Airport security - Israel & US

I just discovered, through reading Jeffrey Goldberg's blog, that the Shin Bet (the Israeli internal security agency) has a web site! Somehow, this seems contrary to the image I have that security agencies should be secret! If you're interested, here it is: The Israeli Security Agency.

Goldberg cited an interesting terrorism case that happened in 1986, of Anne-Marie Murphy, whose Jordanian boyfriend gave her a bomb to carry onto an El Al flight. She was six months pregnant (by him). If the bomb had blown up, almost 400 people would have been killed on the flight. I remember traveling to Israel a year or two after that and going through Israeli security. The security agent asked me if I knew why he was asking me all those questions - and then proceeded to tell me the Anne-Marie Murphy story.

Today I went through the security line in Ithaca, where fortunately they don't have one of the screening machines that can see under people's clothes. We did, of course, have to take off our shoes and put our baggies of containers holding less than 3 oz. of liquid in the bin. At least the TSA employees were polite.

Israeli warning to Libyan ship

According to the New York Times,Israel Sends Warning to Gaza-Bound Libyan Vessel:

The Israeli Navy radioed a warning to a Libyan ship steaming toward Gaza on Tuesday to change course, an Israeli military spokesman said.

“We hope they will go back or to El Arish,” the spokesman said, referring to an Egyptian port. “We made radio contact with them when they were about 100 miles off shore in the past couple hours. We will take over the boat if necessary. What I can tell you is that it will not reach Gaza.”

I hope that there isn't another violent confrontation on the ship. Israel doesn't need a military clash with a ship sent by the son of the Libyan dictator.

It sounds from the NY Times article that there is disagreement between the crew of the ship and the fifteen "activists" on board, who are sponsored by Seif Al Islam Gaddafi's Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

Haaretz reports that the captain told the Israeli Navy that they will be sailing to El-Arish, in Egypt, and not to Gaza.

Speaking with Israeli authorities by radio, the captain of the Al-Amal assured them that he is in charge of the vessel and that the activists aboard will obey his orders. One of the activists' leaders, a Libyan national, also said that, despite the group's desire to sail to Gaza, it will accept their captain's decision.

Israel Navy officials continue to track the aid ship, saying they will only know the Al-Amal's true course at around 4 A.M. when it nears the coast.

The Israeli navy earlier Tuesday made radio contact with the Libyan-sponsored ship sailing for Gaza, a military spokeswoman said.

"The navy just began its process of trying to stop the ship," she said. "At this time the process of communicating with them has begun."

Israel, however, has denied it gave the activists an ultimatum to change course and sail to El-Arish by midnight or face a forceful takeover.

Israel warned the Moldovan-flagged, Greek-registered Al-Amal that it was entering a closed military zone.

I hope they do sail peacefully to Egypt.

Jerusalem 1918

For those who haven't seen it - a Youtube video of Jerusalem in 1918, just at the beginning of the British mandate.



It's from the Youtube channel of Yakov Gross, who says that it's from a Jewish family in Amsterdam.

Hat tip to Miriam Shaviv at Bloghead. It's nice to discover her blog again - I used to read her, but she seemed to have left the blogging world for a while.