Your El Al friend failed to mention another very important difference – the Americans have very little training, and that training is ALL procedural. The Israelis have much more training, and that includes human behavior.

The wacky dysfunctional (and insulting and humiliating) American security incidents are too numerous to go into, but my favorite is how they treat returning American GIs. In the case I’m thinking of, they confiscated unloaded guns, but let them keep the big standard issue knives designed for close fighting. It’s “policy”, of course. Whatever you do, don’t vary from procedure.

That’s what you get when you hire and pay for mall security guards, then manage them with a combination of ineptitude and political correctness. At least the terrorists are usually equally stupid, but it’s just a matter of time.