Interview Sheds Light on Israeli 'MacBoom' Incident
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As reported earlier this week, American tourist Lily Sussman had her Apple laptop destroyed by gunfire in an Israeli airport as she had just arrived from Egypt, via the Taba Border Crossing. An interview with the young woman, who blogged about her experience, sheds more light on the incident. The coverage, however, conducted by The Daily News Egypt, still doesn’t reveal why the Israeli police felt so suspicious about her luggage.
According to The Daily News Egypt, Lily Sussman traveled to Israel from Egypt via the Taba Border Crossing on Novermber 30th. “During the Israeli security check, her computer was deemed a suspicious package and destroyed,” are the publication’s exact words. The spokesperson for the Israel Airports Authority (which manages the Taba Border Crossing) released a statement saying that, “During the security check performed on Ms. Sussman, an indication was raised that required the security representative to follow procedure and call the police bomb sapper, and that he did.”
Softpedia note Needless to point out, something is dead wrong with the security checks performed in Israeli airports, while the part with following the “procedure” is downright scary (makes one wonder what the procedure is for suspicious individuals). But there could be at least one simple explanation for the incident.
It is fair to assume that, like everywhere else in the world, the Israeli police are trained to scan luggage keeping an eye out for particular substances and materials. Perhaps not realizing that Ms. Sussman’s bag was housing an Apple laptop (and it had happened before), while detecting something flagged by the state authorities (a certain substance employed by the notebook, perhaps), the people inspecting the luggage became alarmed, thinking it was some kind of explosive device. We could be way off, but since the IAA spokesperson’s statement is so ambiguous, we’re only left with speculation. What do you think happened?
ROFL @ The ad Google puts next to this article:
"An all-inlusive trip to Israel. Starting at €749,-. www.goisrael.nl"
No, thank you. I don't want my MacBook to die.
Comment #2 by: Polski Kretyn on 17 Dec 2009, 13:46 UTC
We only have one source for this far fetched story - Lily Sussman. Did this really happen?
Having travelled to and from Israel many times, I find this hard to believe.
Polski Kretyn
Israeli sappers typically use a remote controlled robot which cannot open a laptop, rather it can fire a small caliber bullet which, in theory, will set off an explosive device. Israeli's are used to seeing, on a daily basis, police units called to investigate suspicious packages and deal with them this way. Many a child's school bag has been blown up. On the other hand, we have pretty much defeated the jihadi nuts who try to booby trap school bags. We'll trade an occasional oops! for our security. This place could easily be another Iraq with hundresd of causalties were it not for our defensive measures.
It was pretty much inevitable that this incident would happen. Let's start with Lily's claim that her family is "partly Jewish". You have to ask why she would pretend her mother and father aren't both Jewish. Her father remarried a penniless goy (3rd marriage!- because only a desperate woman with 3 mouths to feed would put up with his belittling behavior) but lily didn't live in that house full time. Hmm, daddy issues much? To top it off, her father is a civil rights lawyer with a terrible reputation- got his legal license yanked for taking clients' $$ out of escrow- you can find this on line- he has a big red exclamation point caution next to his name with the details on a lawyer website and taking on spurious cases like the boy who cried wolf. clearly lily had an attitude problem and a half with the border guard and flaunted her ignorance of not knowing anything Jewish. she sounded like she was taunting the woman to find a problem with that. What sane mind would think that pictures of a swastika, a map of the jerusalem bus station and contact points in the west bank wouldn't trigger a security alarm? plus she was a single person who couldn't answer basic questions about her heritage- which she takes great pains to disassociate herself with. (See: anne marie-murphy, the white single girl used by her arab boyfriend to courier a bomb into israel). note to US travellers- you aren't entitled to a presumption of innocence/ US constitutional rights when you travel 2 foreign borders. use common sense when entering a country under continual threat by neighbors and terrorists. Of course her father and her brother act as if she were maltreated. (see the brother's ramblings on his facebook page and the father hosting her for a summit on "murder and piracy on the high seas" after the turkish boat incident). The lawyer-dad really has nothing better to do than make up stories about "rights violations". He takes bogus civil rights cases (oh the police arrested me when I went on a closed road to pick up my kid at school-how dare they?) (oh I am hispanic, so I lost my job because of my race). The courts don't see things his way- but he manages to shake down enough schnooks that he scares to keep going. Brava lily for continuing in this vein. way to assert yourself.
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