Profiling

A recent press item said that Israeli authorities used Facebook to monitor plans of folks hostile to Israel; they compiled a list of over 300 names. Authorities then stopped dozens of pro-Palestinian activists from boarding Israel-bound flights in Europe, questioned dozens more upon arrival, and denied entry to 69 people–disrupting their plans to reach the West Bank on a solidarity mission with the Palestinians. The technique that Israel uses to keep bad people out is profiling–not body searches. If you have any ties at all to Islam or radical causes, you’re going to get a very careful screening. If you don’t, and you’re a 90-year-old lady wearing depends–you’ll get almost no attention. Maybe it’s time the US started profiling. I think so.