Growing Up In 2001 - Part II

It was the morning hours on September 11, 2001, when my brother called and asked if I was at home.  After telling him that I was, he told me to turn on the TV.  It was almost impossible to believe what I was seeing.  At 8:46am, a plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.  Seventeen minutes later a plane flew into the South Tower.  At 9:59am the South Tower came down.  At 10:28am the North Tower fell.  I was unable to hold back my tears.  As my wife and I were watching in disbelief, I turned to her and said that it was inevitable that I would know someone who had just been killed.

It was inevitable because I grew up not very far away, across the Hudson River, in New Jersey.  I later found out that someone who attended all of public school with me, as well as Jewish summer camp, was, in fact, killed that day.  He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, which occupied the 101st through the 105th floors of the North Tower.  As the plane hit below their offices, cutting off stairwell access, they had no chance of getting out.  658 of their 960 employees in New York were murdered that day. 

As we all later learned, 19 terrorists, with 15 from Saudi Arabia, and under the direction of Al Qaeda, flew a total of four planes, with three hitting their mark.  The third plane flew into the Pentagon.  And the fourth, believed to be aiming for Washington, D.C., was brought down by passengers.  After learning of the other attacks, some of the passengers were determined not to let another plane reach its target.  No one can forget - nor should anyone ever forget - the words of passenger Todd Beamer to some of the other passengers:  "Let's roll."  It was the beginning of the United States fighting back.  

Their bravery stopped the terrorists who had taken control of the plane.  Tragically, the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  A total of 2996 people were murdered that day.  It was the worst attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  

It took nine years for the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center to be built.  From 1966 to 1975.  As a student at Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey, two years in a row I lived on the sixth floor in the same dorm and in the same room (1970-1971 school year, and 1971-1972 school year).   On a clear day, I was able to see the 28 miles into lower Manhattan as the Towers were rising.  What took nine years to build came down in a matter of minutes.  But building is much more difficult than the cowardly act of destroying.  

I will never forget then New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, refusing a gift of $10 million from a Saudi Prince, to help rebuild New York.  The Prince asserted that the U.S. "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack."  And, the Prince added that the U.S. "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause...our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek."  

America's Mayor would have none of it.  "I entirely reject that statement.  There is no moral equivalent for this (terrorist) act.  There is no justification for it...To suggest that there's a justification for (the terrorist attacks) only invites this happening in the future...It is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous."

On September 14, standing at what came to be known as "ground zero," then President George W. Bush told America and the world:  "I can hear you.  The rest of the world hears you.  And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."  America was at war.  And America was united.  Flags could be seen flying from homes across the country.  And in large numbers, Americans enlisted in the military, and signed up for service in the FBI and CIA.  Patriotism abounded.

I recall that 21 years ago I found it difficult to speak about 9/11 with friends in California.  Yes, they understood that America was attacked.  But it seemed as if they lacked the same emotional involvement that the  people in New York and New Jersey had.  I had many a conversation with my friends in New Jersey at that time.  A single generation later, it is sad that the unity, the patriotism, has been so diminished.  But it was clear to me who the enemies of America were.  And they seemed to be aligned with the enemies of Israel.  After 2000, I would resolutely stand with Israel.  And after 9/11/2001, I had no patience for those who would not stand with America.  I was firmly in the conservative camp.

Growing Up In 2001 - Part I

(There are only two stories in this post.  One from 2000.  And one from 2001.  I'll start in 2000.)

In 2000, Bill Clinton was still the President.  It was the year that he held the Camp David Summit with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and then Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.  It has been reported that Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state on 97% of the territory encompassed by the West Bank.  Proving once again that the Palestinians had no interest in the establishment of a state, as long as Israel still existed, Arafat made no counter offer.  Instead, Arafat walked out on the President of the United States, and returned to Ramallah.

From Ramallah, Arafat began the second intifada (Arabic for uprising or rebellion).  The first intifada lasted from late 1987 through September, 1993.  Many of you may recall that during the second intifada, Arafat sent so-called suicide bombers (I call them homicide bombers, because they were sent to murder civilians) to kill Israelis.  These murderers made no distinction between young and old, men or women, Israelis who may have been sympathetic to their cause or not.  They blew up Israelis on buses, in cafes and in malls.  They did the same at a Passover Seder.  Over 1000 Israelis were killed, with many more injured.

That was the year that I started to watch Fox News.  Why?  Because Fox actually let their audience know what was happening, often in disturbingly graphic detail.  And I could not believe it.  It felt like in the year 2000, I was watching yet another evil group of people seeking to annihilate the Jewish people.  I was sad, of course.  But I was also angry.  And I had no patience for my fellow Jews in America, who reacted as if what was happening did not affect all of us, as if it was happening in a "foreign" country.  No, these were not foreigners - they were my fellow Jews.  

So that was the year I realized that I did not know enough about the history of the Middle East.  I started reading up on it.  I had to.  Because I was determined to defend Israel, and my fellow Jews there, against all the hypercritical, hypocritical and hateful anti-Semitic attacks.  Obviously, this was not the first time in history that Jews were being targeted for being Jews.  It has happened countless times throughout history.  But this was the year 2000.  

Publicly, Bill Clinton said:  "I regret that in 2000 Arafat missed the opportunity to bring that nation (a Palestinian state) into being and I pray for the day when the dreams of the Palestinian people for a state and a better life will be realized in a just and lasting peace."  Privately, Clinton was said to be furious with Arafat.  

As a reminder, at the end of World War I, with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire (the Turks), the British had control of the territory now encompassing Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.  The area was called Palestine, and under British control, it was referred to as the British Mandate or Mandatory Palestine.  When the Jews were eventually given a parcel of that land for their state, they called their country the State of Israel.  The Arabs were also given a parcel of the land at the same time, when the United Nations voted to partition the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state.  But the Arabs would not tolerate the existence of a Jewish state, and made war on the tiny new country of Israel from May 15, 1948 through March 10,1949.  

It was on May 14, 1948 that the Jewish people of Palestine announced the independence of the new State of Israel.  And it was on May 15, 1948 that the Arab world attacked, in the first effort of many to wipe Israel off the map.  But, as many readers know, the Jews had to defend themselves against the Arabs before Israel became a country.  The Haganah (the precursor to the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF), has been described as a paramilitary force that operated in Mandatory Palestine well before the establishment of the State of Israel.  The Haganah had to defend the Jewish people of Palestine in the 1920's and the 1930's against Arab attacks.  After the UN voted partition of the land in 1947, the Haganah again defended the Jewish people of Palestine from Arab attacks.   

Dennis Ross was the United States' Middle East envoy under President Clinton.  After the failure of the Camp David Summit, Ross said that Arafat wanted a "one-state solution.  Not independent, adjacent Israeli and Palestinian states, but a single Arab state, encompassing all of Historic Palestine." 

 One thing was certain.  There could no longer be any doubt - I could not stand with any on the left who sided with the Palestinians against the Israelis.  And I was greatly disturbed by my fellow Jews in America who did not feel the same way that I did.  If by 1991 I was no longer a man of the left, it was clear to me that I was now a conservative.  I was grateful to all those who supported Israel, many of whom were Republicans and conservatives.  And yes, one of the biggest supporters of Israel has consistently been Sean Hannity of Fox News.