Fast Draw: The Case of the Vanishing Security Guards
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עברית (Hebrew)
The latest fiasco – lowering security levels in public areas.
A Walla news reporter entered the Azrielli mall with a fake bomb without being stopped. That excellent investigative piece, broadcast this week, exposed the fact that security levels in public areas in Israel were lowered, to an even lower level than the relaxed, previous levels.
This morning TV shows hosted several experts who defended the decision, made by the police, to lower security levels in these crowded places. “The situation was re-assessed” was a favorite line, and so was “new technologies are being used”.
Nonsense. You don’t have to be an expert to understand that right now you just can’t replace human guards. These guards usually aren’t ex-commandos, true, but their presence has a noticeable effect. Whoever removed security guards from entrances to public venues did so without thinking.
IHLS – Israel Homeland Security
It looks as if once in a while a new decision maker comes along, and decides to prove his infinite wisdom compared to his predecessors. It happened a lot in the past. It also looks like every separate defense organization in Israel functions as if it’s in a completely different country.
Even in emergencies there’s a true “tower of Babylon” effect whenever separate organizations try to work together. This is reflected now in the very strange decision, to put it mildly, to relax security.
Removing security guards just as the third intifada began (and it did begin, no matter what official sources say), is stupid. There’s no other way to define it. But in Israel, as always, all decisions are made offhand.
