Stinky Predicts: El-Al is the New Model

[Stinky The Clown]

All day I've been hearing on the radio and on teevee - from progessives and from conservatives - the benefits of an El-Al approach to flying. I say progressives and conservatives because that's fact, but its the attendent rhetoric of the conservatives that kinda bothers me. The implication is that El-Al, and by extension, Israel, is strong on terrorists and we need to model not only our flying, but our society on the lessons they've learned and the policies they're put in place.

I know the mere mention of Israel can incite people on both sides. It is NOT my inent to have this thread go that way. My point is that by tying the 'terror plot' and its aftermath to Israel's situation they can push propaganda on two fronts at once.

I expect to hear this meme as much as we've heard their other new term - Islamic Fascists.

[Totally Committed]

1. Have you even seen an El-Al terminal?

Armed guards and sometimes soldiers with Uzis right there at the ticket counters. It's scary. I'm not sure Americans will want to put up with that sight for very long... especially the ones flying with children.

TC

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Its a very scary place ...... but not alone in having uzis .....

Back in the 80s, at Leonardo Da Vinci, in Rome, the Carabinieri were out in full force with exposed automatic weapons. That continues today. My partner and her family (she has a 10 and a 12 year old) just flew out of there two weeks ago on their way back from a Med cruise. She called me when they got to JFK and had a layover. She was amazed and apalled that they were there.

I flew in and out of Schipohl in Amsterdam just a few months ago. In moving from the air terminal to the train terminal (same building complex), armed military types were in evidence.

In Paris a year and half ago, Sparkly and I were amazed to see the Gendarmes in camo gear with automatic weapons at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Three years ago, in Barcelona, we saw armed paramilitary everywhere at the airport.

The only European airport where we did not see armed paramilitary was Orio al Serio, in Naples.

But think back to the days following 9/11. I had occasion to fly out of Thurgood Marshall in Baltimore within a week of 9/11 (we had flown in there on 9/10, by the way). The MD National Gurad had M16s on their shoulders.

The new reality, indeed.

[Donna Zen]

9. The source

This will go on and become worse until we cure the source of this diss-ease. First there must be peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors. Without that basic foundation, nothing else will get better. Even when those agreements are concluded, there will continue to be lingering violence, but it be sporadic and diminishing. That's how hatred goes.

Now crazy friggin george's violence in Iraq doesn't help, but without those agreements in the ME, everything is much more complicated.

We and the rest of the planet is putting up with this insanity which is caused by a small fraction of the world's people. Both sides, the governments who pay the armed guards, and the non-governmental armed perps feed from the same trough of civil unrest. There are real threats, and there are real grievances, but none of this will be settled with bullets.

What we are witnessing is a lack of honest leadership from just about every country in the world, especially our own country's complete governmental breakdown. If we can somehow change ourselves, we might have a chance.

[AX10]

2. I will NEVER fly on ET-AL for one.

Second, there is no need for military with uzis in airport terminals.

Third, I hate what has happened to this world since Bushitler was selected to be the Fuhrer.

[davepc]

8. No need for armed security at airport terminals?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_and_Vienna_airport_attacks

On that day (December 27, 1985) at 0815 GMT, four gunmen walked to the ticket counter of Israel's El Al airlines at Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome, Italy, and opened fire with assault rifles and grenades. They killed 16 people and wounded 99 others before three of them were killed. The remaining one was shot and captured by police. Five U.S. citizens were among those killed.

Minutes later, at the Schwechat Airport (Vienna International Airport) in Vienna, Austria, three terrorists carried out a similar attack. Hand grenades were thrown towards crowds of passengers queuing to check-in for a flight to Tel Aviv. The terrorists killed two people and wounded 39 others. The terrorists then fled the airport by car, and Austrian authorities gave chase. They killed one terrorist and captured the other two.

In all, the attacks killed 18, including a child, and wounded around 140. Reports said that the original plan of the gunmen was to hijack El Al jets from the airports and blow them up over Tel Aviv.

I guess next time some terrorists assault a terminal with grenades and automatic weapons, someone should throw flowers at them to stop.

[Virginia Dare]

3. I believe we have consulted with the Israeli government...

about how to construct that wall between us and Mexico as well.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. The Israelis have been very helpul to us over the years

[CrushTheDLC]

6. Why does any of this surprise anybody?

The Israeli Likud government IS the Bush PNAC government.

No I'm not an "anti-semitic skinhead Nazi freak babbling on about ZOG" or whatever. This is reality.

This is a cabal of Likud traitors named Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Wermser, Zakheim, Kristol, etc. making policies of OUR country.

Thia is AIPAC controlling every fucking vote of the US congress, and assassinating (figuratively speaking) those who will not comply, like Cynthia McKinney.

This is the treason which has destroyed this country for the last 6 years. Why would remodeling our airlines in the model of El-Al seem strange by comparison?

[gula]

7. I used to fly regularly out of Zürich airport. Whenever

there was an EL-AL plane in the vicinety(sp?) there would be armed soldiers in the airport. Never saw them otherwise.