Israel Reflects On New York 9/11, Gaza and Katrina
By
Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency Staff
Jerusalem---September 11.....That hurt. That really hurt. Writing that date line. One for which many of us dread. September 11 or 9/11. Words that pour out with tears, pain and suffering.
In Israel, Europe, Asia - throughout the world many remember and reflect. Mostly from broadcast images we viewed from a plastic box we call TV. It is through this electronic box that we view both fiction and nonfiction. Where reality gets blurred with fantasy. But not for those who were in New York or Washington. Not for the relatives who lost loved ones on one of four hijacked aircraft which never arrived at their final destination.
In Israel, we think about Gaza and Disengagement. Last month the settlers were evacuated, this morning it is for the Israel Defense Forces to lower a blue and white flag for one final time. Our thoughts revert to the mundane. The first days of school for our children. Getting back to work after a long summer vacation. Or simply, what are we having for dinner tonight?
It
almost passed me. But a friend asked me on this late sunny afternoon, "what
day is it?"
I looked at my watch and mumbled in disbelief "September
11."
I looked at my watch again. Had to make sure. Yes, it is September in Israel and the days have become cooler, less terrorism and more commerce. A month which marks Jewish holidays. Festive times, good times, happy moments with family and children.
But within half a moment, my entire mood changed. My thoughts went from work and production schedules to the worst nightmare that one could ever embrace.
I was running on autumn orange and red leaves in New York's Central Park when the first plane roared just meters above my head. I was not aware that this aircraft was steering for a building, rather than a runway. As a New Yorker we are used to low flying planes coming into JFK, Laguardia and Newark. I grew up next to Roosevelt Field on Long Island, a discarded military airport where Lindbergh took off for the first transatlantic flight. I remember my parents complaining to that airport, where a shopping mall stands today, that our house was shaking from their low flying grey combat and transport aircraft.
So
what's new about another low flying plane? Or for that matter another hurricane
called Katrina.
Americans are used to hurricanes. They are like mild, annoying
colds which come and go. Something very windy and wet which provides children
an excuse to stay home from school. No one, except for meteorologists, had any
notion that Katrina, a hurricane category force 5 storm was about to bury the
warm smiles and friendly jazz of New Orleans under mud and deadly water. Israel
has sent tons of humanitarian aid to New Orleans and wishes only that we could
do more. Israel knows suffering and if we can help those in need outside our borders,
from the Palestinians, India and Turkey, we will be there in hours.
As
for Israel, another terror attack from Islamic barbarians would not surprise us.
But
for those who were in New York it was a B rated science fiction movie coming alive.
I
will never forget watching the second aircraft hitting the World Trade Center
from a tiny TV sitting inside a hotel dinner on 57th Street.
But then again
- that is TV. Is it real or is it an illusion from Hollywood?
War of the
Worlds or war of the cultures?
No, TV could never get near, not remotely close to touch the reality of watching hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers walking North up carless streets, covered in white dust. A walk of the dead heading for bridges to escape the fire, the smoke and smell of death in downtown New York. Telephones were down, Internet blinked and TV reception came from New Jersey - the antennas atop the World Trade Center had evaporated.
Within a few hours of the attack, I now had a purpose. To cover this tragedy for the Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio English News. It took about half a day to get my NYPD press credentials. And then I trekked over to what is known sadly as "Ground Zero".
I will only speak of the sound of jackhammers breaking a blanket of silence. This sound overshadows all memories of exhausted, brave police, firemen, emergency workers, the Red Cross, the candles, the countless posters of those missing twisting from light poles and trees.
Only
a year ago, I experienced post traumatic stress from having covered 9/11 for Israel
in a white construction helmet and grey face mask. I had worked in the World Trade
Center for eight years. It was the pearl of New York. The pride of the US. To
have the privilege of working in the Trade Center and view the Hudson River, Statue
of Liberty and the Empire State building from my office or from the elegant Windows
on the World restaurant was to be, on the top of the world.
In a dream
I had, I felt the Trade Center slowly tilt to one side. That was normal on the
79th floor where the World Trade Center was designed to sway ever so slightly
in hard winds. But in this dream turned nightmare, the building did not sway back.
It just kept going down. I awoke in a sweat.
I was lucky. I was now only a holiday visitor to New York where my children had enjoyed being in the Trade Center only a week before death struck. I do not feel comfortable going back there now. My story has been told and a condolence site from Israel still stands on the Net.
As
an Israeli, all I can say is that we here in Israel who experience terror on almost
a daily basis, remember this day.
Representatives from the three monotheistic
religions took part today in a September 11 memorial ceremony in Jerusalem held
by the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Sheikh Abdel el-Salam Manasara, secretary
of the Supreme Suffi Committee in Jerusalem and the Holy Land and head of the
Qaderite Peace Fraternity in Nazareth said ahead of the ceremony that "Islam values
peace, love and mutual existence with other religions. Those who perpetrate terrorist
attacks in the name of Islam distort the message of the Koran. I do not like to
talk negatively about dead people, but just as Rabbi Meir Kahane misinterpreted
Judaism, so too do Muslims give wrong explanations of the holy writings. Some
Christians do it too."
The ceremony, which has taken place every year since the Islamic terrorist attack on the US on September 11, 2001, also commemorated the recent attacks in Britain and Sharm e-Sheikh. Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the senior representative of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, called Sunday on the Israeli government to stop the "vicious circle of violence" at a ceremony commemorating the September 11 terror bombings in the US.
"It is up to Israel society to stop the violence," said Sabbah in an interview after the ceremony. Asked to explain his position on suicide bombings, Sabbah said, "Violence on both sides is wrong. But as long as Israeli soldiers go into Palestinian towns, take prisoners and kill people, they weaken the position of [Palestinian Authority President] Abu Mazen. "He tells people to stop the violence. Then the next day five people are killed. They say to him [Abu Mazen] 'what are you talking about'.
So what
has changed in this blame game? How can anyone rationalize or find excuses for
9/11? To say, that the Muslims were mistreated by the US and Israel. Do we forget
so quickly Yasser Arafat who diverted millions of US and EU dollars away from
hungry, impoverished Palestinian children to personal bank accounts in Paris and
Switzerland? Do we forget where Suha Arafat lives today, occupying a full floor
in plush Paris hotel still counting those millions. It's easy to blame democracy,
Israel and her big brother America, it's much harder to face the corruption and
violence born and incited within Palestinian and Islamic Middle-Eastern culture.
As
one who was born and bred in New York, who labored in that majestic marble city
inside a city - the World Trade Center - I only have tears. I pray for those who
lost loved ones on that tragic day, for the dark memories held by brave police
and firefighters and that for those future September 11 dates which somehow creep
up on us, that the pain should ease for us all.
But never to forget.
Hurricane
Katrina reminded the US once again to be prepared for the worst.
Not to fall
into blind arrogance and be caught sleeping as both natural and manmade storms
still loom over New Yorks' skyscrapers, endless acres of tan wheat swaying in
Kansas, the snow tipped Rockies and a Golden Bridge smiling over San Francisco.
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