By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES ****
I only wish Israeli security at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was as strict and tough as Associated Press would have you believe. I only wish they’d be as probing of Muslim entrants to the Jewish State as they allegedly were of Abdur-Rahim Jackson, an Alvin Ailey dancer and with a Muslim name and a Muslim-convert father.
Jackson claims that two Israeli airport security officials asked him to perform dance moves to prove he was really an Alvin Ailey dancer because he has a Muslim name. Hmmm . . . a Muslim trying to sneak into Israel as part of a Black American dance troupe. A terrorist would never do that, right? Actually, it’s the perfect cover. And if Israelis didn’t look into it, I’d say they were idiots. Checking into things like this is why Israel is still around–at least, for now–as a country.

But, contrary to media reports, hundreds of Muslims and Arabs fly in and out of David Ben Gurion Airport every singe day with barely a glance from Israeli security. And that’s how, for example, British Al-Qaeda members and others are able to blow up places like Mike’s Place bar. Not all Muslim and Arab terrorists sneak into Israel through border fences or via boat. Some just fly in, unfettered.
If Israel gave the examination and “interrogation” Abdur Rahim Jackson claims he got to everyone with a Muslim and/or Arabic name, no Muslims or Arabs would ever get in or out of the country . . . which wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But that’s simply NOT what happens in Israel. They let plenty of suspect people in and out, without making them perform dance moves or otherwise prove their alleged identities. If what Jackson claims really happened, it’s an aberration and unfortunately NOT the policy.
What is the policy, though, in every single Muslim and Arab country is to harass Jews and give a hard time to anyone with anyone with an Israeli passport or stamp from Israel in his/her passport–that reason is used to bar many Jews from Arab states in their travel apartheid. But you never see AP stories about it, like the one about Abdur-Rahim Jackson. Gee, I wonder why.
And then there was that story just a couple months ago about Jews traveling to Jordan who were interrogated and had their religious articles confiscated (to “prevent terrorism”) and not returned. I frank think that any Jew dumb enough to spend even a second or a penny in Palestinian-dominated, Jew-hating Jordan deserves whatever befalls him or her. But there was no AP story decrying the “evil, nasty Palestinian-Jordanian airport and border security.” Again, gee, I wonder why.
I’m glad Israelis gave Abdur-Rahim Jackson the once over. I just wish they’d be even a fraction as thorough of the hundreds of Muslims and Arabs who arrive in Tel Aviv every day without a second’s scrutiny.
Unlike in the Arab and Muslim nations where they look down upon Blacks–Muslim or not–and harass them for no valid reason, Jackson received a gazillion apologies from Israeli officials (and American officials–not sure why they feel they should apologize for valid Israeli security measures). He says that he planned, therefore, not to press the matter. But that didn’t stop him from whining to–and posing for pictures for–AP.
Thanks to reader TJ for the tip.
*** UPDATE: A friend of mine who used to be in Border Patrol in Southern California writes that they regularly did the same thing, but there was no AP story decrying it:

I remember years ago we had a guy at San Ysidro attempting entry and there was some dispute about his documents as well as identity. In Secondary he said he was a circus performer, specifically a juggler.
While we were deciding what to do with this guy, he pleaded for our attention. With a stapler, scotch tape roll, ruler and box of Kleenex he removed all doubt by juggling these four things to our total amazement.
We all had a good laugh, shook hands and he was on his way. It never made the news either.
But he wasn’t Arab [or Muslim], and we weren’t Jewish.

**** UPDATE #2: Tundra Tabloids’ Kenneth Sikorski of Finland reminds me that Malki Roth, an American-Israeli victim of Palestinian terrorism was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist carrying a guitar as a disguise at the Sbarro Jerusalem attack.