Air marshals cost $200m per arrest
Here’s an intriguing statistic: since the introduction of air marshals on US airlines after 9/11, just four people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism on-board an airliner. That represents a cost of $200m per arrest.
There are 3,000-4,000 air marshals currently employed aboard US airliners. This is but one of a myriad of the massive costs of not achieving peace.
Now I recognise that the causes for which people might wish to blow up an airliner are not all directed against the Middle East issue.
But as I have blogged before, the failure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict not only costs cash, but also roots despair and discontent right across the globe.
Hence my naive excitement last week that Obama had sent his Vice President, Joe Biden for a six-day sojourn in the region.
I warned that his visit coincided with the tangible bulldozing of some 22 Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem.
For once I under-exaggerated. Israel announced not 22, but 1,600 new Jewish homes on the very day poor old Joe landed.
It was a fantastic and brazen slap across America’s face – in US-Israeli relations, unprecedented.
Prime Minister Netanyahu appears not to have been behind the stunt – right wing factions in his already right wing administration are being blamed.
But, in a speech in the Knesset yesterday, Mr Netanyahu, being the populist he is, has quickly clambered aboard the announcement. Mr Biden is now home, and the White House is reportedly ‘incandescent’.
Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has lost patience. Undiplomatic language has been deployed with Israel demanding an explanation.
The crisis has currently detonated any likelihood of a restart on the Middle East talks. It has also stiffened America’s demands of Israel.
They now want the entire status of Jerusalem itself to be right there at the top of the agenda if and when talks restart.
We are now at the crunch point where Obama’s true intentions in the Middle East will at last be tested to the full. Is he serious? Or will he recede into the same supine condition ultimately achieved by his predecessors?
No American administration has ever talked tough, let alone acted tough with Israel. Few even pretend that it is likely this time. And where is Europe in all this? Where is Britain? You have it, absolutely nowhere.
I guess the US airline companies won’t be getting rid of their air marshals any time soon. Nice work if you can get it.
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There are 29 comments on this post
Rather a convoluted attempt to have another go at the Israelis.So Air Marshalls cost the US over $200m per arrest so that makes about $800m in total and now we can put that at the door of the Israelis .It had nothing to do with 9/11 and Americas perceived view of the threat of terrorism.
Also the threat to 22 Arab homes suddenly becomes 1600,Not the building of 1600 Jewish homes where currently there are 22 Palestinian ones.The Palestinians long lost their rights to peace , when they threaten the state of Israel.Those who live by the sword die by the sword.Having said that , isn;t it amazing the inference one can conjure up from a house building operation !!!!!!!
America’s entire Middle-East policy and Cold War strategy played a big role. America’s failing to use positive influence with Israel and other Middle-Eastern states has allowed both sides in the conflict to continue with ever more entrenched and polarised. Instead America decided to support every oppressive and aggressive state that wasn’t left leaning.
Palestine militants are only helping to make the situation worse, but it would take Gandhi like patience to argue peace to your people while innocent people are being bulldozed, bombed and otherwise driven impolitely from their homes. Twenty-two homes is too many already on top of the hundreds and thousands that they follow and look likely to precede.
Thankfully Obama’s administration looks to be in the mood for delivering a cold hard slap to the entire region, but distraction at home (Healthcare) and abroad (Iraq/Afghanistan) could undermine or prevent action.
Maybe the easiest approach would be to carpet bomb the Middle-East with portable videos preloaded with The Life of Brian? Could help bring the social and political attitudes forward a thousand years or so.
Adrian Clarke – why dont you go and post on Melanie Phillips’ blog and leave this one alone. Or are you Melanie Phillips in disguise? As for the Palestinians losing their right to peace, your nauseating right wing views fortunately have very little support outside of the zionist lobby. Israel is detested in virtually every country I visit because of the views espoused by people like you.
Frank, we don’t want Adrian to go away – even if (s)he is Melanie Phillips. A blog where all we lefties agreed with each other would soon become very tedious. Adrian makes me think about my instinctive reaction to things on the grounds that even he can’t be wrong all the time
The Palestinians lost their peace when they were evicted from their homes in the aftermath of WWII when a guilty West set up Isreal out of shame over the Holocaust.
The two groups each has their own cadre of religious nutters, each have committed war crimes – like bombing the UN mission. They are as bad as each other, with one lot shouting death to the infidel and another lot who think the boundaries of Isreal were defined by God in the Bible.
There’s no good and bad struggle here.
Wribg side of the bed this morning, Adrian? If Palestine has ‘long lost their rights to peace’ so too have the Israelis and a few others around the world. But where would that leave us?
Palestinians need a country they call their own where they can exist without a neighbour keep taking more of their land to build on and where they can start to build an infrastructure that gives them a viable chance of a half decent life.
Israel has a track record of making a provocative move just as a solution – or at least discussion of a solution – grows near.
That makes me think they feel so much in control, especially with all the backing they get from the west, that they don’t want an agreement, prefering to keep accumulating more land in the name of defence.
Saltaire though i half agree with you .The Palestinians under Arafat turned down the offer of a homeland ,living peacefully alongside Israel,and chose the terrorist way .Perhaps even then they were backed by Iran?????
When I look at Israel it is difficult to fathom what it does to the psychology of a people when they have been at war almost continually for over sixty years, which was preceded of course by the concentration camps.
Likewise for the Palestinians, sixty years of ethnic cleansing, attack from land and air, occupation, checkpoints and daily humiliations.
A peace deal seems almost impossible unless the americans withdraw their financial support, forcing an israeli compromise through necessity if not desire.
But while all those religious wackos in America think supporting Israel brings them ever closer to the “rapture” promised in the Bible it ain’t going to happen.
Jon asks where is Britain & the EU in all this? What I want to know is where is our supposed peace envoy Mr Blair?
Who cares where he is – the guy is useless . Let him have his millions – a servant of RM.
It was the Zionist war of terror that gave them Palestine . How can one not have a right to peace in ones own country . The Zionist state was created – and now the Israelis intend to rid Israel of Paletinians . They could not give the proverbail about US presidents – thay probobly have enough on all of them -or any to come – to keep them in line – and rember 45 % of worlds Jews live in US . Obama is just a front man – hes ok at the rubbish that will go on tomoorrow [ Patricks day ] in the white House – - but he has no intention of doing anything re Israel . He is supposed to be coming here in June – hopefully that useless individual may cahnge his mind . That sort of PR rubbish is allowed by his bosses – anything that will threaten them or their interests – Out of question . RM rules ok – he and his like are the real bosses .
A very nice analogy Jim as to how governments who do not do as you wish are bought by their electors .In the Us it is the Jewish vote, or is it the Irish vote.Maybe it could be the big money oil men
I wonder what you think of the British government,bought and paid for by the Union Unite.I suppose that is ok as it rank socialists doing the paying
I have no idea how much Unite gives to the Labour Party – I was unawre they funded it totally . Anyway it is a s you know just another Consevtive party – which follows the failed Thatcerite dogma – and whoever is elected next time in UK will follow the same doctrine . Forget what they say . What have they done in the past . Leopards do not cahnge spots etc . They must get the OK from RM et al.- otherwise they wont be elected – what a waste is the insult of the ballot box .
Tony Blair, The Bush family and now Barack Hussein Obama…
9/11 was an excuse to generate armed conflict but importantly have a “valid” reason to keep fighting…terrorists are comfortably invisible..Support The Venus Project.
The project’s london movement hold mettings at Torriano bar in Kentish Town
adzmnundo The Venus Project & CND
With a rapidly plummeting approval ratio, not to mention a heavy domestic case load, don’t expect much real help from Obama.
Nobody cares about the Middle East in Main Street USA, everyone is too busy just trying to survive. No matter what the market data says – America remains in a deep depression.
Isn’t it strange Obama gets it for leaving the Israelis to do as they want ,yet before his election he was accused of being a Muslim sympathiser Perhaps Israel being a free democratic country has something to do with it.After all Palestine is at this moment in time only an automonous region of Israel
Jon’s blog is right on the nail (as usual); the house building just announced is in fact just another act of aggression against hapless indigents and I suspect that if the right wing zealots had their way they would implement a final solution to what they perceive as the Palestinian problem. Btw. were the 4 arrested charged and convicted of anything?
They sure would . I was on holiday in Israel many years ago – great holiday – but really was not fully aware politically . Our Guide for 1st week – was a very ok guy [ Jewish ] – yet he could not help virtually gloating when he poinyted out a prision on a hillside where 800 Palestinian prisioners were kept – no trial . There were few windows in that giant building – so many had not even daylight – . It was inhuman treatment . Would love to go back to all those places again , Masada , Dead sea , Galillee -, Jericho and Eilat etc – where we satyed for a week – beautiful – . But helping Israel even with my few pennies is not on my agenda -. It would be – if they treated the Palestinians fairly .
well Frank,you are one who can not abide anyone elses views/??? How do you work out i am right wing.Do you mean i am not a socialist ruining this country???? Am i not allowed a view?As for a Zionist i do not think i am but the terrorist threat to this country comes from those you apparently support.Perhaps the League of nations ,then the United Nations were wrong to return Israel to their homeland.Do you support terrorists for that is what Hamas formerly the PLO are .If you are English i suppose you are a multiculturist
pssssssssssst Who is Melanie Phillips?????????
War games.. and we in the UK are keeping out of it! we couldn’t cope with too much more anyway. We have our own Jewish population to consider.
Seems that Obama has already begun to recede into the ‘same supine condition’ you speak of, John in face of this latest horrendous onslaught on Palestinian land. Hillary Clinton’s back-tracking has already made that clear. Am currently impotent with rage.
What exactly did u expect from a guy whose first action the morning after after making sure of his candidacy was to tell the Jews – they could have all the arms they wanted.
Thanks for another excellent post Jon. You are spot on. I wish other journalists aired this issue with such clarity.
They do- look for them .
Saltaire , thank you for your comments , even though you know i can argue my corner.I love the cut and thrust of the blogs,and i alwaysread andtake notice of what you write
Comment for Adrian Clarke – you refer to Isreal being free democratic etc. Don’t forget Hamas was elected. Democracy is only as good as the electors. Perhaps that means we deserve Gordon
Tom you are correct that Hamas was elected, though there is argument over their legitamacy within Palestine .The real point i was making is that there is no Palestinian state allbeit that Palestine is an automonous area within Israel The West Bank and Gaza are in reality Israel .We had the IRA acting within our borders just like the Palestinians are within Israel.They found they only got accepted when they renounced violence .I am sure that peace can come to the Palestinians if they follow that route.As for deserving Gordon Brown ,yes we deserve him if enough people can not see and vote against all he stands for.
Today I say , close the chunnel, stop air travel ,allow liners to cross the seas , put up castles and lookouts, grow our own produce ,get our own energy together and start again.