orthodox Jew will fly an El Al plane. Possible, but unlikely.
Why do you think so? I have to admit that I was just guessing, but it seemed logical (most notably the fact that only kosher food is available). What alternatives does an orthodox Jew really have? Since it's just a guess and I certainly don't have any hard data, I could be wrong, of course.
True, El Al would make lots of money if it also flew on the Sabbath -- but it would lose the business of many observant Jews, who fly because of its adherence to these rules.
I was not even thinking about lost revenue, but about the fact that the planes just lie idle for a minimum of 24 hours every week. A plane, which is not in the air is a very, very expensive entity.
> Why do you think so? I have to admit that I was just guessing, but it seemed logical
> (most notably the fact that only kosher food is available). What alternatives does an orthodox Jew really have?
Orthodox Jews are about 20 percent of the Israeli population, and have a lot of different job options -- teachers, professors, shop owners, lawyers, bankers, programmers, managers, insurance salesmen, etc. The sandwich shop from which I bought lunch today is Orthodox, as is the receptionist at the first client I met with.
Virtually every public venue in Israel has kosher food. Every single one of my clients has a kosher cafeteria for their employees. Those that don't have cafeterias are located a short walk from kosher restaurants and supermarkets.
Most Israelis aren't religiously observant, but most do (according to surveys I read years ago) want some degree of kosher food in their lives. Whether they approve of the current mix of religion and state is another question altogether. The haredim (sometimes known as "ultra-Orthodox") are a different population altogether; while they're religiously observant, the fact that many (or most) of their men don't work or serve in the army has been a major source of political tension for decades.
Given that about 20 percent of the population is religiously observant, that El Al pilots all come from the air force, and that religious Jews are a growing proportion of soldiers in elite units, I'm going to guess that we'll see more and more religiously observant El Al pilots in the future. But I've flown on El Al a lot, and I can't remember ever seeing a male flight attendant (which El Al has on every single flight) or pilot saying "goodbye" to us while wearing a kippa (i.e., head covering).
They do this at Ben Gurion Airport too - make you turn on all your electronics, the Israeli airports are praised for their security procedures - right?
Israeli here, flying to Europe couple of times/year. They don't make you turn on all electronics in Ben Gurion, that's just not true; asked me to boot up my laptop once or twice (probably because it can be used as a case for explosives due to its size), but not cellphone or an iPod.
Maybe they do check Muslims more thoroughly, that would make sense. I never took any interest in it, so cannot confirm it. (In the Army, I would totally pay much more attention to Arabs than to other civilians, but that's so painfully obvious, right?)
It's interesting the different experiences people have.
I've found LLBG to be downright pleasant. I get there at most 90 minutes prior to an international flight, breeze through security in about 15-30 minutes depending on queues and often have time to spare to get a coffee and browse through the duty free shops at my leisure.
Full disclosure: I am an Israeli citizen, but I've had this experience even prior to becoming a citizen, when I was only a US citizen.
Regarding your last sentence: May I ask whether you
a) speak Hebrew
b) are jewish?
Both seems to help a lot (got some friends from DE and the US that had less trouble than I did and .. well, that might make a difference).
I'd certainly even agree that I'd prefer the treatment in IL to any body scanner/groping experience "elsewhere", but I don't like the experience one bit and get singled out more or less every time.
Israel openly practices racial profiling of passengers[0], something which is not legal in the US (which must instead practice it in secret)[1][2].
I would not want to use Israel's security procedures as a model for the US for a number of reasons - the unabashed racial profiling is one, but a more basic reason is the fact that Israel faces a very real and direct threat, whereas the TSA itself admits that there is no threat of terrorism in the US[3].
[0] From a Jewish publication: "Arab passengers, or non-Jews, for example, are routinely subjected to greater questioning than are Israeli Jews. " http://www.cjp.org/page.aspx?id=218685
Probably factual inaccuracies, since Israel was not created by the UN (it was supposed to, but the Israelis declared Israel themselves because the UN was sitting on their hands, and took a larger area than UN had designated to Israel) and I don't recall Lebanon declaring war on Israel.
I assume this is so they can log cell phone/tablet IMEI numbers and/or MAC addresses at the airport while the foreigners queue to be finger printed and photographed?
If they log the IMEI they can track most foreigners as they move around the country. Even if they are not bringing sim cards, the phones will still try to connect to a local network to allow emergency calls.
Or maybe so they can confiscate and download the contents of electronics devices quickly with as little delay as possible (it can take 5-10+ minutes before a completely dead smartphone has enough charge to complete a boot up).
Then include your device, powered on in airplane mode, in an easy to reach pocket.
Easy to prove it's on, just don't take it out of airplane mode until you arrive at your destination. In flight you could power it off & back on before touchdown to preserve battery.
Wow, that's a blast from the past. I recall having to do the same with my Game Boy and cell phone when traveling through ATL in the 90's, well before the TSA was created.
Except last time I checked, possession of a mobile device is not required by law? So, what the fuck.
Not to mention: [
"the battery's dead and the proprietary charger
is stuck in checked baggage", "whoops i lost the
battery", "whoops i dropped the phone and now it
is broken", "whoops cannot power on without
password for encryption", "aw shucks my phone is
keister stashed so come get it big boy", "hello
look at this childrens toy which very closely
resembles a cellular phone ha ha", "gee why does
this powered on mobile device emit far more radio
spectrum energy than expected even though i am
usually a law abiding citizen?"
]
Airports that are operated competently will provide μUSB and Lightning power tables at security. Mercenary airports will provide for-pay stations.
Lots of international airports are competently run. Most US airports, unfortunately, are neither competent nor even competently mercenary so there will be trouble when the TSA imports this plan to the USA.
TFA states passengers will have to turn on their phones if they have them. I assume the fear is that you'll have a phone-like bomb with a chemical battery-like component.
Well, the non-cutesy response is to cull local IMEI's (with false base station attacks) and spoof random IMEI's that spam local base stations with control channel traffic, and swamp normal signal data with noise. (not quite "jamming", per se, but maybe something close to it)
Someone could likely accomplish this, and enable others to participate in the protest of security theater, by developing and distributing an open-source application that interfaces with a number of readily available software defined radio antennas (preferably those costing less than one hundred dollars).
You also have to press all the possible combination of numbers on your device, just to make sure there isn't one to activate a bomb. You also have to open all the apps in your smartphone, just in case one of them is "open to blow the bomb".
Right, because only USA airports (or flying to US) has stupid rules? I've gone through the same inane things in other countries. In fact the only time I've ever had to turn on my computer was outside of US flying to another country outside the US.
This is step one. Then in a few months they will introduce new requirements to hand over the login password so the TSA agent can confirm the laptop indeed works.
Prediction: after some time, they will just roll out this policy everywhere - including US domestic airports.