I beg to disagree. One can check what are the “obnoxious TSA procedures”. They may be idiotic at times, but as a rule, they are (a) impartial (b) fast (c) TSA actually responds with some humility and tries to correct most idiotic behavior.

TSA handles at least 50 times more passengers than Israeli security, and they have to do it within some payroll limit and legal limits. Nobody gives a damn if travelers are nice or naughty, only if they have weapons or explosives. Idiocies come from some controversial determinations about potential weapons and explosives. And there exists infamous “no fly list”.

Slightly amusing is variable status of smoking aids. Smokers travels with some amount of either sulphur (matches) or inflammable liquids (lighters) and usually one of the two, but rarely both, are verboten. Once I thought that lighters are not allowed so I got a 10-pack of matchboxes and to get to the plane to USA I got through two control screens and matchboxes were duly confiscated at each. I was down to three.

Folks with metal parts in their bodies suffer anti-metal prejudice etc. Liquid rules are probably cretinous, but objective. Very importantly, those indignities in the name of security are heaped upon citizens who do not have cult of inerrant benevolent state, like Israelis do, so there is some healthy feedback.

Even though 1% of any population is deranged, and one in million in any population is dangerous, billions are screened in North America and Europe pretty fast and effectively.

The extra time and humiliations meted by Israeli security are product of paranoid bureaucracy and paranoid citizenry that “feels safer” as the result. Especially if indignities are heaped on “bad people”.

What you are saying here is that if one specific group is victim of gratuitously abusive bureaucratic procedures than everyone else should be made equally victim.
There is no need for the majority of these procedures, less than 20 years ago, you could travel anywhere across North America without any hassle or wait; you get to the airport 15 minutes before takeoff, and just go, without sacrificing hours of your life waiting and being harassed.
Think about this: If some crazy lunatic wants to commit suicide, and is determined, nothing will stop him; you can have all the procedures in the world, what if the lunatic blows himself up in the lineup? or in the city bus? or at the supermarket? or at the zoo, etc…
You cannot ruin everyones life just to try and stop potential isolated incidents made by lunatics that couldn’t be stopped anyways.

So instead of making everyone a victim, why don’t we just bring back HUMANITY instead. Thanks.

And “common-sense” is such a loose, and more importantly non-empiric, non-rational word. Whose common-sense exactly?

I don’t see how taking a family with children into a separate room for hours is good profiling. That doesn’t really compute with my own personal common sense.
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“I’m still against it, though. I believe in relating to Arabs as adults.”
Wouldn’t relating to ANYONE as an adult entail that you assume they have the common-sense and responsibility not to blow up their means of transportation?

“That means assuming that they can understand the obvious fact that ethnic profiling is rationally based and is not intended as a racist insult”

Once again, obvious to whom? To Aaron the Jew, or Mahmud the profiled?
“Common-sense” is very much the opposite of “rationally based”.
And whether of not something is INTENDED as an insult has little to do with how humiliating it is. Intent is simply not a factor (people can rationalize anything to themselves) – results are. And the result is systematic humiliation of people of all ages based on their ethnicity. ie. based on something they have absolutely no control over.

I never before had 45 minutes free time til boarding time on Ben Gurion. Led to buying stupid souvenirs.

On all the other visits I had in addition to my usual luggage my bike with me – but THIS was never an interest in the security checks. May be they’ve checked detailed after I left it at the elevator where u leave the large stuff. But really … even the worse checking was always in a as friendly as possible way, I’d call it – “professional”.

Had much worse experiences with german security sometimes that didn’t leave the impression of “professionality” at all.

Imagine my horror when a group of 25 of us were traveling as part of a peacebuilding program, only to have the Arab participants (from Israel, Palestine and Jordan) separated out. I wasn’t (though the Jewish Israeli coordinator of the group) allowed to intervene or help – the most I could do is refuse to leave the area and await my fellow passengers. The epitome – especially for all you fellow commenters who talk about LOGIC – was this: after being searched and checked, one of the Arab women with me was told she could not take her small back pack on board – but would have to check it. She had in this small bag a wallet, a passport folder with her tickets, a music device, a bottle of water, and a book. Never mind that I was allowed a rolling suitcase with 300 items in it… She was told to pick just 2 items and check the rest. Then, I went ballistic. If any of the items was safe for her to take, than all of them were safe. This “offer” was pure spite and completely illogical and unnecessary. The two of us spent the next few hours – having be driven in a mad dash to the plane just before the doors were closed – in each other’s arms crying from sheer frustration – and humiliation. In her case, she was humiliated by the treatment she received. In my case, I was humiliated by the illogical, unreasonable, and nasty behaviour of my country.

When I explained I would be staying with a relative in Tel Aviv the young man said I could go.

But what I did find disturbing was the old man from Jerusalem I was sitting next to. He had been waiting an hour before I got there. A Jerusalem resident for his entire life he was scared – yes scared – that he might not be allowed back into the country. He had left to visit family abroad. He had been interviewed once already and was waiting for the second interview. He said it was the first time he had left Jerusalem and he wouldn’t be doing it again. The hard wooden bench was far from comfortable. It felt and looked like low level harassment.