Now having looked at some of the other writers at Commentary I wonder whether it’s worth my while reading Contentions’s Max Booth when he writes in his TSA Scanners vs. Profiling Redux

I always seem to get asked if I’m Jewish and to name my rabbi), but they have the luxury of guarding only one airport.

This is fatuous nonsense for if there is one thing Israeli security people know is that there are a lot of secular types who don’t have a rabbi. As for the one airport is he implying that the TSA team would have to rush from one airport to the others to cover their check-ins? Don’t they already have individual teams at each and every airport already?

Even when done by well-trained Israeli operatives, the interviews are sometimes insufficient. That is made clear by this account (from the website of Israel’s security agency, Shabak) of a 1988 attempted bombing of an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv:

It doesn’t mean that although the person does not fit the profile that the luggage is free from examination.
They have learned since then and even then they did not have to physically determine if the woman was using a pantyliner and not something else as is being done at the moment.
TSA Gropes Menstruating Woman Because of Panty Liner

Is Mr. Boot’s criticism serious?

As for Alana Goodman’s “Why Do Israeli Settlers Love Sarah Palin?”,

Many of the other potential Republicans presidential nominees are strong supporters of Israel. The difference is that few have gotten as much attention as Palin for publicly challenging Obama, and none of them have run on a presidential ticket against him.

well I’m not an Israeli Settler and I empathize with Sarah Palin because of her down to earth approach to life. It seems to me in talks with ordinary people in the street that what distinguishes Palin from those strong supporters is the fact that she is not scared of voicing her opinions. She seems firm in her convictions whereas those others are always testing the wind.
Is this another specious attempt at decrying Sarah Palin?
Anyway I think that with Rubin gone Contentions will be the poorer for it.