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It is just before midnight and I am exhausted but do not know if I
will be able to sleep at all tonight. September 11, 2001, another day
that will live in infamy. Two attacks on the World Trade Center buildings
in Manhattan, and another on the Pentagon. But those who committed these
acts did not just kill themselves. First they terrorized the passengers
on the airplanes they hijacked. Just imagine the fear those travelers must
have felt during the hijacking, especially as they came in close to the
World Trade Center buildings and later the Pentagon. They must have known
what was about to happen. Their screams echo in my heart. The same is true
of the fourth hijacked plane, that landed in Pennsylvania. All innocent
people, men, women, children - passengers on their way. Instead of reaching
their destinations, they were blasted into eternity. And all those people
in the targeted buildings …
I am haunted and always will be by those pictures of the Trade Center
buildings, twin towers rising to glorious height over Manhattan meeting
a twinned fate. Smashed into by airliners, then the explosions, the fires,
the destruction, and the thousands of victims. Some of the trapped people
were so desperate they flung themselves from the building from over 100
stories up. And those who could not get out in time and must have been
crushed when each tower fell, story after story, one after the other. Each
tower filled with people as the building crumbled into a massive heap showering
dust and ashes like a nuclear winter over that part of the city. New York
City, city of my birth, in America my homeland, as surely as Israel is
my homeland. So many people I know live and work in New York City - where
are they now? I have had reports from two, both safe. My cousin Yaacov
was there, he emerged from his train on his way to his office just in time
to witness the collapse of the first tower, He is in shock, but was not
injured.
It is difficult to fathom the Pentagon being attacked. In the heart
of Washington D.C. with so many buildings built in the classical styles,
with the monuments to Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, the Wall of Names
of the fallen soldiers in the Vietnam War…. I have always been moved by
Washington D.C., the place where my son was conceived. It is such a beautiful
tribute to civilization, democracy and the dignity of human beings. A place
that glows with the traditions of democracy despite the machinations of
politicians. Are friends and family members who live and work there safe?
I have tried to reach my son and daughter-in-law who might be in Manhattan,
but I just cannot get through on the phone and send e-mail to them. Messages
begin to arrive from friends and family and as the responses come in there
are fewer to worry about. Finally word arrives from my daughter-in-law
that she and my son are safe. A friend writes to report she walked from
her office across the Manhattan Bridge to her home in Brooklyn Heights.
Nearly everyone is accounted for now, except for a few people, and I hope
I will hear that they are fine too.
There is constant coverage on BBC, CNN, Sky News, and the local Hebrew
channels. I follow all the reports, listen to all the commentary. There
are the newscasters condemning these terrorist attacks without question
and without qualifying the motives of the perpetrators. These are the very
same people who day in and day out have built credibility out of thin air
for the Palestinian suicide bombers and other terrorists who strike innocent
Israelis every day. If the strikes are less spectacular here, consider
that Israeli dead and injured are just as innocent.
As I am writing this I can hear a gun battle raging not far from my
home in Jerusalem. Where is it coming from this time? Is it the Gilo neighborhood?
Or is Rachel's Tomb being attacked yet again by those who hope to destroy
it as they destroyed Joseph's Tomb and turned it into a mosque? Just a
few hours ago I was a witness to Palestinians celebrating the attacks on
America from my window. On the street below came a parade of cheering Palestinians,
applauding and joyously shouting. In other parts of Jerusalem they are
showering each other with candy sweets to celebrate as they dance their
macabre dance through the streets. It is like this throughout Judea and
Samaria and Lebanon. In Egypt students, taxi drivers and shopkeepers are
reported to be crowded around television sets in store windows in downtown
Cairo, and they too are celebrating the attacks on New York and Washington,
D. C. But this is not new, with the same hideous glee there were celebrations
when a suicide bomber killed innocent people and even babies at the Sbarro
restaurant in Jerusalem last month. And remember, the Palestinians dancing
on the rooftops when Iraqi Scud missiles hit Tel Aviv.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad deny responsibility but lay the blame on U.S.
policies. Once again the victims by their reasoning are to blame. Cowardly
indeed are Islamic suicidal terrorists. They are not brave in the face
of death, they are focused on the believed rewards of becoming shaheeds,
martyrs who will be greeted by 70 virgins and other pleasures as they enter
their dream of paradise. They are cowards who fear both life and death.
For several years now I have tried to warn people that the terrorist
war the Arabs are waging against Israel is just the first stage in their
battle against the whole civilized world. It is not only the extremists
who must be blamed, the religious fanatics amongst them. If you doubt this
just remember what happened at Durban - it was the entire Arab world that
was involved in the political terrorism waged at the U. N. Conference on
Racism. The lies, hatred, racism, and incitement are part and parcel of
their ongoing war against Israel. In mosques around the world on Fridays
the call is not only for the destruction of Israel, but for all of Western
democracy and civilization.
CNN, BBC, and Sky News interviewed many dignitaries who proclaimed
that all who harbor terrorists and support their activities must be
held responsible. President Bush said, "we will make no distinction
between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbored
them." George Schultz went so far as to say that there must be pre-emptive
strikes against terrorism. I hope the whole world heard and will remember
the next time the Europeans and the American State Department condemn the
targeted strikes against Palestinian terrorists who kill innocent Israelis.
I hope they remember when acts of Israeli self-defense are condemned and
Israel is expected to never act and only show restraint.
Some say that the Jewish people is like a canary in a mine. What happens
to us is a warning of what is to come to others. We have been innocent
victims of terrorism just as Americans were today. And there must be no
distinctions made. BBC produced a series of programs being broadcast worldwide
this week, that through lies and misrepresentations deligitimize Israel
and the right of a Jewish state to exist, and offer excuses for Palestinian
terrorism. Today the BBC was outraged by terrorism when it was directed
against America. What has been correctly labeled terrorism in London, and
today in New York and Washington, D.C. must not be given legitimacy by
denying it is terrorism when Palestinians target Israel.
As I write this the smoke and ashes have not yet cleared. The search
continues for those who may be buried in the debris. Israel has offered
her elite rescue squads to help and has declared Wednesday, September 12,
a day of mourning.
The world must no longer turn a blind eye and must not only grieve
but support the strongest possible action against those who are responsible
for this terrorism. Only then can civilization defeat barbarism. Only
then. For now I mourn with all the good people of the world the thousands
who have died and have been injured. For now I grieve that such barbarism
not only exists but is applauded publicly and privately by tens of thousands
in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Afghanistan,
by Palestinians in the P.A. controlled areas, and others.
The world will never be the same after the attacks on America today.
Through my sorrow I tearfully repeat the refrain, "America, America,
God shed his grace on thee.
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