We won't bat an eye because the greatest hijack and mid air bomb threats come from islamic males of Middle Eastern descent. Somehow it is easier for you to call other people xenophobes than it is to rationally analyze and form a threat matrix. Much of the security rules at airport are just so much theater, trying to make John and Jane Doe feel safer without actually making them safer. Little old ladies with knitting needles and pinking shears are not likely undertake in-flight violence. Making them be patted down because the check has to be random makes people like you feel better that you were so much more PC than to pat down the middle eastern male in line right behind her.
Hijacks and bombs don't happen to El Al anymore because their security isn't a PC circle jerk. Israel got tired of finding and killing terrorists for blowing up and hijacking their planes and have taken serious steps to make sure they won't have to in the future. Their threat matrix demands more stringent measures than we likely need here in the US, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't adopt some more of their measures.
Terrorism is crappy problem to deal with and there is nothing that can stop attacks 100% of the time, but this incident was news because they were Middle Eastern islamic men doing weird stuff with their luggage. That is news because of the other weird things Middle Eastern islamic men have done with their luggage-like blow up a plane over Scotland and attack and kill flight crews so they can fly the planes in to buildings.