JERUSALEM — So I was walking to a book store at the local mall to buy the weekend papers before sundown. At the entrance, I passed through the metal detector and opened my backpack for the guard. Business as usual.
The man behind me was an Arab with a baby in a stroller. Out of laziness — I could tell by the shrug and the look on the his face — the guard told the man to use the other door that had neither a metal detector nor any other security. The guard obviously did not want to bother checking the stroller personally.
If I were in the United States, I would have thought the act was a nice one towards a father with a baby. In Israel, my reaction was: “That would be an easy way for someone to sneak a bomb into a mall!” Then I shrugged and went to buy my papers.
(For the record, I would have thought the same thing if the father had not been an Arab. I just don’t like people bypassing security as a result of laziness.)