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IN FACT, since
Sept. 11, things have been looking up in one segment of the technology
sector. Israel’s grasp of terrorism’s grim realities gives it expertise
the rest of the world could use. Airline safety? The Israelis know it
cold. Secure facilities? They wrote the book. The country has firms that
do everything from airport protection to crisis management. And they have
these services to export.
When Nasdaq
reopened the week after the attacks, there was widespread financial
carnage. But Magal Security Systems, an Israeli company, saw its share
price double that day. Best known for its “smart” fences, the company was
created in the 1960s in response to an Israel Defense Forces request for a
method of securing the country’s borders. Founded as a unit of Israel
Aircraft Industries, it was spun off and now has a market cap of $70
million and 2001 revenues estimated at $40 million. |
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CEO Joel Feldschuh of Ganden
Security Services Solutions is marketing security techniques first
developed to protect Israeli airports and airlines
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Now a company
called Ganden Security Services Solutions (GS-3) has started up to help
fight the newly escalated war. It boasts an all-star team of Israeli
aviation. The CEO is Gen. Joel Feldschuh, a former head of Israeli Air
Force intelligence during the gulf war who later served as CEO of El Al.
The advisory board includes Israel Ben Haim, the former general manager of
Ben-Gurion airport, and Nery Yarkoni, former general director of Israel’s
Civil Aviation Authority. All three men are former fighter pilots, and
along with Offer Einav, GS-3’s president and the former head of security
for El Al, they cover the bases from regulation to security to business
expertise. |
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“We actually
have known for many, many years that if you do it the smart way, you can
deliver top security to the customers as a pleasant product.”
— OFFER EINAV
president, GS-3
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GS-3 will sell techniques developed to protect Ben-Gurion, one of the most
secure airports in the world, as well as El Al. It will evaluate security
measures at airports, help teach airlines how to screen passengers
efficiently, train baggage checkers and develop new technologies for
aircraft infrastructure like cockpit doors. Einav says the company’s
procedures are relatively nonintrusive: “We actually have known for many,
many years that if you do it the smart way, you can deliver top security
to the customers as a pleasant product.” Feldschuh says, “Airline travel
is now down 20 to 30 percent worldwide. We feel that returning confidence
to airline travelers is a mission today. Air traffic, or the lack of it,
has an influence on the economy of the whole free world.”
Israeli companies are known for acting quickly.
Beginning in mid-October, Maverick Defense Technologies developed a
machine that can check letters and packages for suspicious contents, such
as a powder. “It is meant for a small business, and it is extremely
simple,” says company CEO Dov Magen. The technology does not detect
specific agents such as anthrax. “It could be powdered soup,” he
acknowledges.
Civil defense became
critical to Israeli planning after Iraq launched Scud missiles against Tel
Aviv during the gulf war. The Israeli government was hemmed in: under
American pressure, it had agreed not to retaliate by bombing Baghdad. The
country’s Home Front Command had the job of preparing it for further
attacks—including not just survival techniques but also ways of coping
with the fear of biological or chemical warfare. Among the command’s
innovations: new apartment buildings that include “safe” rooms in each
apartment, with blastproof windows that can be sealed against biological
and chemical agents.
In 1998 several
former members of the Home Front Command formed a company called Israteam
to take advantage of expertise acquired during the gulf war. Not every
threat can be prepared for, “even by the richest country in the world,”
says Israteam VP Yori Sofrin, a former Air Force colonel. “We think we
have the ability to define the exact threat that you want to be prepared
for, the most probable one, then choose a special solution for that.”
Israteam has helped Turkey plan for disaster relief after earthquakes, and
is helping “a large city in Southeast Asia” prepare for possible bioterror
attacks. Company representatives met with city and state officials in New
York City, as well as federal and military officials, after the Sept. 11
attacks. “Since the first attack on the World Trade Center, the U.S.
decided to develop emergency plans for its cities,” says Sofrin. “Now it
has to ratchet them up.”
However, Sofrin
insists, preparation for disaster is not enough. He recalls being asked at
a symposium on weapons of mass destruction sponsored by Jane’s, the
military publisher, “What is the right answer to terror?”
And he answered, “The right way to fight terror is to
fight it. Protection is not enough.”
Which
makes one wonder for a moment: wouldn’t it be grand if Magal’s fancy
perimeter fences could record not only a description of intruders, their
location, direction and speed, but also the contents of their hearts?
“Ah, well,” says Magal chairman Even-Ezra,
“we live in a democracy. You can’t do that.”
© 2001 Newsweek,
Inc.
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Israel’s borders with its Arab neighbors are secured with Magal
fencing—though not the West Bank, because of uncertainty about where to
draw the borders. The company installed security systems at Buckingham
Palace, is just completing work at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and has
installed equipment at more than 400 U.S. correctional facilities. Magal
systems don’t necessarily prevent entry (or exit). They determine whether
an intruder is human or not—false alarms are dangerous. They can track an
interloper’s movements, using such sensing systems as motion detectors,
vibration detectors and microphonic cable disturbance. Magal also builds
night-vision systems and offers fences that can secure waterways and sewer
pipes. Its sensors can even identify the nature of a breach—was the fence
cut, pushed or climbed over?—and communicate it to a command center. Since
Sept. 11, says CEO Jacob Even-Ezra, a former counterterror expert in the
Israeli Army Reserves, “we have been flooded with inquiries” from U.S.
airports, reservoirs and oil refineries. .gif)
Driving Toward
Independence
