The benefit that Israel enjoys, that we do not - is that we must treat everyone equally. Equal Opportunity, Equal Protection, etc.
In short, we cannot legally profile - despite the known success, despite the fact that we know who is targetting us, despite every bit of common sense we possess ... we are prohibited from doing this.
Thus, instead of doing the wise thing (Israel - we agree there), we must all share in the misery.
Israel cannot afford to engage in profiling any more than we can; they don’t have any political wiggle room on the subject, whereas we don’t have constitutional wiggle room.
I’d call that a wash as far as “profiling” goes.
What Israel is doing that we aren’t is treating everyone equally until they have probable cause to single someone out. This is no different than your local state trooper out on the highway watching all of the cars on the road; surveying every vehicle equally, until there emerges a definitive reason to single out a specific vehicle for elevated scrutiny.
The TSA hasn’t got the brains to operate that way. They single people out randomly, whether there is any probable cause or not, and THAT is where our system is broken, and where our politicians — at least up to this point — don’t have the balls to fix it.
Actually, I’m rather surprised that there has not yet been a class action suit lodged on behalf of travelers singled out for pat-downs. That action treats them unequally, and should have been challenged STRONGLY on the basis that they are being made subject to a criminal investigation without probable cause; it’s no matter that every traveler may have an equal chance of getting the pat down, the practical reality is that you are treating some people different than others WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE; there is NO LEGAL JUSTIFICATION for subjecting them to elevated scrutiny, but the TSA is doing it anyway, in CLEAR VIOLATION of long-standing law enforcement practices designed to protect Americans’ civil rights.