Well, for one that would be Israel!
a couple of days before Thanksgiving I flew from Tel Aviv back to the USA. At the Tel Aviv airport my suitcase was gone through meticulously but with great courtesy. And all the time the guy was searching it he was asking me questions.... like: "I see on your passport that you were just in Egypt. Why were you there? This book came from Egypt. Did you buy it? Where did you buy it? Why did you buy it?.... and so on. All easy questions to answer. But apparently they are highly trained to learn a LOT from talking to you and watching your eye movement, etc. At the end, he smiled and said something nice and apologized for the inconvenience, at which point I wanted to tell him that this is much preferred to how we do it in the US.
I didn't have to remove my sweater or my shoes or the tiny little pouch I had around my neck to hold my passport and credit card..... yet when I changed planes in NY at JFK airport, I had to remove everything down to my undershirt in the TSA line. So Israel who are expert at security don't think it necessary to "undress" as we go through the line, but the US does..... it's all window dressing in the US!
“Well, for one that would be Israel! “
Israel is a small country and El Al is a relatively small airline. Imagine getting folksy with every passenger on the 10,000 passenger planes that operate in the US every day.
Imagine the cost of having to train enough screeners to the Israeli standard.
I agree that a lot of what TSA does is for show. It’s designed to catch or scare off the amateurs, and to give the appearnace of doing something. People want the show. The wouldn’t put up with what it takes to provide realistic security.