Safety is not cheap |
What Israel Learned the Hard Way about Safety
There is an uncomfortable truth many people prefer to ignore. Some of the safest systems in the world were not born out of idealism or luxury but out of bloodshed trauma and relentless trial and error. Israel’s aviation security is a prime example. It is not polite, not fast, not friendly and certainly not designed to make travelers feel pampered. It is designed to keep people alive.
That distinction matters.
Israel today has one of the most secure airlines and airports on the planet. El Al has operated for decades under constant threat and yet only one of its passenger flights was ever successfully hijacked in its entire history. That happened in 1968. Since then, despite being one of the most targeted airlines in the world, it has not happened again. This is not luck. It is learning.
To understand why Israeli aviation security looks the way it does, you have to understand the era that shaped it. From the late 1960s through the mid 1980s, Palestinian militant organizations including the PLO and affiliated groups such as the PFLP, Black September and the Abu Nidal Organization turned aircraft hijacking into a political weapon. Hijacking was not incidental. It was strategic. It was designed for maximum publicity, leverage and fear.
There were dozens of such incidents tied directly to these groups. El Al Flight 426 in 1968 remains the only successful hijacking of an Israeli airline. The Dawson’s Field hijackings in 1970 saw multiple planes seized almost simultaneously and later blown up in the Jordanian desert. Sabena Flight 571 in 1972 ended with Israeli commandos storming the aircraft. Lufthansa Flight 615 was hijacked to force the release of terrorists. EgyptAir Flight 648 in 1985 ended in bloodshed after being seized by Abu Nidal operatives.
This was not abstract history. It was a sustained campaign targeting civilians in the sky.
While much of the world responded slowly or defensively to this wave of aviation terror, Israel made a different choice. It treated every failure as a lesson and every near miss as a warning. Security was no longer something added at the gate. It became a philosophy embedded into the entire system.
That is why flying out of Ben Gurion Airport feels different. Security questioning begins before you even reach the check in counter. It is personal, sometimes intrusive and occasionally infuriating. You are not treated as a number. You are treated as a human being who might pose a risk or might be at risk. The questions are not random. They are deliberate.
Israel built a layered system. Intelligence assessment. Behavioral analysis. Physical security. Armed personnel on flights. Reinforced cockpit doors long before they became global standard. Even anti missile defense systems on commercial aircraft, something almost no other country has implemented.
None of this came cheap. None of it came without criticism. And none of it was done to make travelers comfortable.
Ben Gurion Airport today is consistently ranked among the most secure airports in the world. Despite regional wars, terror campaigns and constant threats, there has been no successful large scale terrorist attack on an aircraft departing from it. That record exists for one reason. Israel assumes threats are real until proven otherwise.
This approach often clashes with Western sensibilities. People complain about profiling. About delays. About being questioned for an hour. I understand that frustration. I have stood there myself, tired and irritated, watching fellow passengers curse under their breath.
But here is the part many do not want to admit. Safety is not polite. It is not fast. And it is never neutral.
Israel does not have the luxury of pretending intentions do not matter. It learned that lesson when airplanes were turned into weapons and passengers into bargaining chips. While other countries reacted after September 11, Israel had already lived that reality for decades.
There is something deeply honest about this model. It does not promise perfection. It promises vigilance. It does not rely on slogans. It relies on responsibility.
Israel is a country of innovation not because it wanted to be but because it had to be. Many of its advances in security, medicine and technology were forged under pressure most nations never experience. Learning from disaster is not admirable. Refusing to learn from it is unforgivable.
So yes, I may curse quietly when I am held for questioning. I may roll my eyes at the delay. But I do it with a strange sense of respect. Because when they check me thoroughly, they check someone else with bad intentions just as thoroughly.
Safety is not cheap. It is not comfortable. And it is not optional.
Israel understands that. And the world would be wiser if it paid attention.
Time To Stand Up for Israel
Time To Stand Up for Israel is an independent foundation dedicated to fighting misinformation, countering antisemitism, and providing clear, fact-based education about Israel. We do not engage in internal Israeli politics. We stand on two core principles: Israel has the right to exist. Israel has the duty to defend itself.
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