Introduction:
Since September 11, the Arab
media have claimed that Jews perpetrated the terrorist attacks on New York
City and Washington, D.C. Promoting this new myth are high-ranking public
officials and columnists in the government and non-government press in
Arab countries.
In an attempt to deflect blame from the Arab-Muslim
suspects in the attacks, the media have floated a number of ideas on the
identities of the perpetrators, mostly according to their perceptions of
who was motivated to carry out the attacks and who stood to gain from
them. Also examined was the question of who had the capability to carry
out such an operation.
In the articles reviewed in this report, the conclusions
point directly at the Jews. These conclusions are supported by various
forms of evidence, further buttressed by timeworn, long-“substantiated”
antisemitic myths. Thus, the papers posit guilt, substantiate their
accusations, convict, and, in one case, hand down a sentence –
annihilation “as Hitler did.”
I: Arabs Didn’t Do It; All Evidence Against them is
False
Many columnists in the Arab press disregarded FBI and media
reports concerning the identities of the perpetrators, stolidly
maintaining that no Arab was responsible. Raed Salah, the head of the
Islamic Movement in Israel, wrote in the movement’s mouthpiece
Saut Al-Haqq Wa-Al-Hurriyya that it was puzzling that
“the manifests of the two airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines,
whose planes crashed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, included
not a single Arab. Yet three days later the FBI released the names of 19
Arab passengers, claiming that they were the hijackers of the four
planes.”[1]
Palestinian columnist Khalil Al-Sawahri wrote in
the Palestinian Authority-sponsored daily Al-Ayyam that
the letter left by the hijackers was forged. “Its disseminators are the
circles of Orientalists who are making efforts to tarnish the image of the
Arab Muslim. began with falsifying history, deceitfully falsifying
and attributing to themselves the stories of prophecy and modern films, particularly American
in which Hollywood made an effort to present as thieves,
terrorists, bandits, base, dirty, and so on.”
“The apparatuses that faked the contents of
the black box of the Egyptian plane downed off the coast
of New York, and turned Captain Al-Batouti into a suicide attacker are the
same ones claiming that the black boxes of the other planes were destroyed and burned – yet at the same time,
they claim that they found letters ‘safe and
sound.'”
“Furthermore, the will found in the luggage of the
Egyptian Muhammad Atta was obviously forged – how can a man planning to
blow himself up in an operation that will fuse iron and stone focus his
will on the handling of his body and rituals for washing it, when he knows
that his body will turn to ashes and be scattered all over.”[2]
II: The Non-Arab Potential Suspects
Dismissing the possibility that Arabs carried out the attack did not satisfy some of
the writers quoted here, and many offered their own lists of suspects.
Al-Ayyam columnist Tallal ‘Ouqal, of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), suggested that the Americans look “far
from the Middle East,” writing: “Why can’t the motive be a settling of
historical accounts from World War II? Why can’t the background be protest by those harmed by globalization; we noticed the
strengthening of the spirit of their battle in Seattle, Genoa, and
Athens? Why can’t the motive be linked to those harmed by the missile
defense system?”[3]
In the same vein, columnist Abd Al-Jabbar
‘Adwan
wrote in the Saudi-owned Arabic-language London daily Al-Sharq
Al-Awsat: “It is known that the American government intends to
push forward the missile defense shield project. China, Russia, and
several other European states are opposed to this, and President Bush is
not interested in their position.”[4]
Columnist Hassan M. Yussef wrote in the
Syrian
government daily Teshreen: “There is a possibility that this
was an ancient retribution. The U.S. declared war on Japan – and
used the atomic bomb for the first time against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
killed more than 221,983 Japanese, and was the cause of the
Japanese defeat and the end of the war in 1945.”[5]
Some pointed their fingers at the American administration
itself. For example, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Samir
‘Atallah raised the possibility that the attacks on the U.S. were the
product of a conspiracy led by President George W. Bush, explaining his
reasoning as follows: “George W. Bush was the president who garnered the
least support of all U.S. presidents throughout history. He won the
election by a miniscule majority that would not have won a village council
in southern Egypt. His presidency was in doubt from the
beginning. It was said that the poor way in which he entered the White
House would divide the American nation. It was said that he is not worthy
, that he is a man who takes no interest in what is
happening in the world, a man who does not know the name of the president
of Pakistan.”
“ after September 11, George W. Bush is the first
president since Roosevelt with both parties behind him, with no one
opposing him. He is the first president in the history of the U.S. to have
received an unprecedented amount of financial, political, and military
support, and to have it approved so quickly by Congress.”[6]
The Jerusalem Arabic weekly
Al-Manar ran an
article by Dr. Abdallah Al-Sheikh, in which the author claimed that
the CIA and FBI were responsible for the September 11 attacks. Al-Sheikh
offered the following evidence: “As is known, over time, the American
security apparatuses turned into mighty institutions with influence in the
political, economic, social, and scientific echelons, and they cannot be
ignored. Similarly, they formed liaisons according to the so-called
survival model, or the bureaucratic model. This model states that after
the establishment of an institution – and primarily an American security
institution – the first priority is survival, even if this leads it to
cooperate with Satan. This is the dominant model in the most powerful
intelligence apparatuses in the world, headed by the American CIA and FBI.
The operation itself is characteristic of operations by
these apparatuses.”[7]
Columnist Mussa Hawamdeh, writing in the
Jordanian government daily Al-Dustour, stated, “… We all
know that there are extremist religious groups in the U.S. who believe
that the coming of the Messiah is near, and who aspire to purify Americans
of all their human crimes. Among them are those who believe in committing
suicide in order to reach Paradise, through punishing the human race. Mass
suicide of entire groups has already occurred.”[8]
However, the most popular view among the Arab columnists
reviewed in this report is the possibility that Israel, world Zionism, the
Mossad, or, simply, the Jews carried out the attacks.
III: Israel/the Mossad/World Zionism/the Jews Did
It
Syrian foreign minister Mustafa Tlass, author of
The
Matza of Zion, a book that depicts the infamous Damascus blood libel
of 1840 as an actual event, claimed during a meeting in Damascus with a
delegation from the British Royal College of Defense Studies that the
Mossad planned the ramming of two hijacked airliners into the WTC towers
as part of a Jewish conspiracy.Former Egyptian ambassador to Afghanistan Ahmad
Al-‘Amrawi told the Palestinian Islamic Jihad mouthpiece
Al-Istiqlal that the Zionist movement and American intelligence
organizations planned the attacks. He said the aim was both to extricate
Israel from its current crisis and to give the U.S. an opening to take
over the oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, thus gaining full control of the
world’s main oil resources.[10]
Lebanese Druse leader Walid Jumblatt told
Al-Ayyam he thought “it was a large intelligence
operation,
behind which might be the Mossad and American intelligence, with the aim
of a new war in the region so as to impoverish and
conquer it.”[11]
Sheikh Muhammad Gamei’a, formerly both Al-Azhar
University’s representative in the U.S. and imam of the Islamic Cultural
Center and Mosque of New York City, told Al-Azhar University’s
unofficial web site in a comprehensive interview, “All the signs indicate that the Jews have the
most to gain from an explosion like that.”[12]
Columnist Ahmad Al-Musallah of
Al-Dustour wrote: “What happened is the work of
Jewish-Israeli-American Zionism, and the act of the large Zionist Jewish
mind controlling the world economically, politically, and through the
media.”[13]
Rakan Al-Majali, another
Al-Dustour
columnist, wrote: “It is obvious that Israel is the one to gain
greatly from this bloody, loathsome, and terrible terror operation, and it
seeks to gain further by accusing the Arabs and Muslims of carrying it
out. Only Israel does not fear that the Jews will be discovered to be
behind this operation – who inside or outside the U.S. would dare to
accuse them, as any harm to them means talk of a new Holocaust? They, more
than anyone, are capable of hiding a crime they carry out, and they can be
certain that no one will ask them what they have done.”[14]
Lebanese-Jordanian Holocaust denier Dr. Hayat
Al-Huweiek ‘Atiya’ presented the theory based on statements made – or
not made – by an Arab official. In Al-Dustour, she wrote:
“Maybe some will think that I am hallucinating when I speak of Jewish
Zionist hands behind the terrible event that struck at the U.S.… But in a
lengthy interview with the Arab League representative in Paris for the
French-language Al-Nil television channel, refrained from pointing directly at the Jews, because as
an official he cannot do such a thing before an investigation reveals it,
but he it.”[15]
Jihad Jbara wrote in the Jordanian government daily
Al-Rai: “Why that Zionist organizations
perpetrated it, so that Israel could destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque while the
world was preoccupied with what happened in America?”[16]
In Iran, Majlis (Parliament) Chairman Mahdi
Karrubi wondered whether the guilty parties might have “come from the
land of Afghanistan, or whether the Zionists in Israel plotted the terror
operation in order to blacken the faces of the Muslims – or whether the
operations in America had been consolidated inside America and
reached the stage where they required suicide attackers.”[17]
The Iranian English-language daily Tehran
Times suggested identifying the guilty parties using the criteria
of who would benefit from such an act. According to the paper, “the only
ones to benefit from any action that would serve to discredit and demonize
the Islamic movement are the Zionists and certain anti-Islamic elements in
the West.”[18]
IV: Presenting the ‘Evidence’ in the
Case
In an
attempt to substantiate their accusations against the Jews, the writers
made the following arguments.
A) Jewish employees were warned not to come to
work at
the WTC on September 11
This claim, quickly accepted by the
Arab
media as incontrovertible fact, was the most salient “evidence” that the
Jews were involved in the attacks. Syrian ambassador to Tehran Turky
Muhammad Saqr said at a conference held at the Iranian Foreign
Ministry: “Syria has documented proof of the Zionist regime’s involvement
in the September 11 terror attacks on the U.S.,” and that “4,000 Jews
employed at the WTC did not show up for work before the attack clearly
attests to Zionist involvement in these attacks.”[19] The
conservative Iranian daily Kayhan also referred to this “fact”:
“It is known that 4,000 Jews worked at the WTC in New York and that these
people did not come to work that day.”[20]
Raed
Salah wrote in Saut Al-Haqq Wa-Al-Hurriyya, “A
suitable
way was found to warn the 4,000 Jews who work every day at the Twin
Towers
to be absent from their work on September 11, 2001, and this is really
what happened! Were 4,000 Jewish clerks absent by
chance, or was there another reason? At the same time, no such warning
reached the 2,000 Muslims who worked every day in the Twin Towers, and
therefore there were hundreds of Muslim victims.”[21] The same
numbers were also cited in an article by Syrian columnist Mu’taz
Al-Khattib, who wrote in Al-Hayat that 4,000 Jews
had
been absent from the WTC building at the time of the incident.[22]
Dr. Gamal ‘Ali Zahran, head of the political science
faculty at Suez Canal University, Egypt, wrote in the Egyptian
government daily Al-Ahram: “At the WTC, thousands of Jews
worked in finance and the stock market, but none of them were there on the
day of the incident. Out of 6,000 killed, of 65 nationalities from 60
countries, not one was a Jew!!”[23]
Egypt’s
Sheikh Gamei’a told Al-Azhar University’s unofficial web site,
“On the news in the U.S. it was said that 4,000 Jews did not come to work
at the WTC on the day of the incident.”[24]
Al-Manar gave further details: “The
investigation of these attacks did not begin from the proper starting
point; rather, it was swept away by public opinion, shaped by the American
media which is controlled by the Jews. Why did they inform the Jews that
there was no further need for their services only three days before the
attacks? Why did they announce huge losses in the technology sector, in
which most of the employees are Jews, with offices in the trade building
– which made the Jews leave the place? Why did rumors spread among
the Jews that the ‘appointed time for the execution of the attack’ was a
day off work?”[25]
However, a report by the Hizbullah television network
Al-Manar – which according to some sources started the rumor that Jews
hadn’t come to work at the WTC on September 11 – said that when it became
known that there had been an attack on the WTC in New York, the
international media, particularly the Israeli media, exploited the
incident and began to mourn the 4,000 Israelis who had worked in the two
towers. Then there was no more mention of these Israelis, as it became
clear that they hadn’t even arrived for work that day.[26]
Columnist Hilmi Al-Asmar wrote in
Al-Dustour: “After fewer than two hours of the ‘Red
September panic,’ announcements were launched like missiles from Israel –
announcements that danced on the wounds of the victims, which included
only two Israelis, although the Manhattan towers included a great many
Jewish companies and institutions.”[27]
The U.S. Authorities Arrested Jews ‘Rejoicing’ at
the Catastrophe[28]
Sheikh
Gamei’a claimed that the U.S. news sources reported that “police
arrested a group of Jews rejoicing in the streets at the time of the
incident” and stated that the news item had been hushed up immediately
after it was broadcast.[29]
Raed Salah discussed the matter in greater
detail:
“Is it true that the American administration arrested five Israelis with
European citizenship on suspicion of involvement in the incident[?] They
worked for a Jew in a moving company, with forged visas, and were severely
tortured during their interrogation so that they would give details about
the incident.”[30]
The Saudi Arabian government daily
‘Ukkaz
also addressed the issue in an editorial, writing “Six Israelis suspected
of involvement in New York and Washington were arrested in the U.S., to be
later released. This confirms our strong suspicions about the involvement
of Israel’s Mossad in the ugly crime.”[31]
The Egyptian opposition weekly
Al-‘Usbu’
published the news as a scoop, building it up somewhat and giving it the
descriptive title, “True Perpetrators of the September 11 Attacks Arrested
– Zionists with Maps of the WTC, the Pentagon, and the White House and
Large Quantities of Anthrax.” The article reported that “American security
forces burst into the home of seven Israelis from Florida, arresting them
and finding in their possession large quantities of anthrax microbes and
some 15 maps of the WTC, eight maps of the Pentagon, and six maps of the
White House. Some of the maps were of airplane flight paths and
destinations, while others showed wind speed and temperature.”
“Two days after the arrest of the seven Israelis, the
American authorities arrested, in Alaska, four more Israelis, and found in
their possession photo enlargements of the atomic reactor in Florida and
of the Alaskan oil pipeline. They were arrested by warrant of the American
domestic security minister , who reserved in revealing the essence of
their connection with the Israelis arrested in Florida.”
“As soon as the arrests of the Israelis became known to
the security apparatuses, the investigative bodies were given instructions
to maintain the utmost secrecy. The national security advisor asked that
the charges not be revealed, even if it were to be proven that Israel was
responsible for what had happened.”[32]
C) The Israeli Leaders Knew of the Attacks Ahead of
Time
Syrian ambassador to Tehran Turky Muhammad
Saqr viewed
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unexpected postponement of his visit
to the U.S. as “additional proof linking the Zionists with this
tragedy.”[33]
The Al-Manar television network also addressed
the
matter: “Suspicions that Israel was involved
increased after the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth reported
that the General Security Services stopped Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
from going to New York, and particularly to the east coast of the city, to
participate in a ‘Support for Israel’ conference held by Zionist
organizations.”[34]
Syrian columnist Mu’taz Al-Khatib gave another
example in Al-Hayat: “Barak’s presence in the BBC’s
head
office minutes after the explosion, at a meeting set in advance, to speak
for 30 minutes of the danger of terrorism and chastise the ‘rogue states,’
particularly the Arabs” was, he said, further proof of Israel’s
involvement.[35]
D) Only the Jews/Israel had the Capability to Carry
out the Attacks
Sheikh Gamei’a, who said that Jews
“are the
only ones capable of planning such acts,” explained his statements: “First
of all, it was found that the automatic pilot was neutralized a few
minutes before the flight, and the automatic pilot cannot be neutralized
if you don’t have command of the control tower.[36] Second,
the
black boxes were found to contain no information; you cannot erase the
information from these boxes if you do not plan it ahead of time on the
plane. Third, America has the most powerful intelligence apparatuses, the
FBI and the CIA. How did manage to infiltrate America
without their knowledge? Fourth, Jews control decision-making in the
airports and in the sensitive centers in the White House and the Pentagon.
Fifth, to date, America has presented no proof incriminating Osama bin
Laden and Al-Qaida. If we take these things into account and look closely
at the incident, we will find that only the Jews are capable of planning
such an incident, because it was planned with great precision of which
Osama bin Laden or any other Islamic organization or intelligence
apparatus is incapable …”[37]
Orkhan Muhammad Ali wrote in Saut
Al-Haqq
Wa-Al-Hurriyya that the planes had not been hijacked – rather,
they had been directed by remote control using a system developed by a
Jewish-owned company: “Airplanes can be remotely controlled using a modern
system called ‘GPLS’ . The U.S. invested some $3.2 billion in
developing this system. Additionally, the Department of Defense
collaborated with a group of companies Raytheon that specialize
in developing aerial missile defense and air traffic control systems. The
air traffic control system can be activated remotely by satellite. The
moment an airplane, civilian or military, enters the system’s range, the
operator can decode the signals and signs of the plane’s flight system,
completely controlling it and directing it towards whatever target he
wishes. Also, all the plane’s communications apparatus can be silenced.
According to the unfolding of the attacks on New York and
Washington, and according to the evidence, the planes were not hijacked;
they were remotely controlled and forced to fly towards the targets fed
into by the planners. Therefore, the FBI will investigate the
president of this group of companies, whose name is Daniel Burnham, and
the head of the engineers responsible for the GPLS system whose name,
Bruce Solomon, attests that he is Jewish.”[38]
The Iranian daily Kayhan also
addressed the
question, stating: “The Zionists are the ones who caused the September 11
explosions; perhaps they carried out these operations by means of remote
control of the plane.”[39]
Al-Dustour columnist Hilmi Al-Asmar
had a
similar opinion, writing that, “Israel was the only one who could have
broken into the American security apparatus. Since its past is rife with
operations and crimes far from moral, it is willing to carry
out the most monstrous crime in human history even if the victims would be
Jews.”[40]
Some writers cited the Mossad’s operational capability as
proof of Israel’s involvement in the attacks. Dr. Zahran of
Suez
Canal University wrote in Al-Ahram: “The scope
and
nature of the attacks attest to planning and execution by an intelligence
apparatus close to the CIA. No intelligence apparatus in the world is as
close to the CIA as the Israeli Mossad.”[41]
An ‘Ukaz editorial read, “It is
impossible
to imagine executing an operation of such scope and precision without the
planners and those involved having direct connections within the U.S.,
full of all the details and fine points of the WTC
building and the Pentagon. When we examine this matter closely, we can go
no farther in the search for the possible perpetrators than Israeli Mossad
agents.”[42]
Columnist Galal Al-Sayyed posed this question in
the Egyptian government daily Al-Akhbar: “Why couldn’t
it
be the Mossad that secretly planned this crime without exposing itself?
the idea crept out to bin Laden and his aides via his
collaborators . I wouldn’t be exaggerating by saying that
perhaps the Mossad sent bin Laden-trained men and pilots to carry out the
operation, without its being discovered. Flight experts have pointed out
that it’s impossible for amateurs trained for a number of hours, or
months, to fly such planes and to do what was done.”[43]
V: The Jews’ Prior Convictions as ‘Evidence’: Reviving
Infamous Antisemitic Myths
Along with identifying the guilty parties –
that is, the Jews – and presenting the “evidence,” the Arab media further
supported their claims by citing the Jews’ prior criminal record – that
is, well-known antisemitic myths which have long since confirmed the
pattern of Jewish crimes.
A) Israel’s history is rife with terror
attacks
Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Galal
Duweidar
wrote: “We must warn against attempts by those aspiring to incite the
American administration against a number of streams considered to be
Islamic and Arab. Reminding the American administration what happened with
the Oklahoma bombing should suffice. Then, the Israeli and Jewish
propaganda machines accused Arab elements. But later it was discovered
that the perpetrator was American. Using these charges, they want to
deflect the suspicion that Mossad elements and their collaborators carried
out such crimes in order to spoil relations between Muslims/Arabs and
America. There have been precedents like this; they exposed disgraces such
as the Lavon affair, which revealed this Israeli intelligence apparatus’s
involvement in the bombing of the American Cultural Center in Cairo in the
1950s, so the Egyptians would be blamed.”[44]
Muhammad Abd Al-Fattah Muhsin wrote in
Al-Ahram: “Israel, and the Jewish lobby behind it, have
managed to drag American society into launching a hate campaign against
the Arabs and Muslims, after they pinned the blame for terrorism on them.
They have depicted the Arabs and Muslims as the ones behind the tragic
events of ‘Black Tuesday.’ Yet if we browse through the pages of history
we find obvious clues that terrorism is originally ‘made in
Israel'”[45]
Dr. Hayat Al-Huweiek ‘Atiya said the Mossad
had
been involved in many attacks, including one in Paris. This, she said,
intimated that the Mossad was also involved in the September 11th attacks.
In Al-Dustour, she wrote: “The investigation of the
bombing
of the Paris synagogue showed that the Mossad was behind the deed, and
that the agent who infiltrated one of the extreme rightist organizations
was the one who took responsibility. Nevertheless, this did not have
political consequences. There are dozens of examples, including the bombs
in Baghdad which caused mass Jewish emigration. It is true that these are
minor examples, and that they cannot compare with what happened yesterday,
but it is not a question of scale. Due to the scope of the disaster, it
should be assumed that there were a number of elements creating it. We
must direct full diplomatic and media efforts not only towards washing our
hands and denying our involvement from the dock, but also towards a
counterattack to shift us from the weak position of those on the defensive
to a stronger and more aggressive position.”[46]
B) The Avaricious Jews Carried out the Attacks for
Profit
Dr. Zahran of Suez Canal University
wrote in
Al-Ahram: “There were many rumors, and open publicity,
that
the Jews, who were huge stockholders in the airlines and insurance
companies, sold their stocks at the highest possible prices in Europe some
10 days before the attacks on America. After the stock market began
functioning again, on September 17, the Jews competed amongst themselves
to buy stocks at the lowest possible prices, or waited until the
stocks reached their minimal value and then acquired them, for tremendous
profits. There is no doubt that this can expose their involvement in the
crime. This demands covert investigation by U.S. government bodies far
from the official investigative bodies.”[47]
C) The Jews Want to Take Over the World and ‘The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ Proves It
Political and
economic expert Dr. Amira Al-Sinwani summarized “The Protocols” for
Al-Akhbar: “‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’
published
at the First Zionist Congress in the city of Basel, Switzerland in 1897,
rose from the depths of darkness. They were later printed in French, in
1905. In 1921, the publication of these protocols was completely banned,
except for the Arabic version. We all understand why Israel conceals these
protocols when we look at the calls for destruction and the immorality
– among them the call to destroy the world and set up
‘a world Jewish government that will rule this land’ – that is, rule the
world.”
To support her claims, Dr. Al-Sanwani referred to another
article – one appearing in a book published in 1935 by the Germans titled
“A Handbook on the Jewish Question.” She wrote: “In 1789, former U.S.
president Benjamin Franklin warned against the increase in Jewish
immigrants, saying, ‘The U.S. faces potential danger from the Jews,
wherever they may be. They bring down moral standards; they disseminate
fraud in commerce, and they disseminate grief in the country. If the world
gives them Palestine – they will be bloodsuckers. They must be among
others so that they can trample them. If they are not constitutionally
expelled from the U.S. within a hundred years at the most, they will
infiltrate the U.S. in numbers that will allow them to rule and destroy
it. They will set themselves apart from us even if they are among us for
tens of generations. The leopard cannot change his spots. I warn you, if
you do not completely expel the Jews from America, they will endanger our
institutions.'[48] They
themselves attested to this.”
Dr. Al-Sanwani concluded her article with a final claim
about the perpetrators of the ‘Black Tuesday’ terror attacks: “We do not
support placing blame without clear-cut proof. It is only a possibility
that the U.S. must consider in order to determine which body or country
carried out the terrorist crime against it, before accusations are leveled
at the Arabs or Muslims or bin Laden without clear-cut proof.”[49]
A leading article in Al-Manar also
draws
heavily on the “Protocols,”: “The Zio-Americans were angry and deeply
saddened when their candidate Al Gore and his Zionist-American colleague
lost the recent presidential elections. They were
striving to begin the Judaization of the White House, politically and
officially, by bringing a Jewish vice president into the White House as a
first step towards the day when a Jew from the race of the House of David
would stand at the head of the American Jewish Republic, thus fulfilling
the Biblical prophecy that at the end of days a king from the seed of the
House of David would rule the world, and thus Israel would be guaranteed
complete security and world Zionism would fully control America’s material
and spiritual power. This disappointment aroused the ire and the hatred of
the Zio-American Jews; they expressed this in all areas all means.
They resolved that the administration in the U.S. should be brought back
to the Clinton era, during which most of the ministers were Jews.
with a win by the Zionist-controlled Democratic Party,
in the next presidential election – which will be made possible only by
toppling the Republican administration headed by President George Bush Jr.
and offering the candidacy of a Zio-American Jew who will Judaize
the White House politically and officially – although the White House has
long been Judaized, since most of its officials are Zionist Americans.”[50]
Saudi Prince Mamdouh bin Abd Al-Aziz, president of
the
Saudi Center for Strategic Studies, wrote in the London daily
Al-Hayat that the “Protocols” were based on a number of
“other
genuine documents”: “Anyone who even skims through The Protocols of
the
Elders of Zion, Pieces on the Chessboard, or the book The World is
a Pawn in the Hands of Israel, and follows current events, becomes
convinced that the Jews are behind the world’s current ’terrorized’
atmosphere. These three books concur that there is a Zionist
conspiracy, to channel everything, as much as
possible, towards the interests of world Jewry, primarily those among them
called ‘Allah’s Chosen People’.”
“Objectivity demands that we ask whether the disasters
that have struck at the heart of the Arab and Islamic world over many long
years were mere coincidence, or were the result of a conspiracy. I have
no doubt whatsoever that many Arab Islamic countries and organizations,
both religious and pan-Arab, that acted in good faith, were infiltrated by
the Jews.”[51]
D) Jewish Involvement in the Events of September 11
was Never Reported because the Jews Control the American
Media
This
was another of Egypt’s Sheikh Gamei’a’s claims: “When a group of
people attacked my home , I went out to them and asked why
they were doing this. They said that because we were Muslims we were
linked to terrorism. I explained to them that what they were doing was
uncivilized and was, in effect, a twofold crime; you let the criminals go
free and attack innocents. This does not suit a modern state and a modern
people, and is opposed to human values. During my conversations with this
group, it became clear to me that they knew very well that the Jews were
behind these ugly acts, while we, the Arabs, were innocent, and that
someone from among their people was disseminating corruption in the land.
Although the Americans suspect that the Zionists are behind the act, none
has the courage to talk about it in public. When I asked them whether they
had the courage to talk about it openly, they said: ‘We can’t.’ I asked
why, and they said: ‘You know very well that the Zionists control
everything and that they also control political decision-making, the big
media organizations, and the financial and economic institutions. Anyone
daring to say a word is considered an anti-Semite.'”
“On the news in the U.S. it was said that 4,000 Jews did
not come to work at the WTC on the day of the incident, and that the
police arrested a group of Jews rejoicing in the streets at the time of
the incident. The Jews who control the media acted to hush it up so that
the American people would not know. We saw these Zionists, just one hour
after the event, broadcasting on the BBC, the biggest media channel, that
the Arabs, and particularly the Palestinians, were celebrating and
rejoicing over the American deaths. they broadcasted a video
from 1991, during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. But Allah
thwarted them when a professor from a Brazilian university stated that the
video was a forgery, because she had a copy of .”[52]
Dr. Zahran of Suez Canal University attempted to
explain why the U.S. did not suspect the Jews of being involved in the
attacks even in the face of ample “evidence.” He claimed that there was a
conspiracy of silence on the matter: “The information that could help me
prove the assessment that the Jews and the Mossad are responsible for the
September 11 attacks on the U.S. is deliberately vague. Why not reveal the
names of all the passengers on the four airplanes, and the names of all
those who didn’t board the flight, among whom were Jews? If they were to
reveal the real data, it would help provide clear answers. But evidently
this data will remain a big secret, so as to prevent accusations of
Israel, its intelligence apparatus, and the Jews of America.”[53]
VI: The Crystallization of the New Antisemitic
Myth
After most of the articles, interviews and references
mentioned above appeared, a comprehensive article by Ahmad Abu
Zayid, titled “The Jews Are Behind the Explosions in America,” was
published in Al-Ahram. In it, Abu Zayid submitted 14
“pieces
of evidence” in support of the theory that Israel and the Mossad were
involved in the September 11 attacks, and presents most of the claims
mentioned above.
“Following the explosions in the U.S. on the morning of
September 11, the American scenario, whose episodes included directing
pre-formulated accusations against Arab and Islamic circles, using this
pretext in order to strike at particular countries, and launching the war
in Afghanistan and killing over 1,000 citizens of this impoverished and
tormented people, has come true. Since then, it has been
revealed to me and to anyone following events and the way in which America
is handling the crisis that the American authorities’ problem is not
knowing who the real perpetrator is, but the American administration’s
desire to develop the event so that pre-prepared plans to move into new
areas now without a direct American military presence can be implemented,
and Osama bin Laden can be used as a pretext to gain solidarity from world
public opinion.”
“Immediately after the incidents, the
American authorities began to direct ready-made accusations towards
certain people and elements . The American
investigative apparatuses devoted efforts to verifying these charges
without noticing a series of pieces of evidence proving that the Arabs and
Muslims did not perpetrate the explosions, and that the explosions were
perpetrated by covert elements accustomed to acting secretly, violently,
and bloodily, and then pinning the blame on someone else – thus
accomplishing important strategic goals. as if the American
administration was only waiting for an event of this type to strike at the
Islamic countries and declare war against them without seeking out the
real perpetrator of these explosions, unprecedented in American history.”
“The question that now arises is, what is the interest in
concealing the the real perpetrator while directing American
public opinion and the investigative authorities towards Osama bin Laden
and the Arabs, although there is a strong possibility that they did not
carry out the huge attacks.”
“The facts prove that the capability to carry out this
attack, as it was carried out, lies solely in the hands of a single
element in America – that is, the Zionist lobby, which has managed to
infiltrate all American bodies. The possibility that the Zionist lobby,
and behind it the Mossad, were involved is a strong one. We are not saying
these things in a vacuum. There is a long line of evidence substantiating
this”:
“1. … General Security Services warned Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the beginning of September not to go to
the U.S. during the entire month, as noted by the Israeli newspaper
Yedioth Aharonoth which reported that Sharon had planned to go to New York
in order to participate in a conference of solidarity with Israel
organized by the American Jewish organizations.”
“2. Some 4,000 Jews employed in the WTC did not go to
work that morning. It is not possible that such a large number
was absent from work by chance. This is a fact that the Zionist
bodies in America do not deny, and it proves that the Jews knew what was
about to happen.”
“3. The Jews sold their stocks in the Manhattan stock
exchange two days before the attacks. The sellers
were surprised by the haste to sell their stocks in American
companies.”
“4. Twenty Jews came from outside the U.S., entered the
WTC on the morning of the event, and left before the attack. In addition,
no Jew was hurt in the incident.”
“5. arrested a group of Jews who
set up video cameras on the roof of one of the Israeli companies across
from the WTC a little while before the incident, in order to film the
moment of the explosions. This proves that Zionist elements knew what was
about to happen. The Israeli paper Ha’aretz noted that
the
federal investigators had arrested five Zionists who worked for a moving
company owned by a Zionist in nearby New Jersey on suspicion of
involvement in the explosions. The police interrogated them for three
days, which came only four hours after the incident as they were filming
the explosions and dancing with glee. The newspaper added that one of the
suspects was interrogated for 14 hours straight on suspicion of belonging
to the Mossad after it became clear that he had European citizenship in
addition to his Israeli citizenship – something only Mossad agents are
allowed.”
“6. the Mossad carried out these
explosions in the country most friendly to Israel is based on its
involvement in similar operations in the past such as the blasting of the
American ship U.S.S. Liberty in 1967. Furthermore, no organization or
country with good economic and technical has so deeply
infiltrated American society and institutions, except for the Zionist
entity and its arm the Mossad. Proving this, is the report that appeared
in the British paper The Guardian, that no Arabs at all
were
aboard the two airplanes that struck the WTC.”
“7. The Canadian newspaper
Newsembrojo
reported that a CIA source had said he had information practically
proving that the Israeli Mossad was involved in the attacks. The source,
who refused to reveal his name for fear of putting the Canadian newspaper
at risk, added that the possibilities existed and that the CIA apparatus
had discovered an Israeli threat to hit buildings in the U.S. so as to
arouse world public opinion against the Arabs.”
“8. This attack demands great military precision. The
activity was carried out by a military or a global intelligence body, not
by a group of terrorists that did not possess what the big countries
have.”
“9. These attacks shifted world public opinion against
the Arabs and Muslims and in favor of Israel, particularly after the rise
of voices condemning Israel for its racism during the Durban conference
that followed 11 months of the Palestinian intifada.”
“10. Israel and world Zionism are the only ones to gain
from these incidents.”
“11. The Jews acted to monger disagreement and
contention
between America and the Arabs after Israel sensed recently a certain
American identification with the Palestinian people.”
“12. There are many precedents in which the Zionists and
the Jews carried out organized terrorist activities. The operation that
took place was one that only a well-trained intelligence apparatus like
the Mossad could have carried out.”
“13. Israel is the only one that could have carried out
these explosions. The attacks themselves prove that they were planned by
elements highly familiar with the American apparatuses. The Mossad is the
only one that could have breached American security. Only the Zionists get
the trust of the Americans, enabling them to carry out such an operation
without accusations being leveled at them.”
“14. Israel wanted to divert attention from the official,
and, particularly, the popular international pressure on the Zionist
government due to the massacres and the war of annihilation it wages
against the Palestinian people.”
“In light of these certain facts, we can determine that
the Israeli security apparatuses knew in good time of the date of the
suicide attacks on the U.S., and that these apparatuses, particularly the
Mossad, were involved in one way or another in organizing and perpetrating
the big terrorist operation. This is for a simple reason – that Israel is
the first and only one to gain from this crime.”
“The entire world must know who the terrorists
are, who act to corrupt the entire world, to stir up contention among the
peoples, and to kindle war and conflict that kill women, children, and the
elderly. America must seek the real perpetrator of the recent explosions –
not shut its eyes in the face of what the Zionist Jews are doing – and not
persist with its hostility towards the Arabs and Muslims.”[54]
The Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Gamei’a, one
of the
more vocal proponents of the conspiracy theory, went further still and
hinted at the punishment the Jews should receive for their deeds –
annihilation like Hitler attempted:
“I told the American officials that the American people
cannot, at this critical stage, know the real enemy who struck at its
heart if it does not awaken from its slumber and stop blaming the Arabs
and the Muslims. Immediately after the event, some 30% of the American
people awakened that they were the victims of deception on
the part of the Jews, who presented the Arabs and the Muslims to them as a
nation of barbarians and blood-shedders. It became clear to the American
people that hidden hands were at play in their land. I heard from many
Americans who visited me at the Islamic Center that they had been misled
by the Jews and thus had come to express their support for the Arabs and
Muslims. They said openly, We were deceived!!… If this were to be
known to the American people, they would do to the Jews what Hitler did to
them!…”[55]
[1] Saut Al-Haqq
Wa-Al-Hurriyya
(Israel), October 19, 2001.
[2] Al-Ayyam
(Palestinian
Authority), October 2, 2001.
[3] Al-Ayyam
(Palestinian
Authority), September 13, 2001.
[4] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat
(London),
September 14, 2001.
[5] Teshreen (Syria),
September
13, 2001.
[6] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat
(London),
September 14, 2001.
[7] Al-Manar
(Palestinian
Authority). The Iranian daily Gamhouri Islami stated on
September 15, 2001, that the perpetrators of the attacks were Americans:
“Everyone knows that Palestinian elements, bin Laden, and their ilk do not
have the capability of carrying out a number of simultaneous airplane
hijackings in the heart of America, under the watchful eye of the American
intelligence and security organizations, and attacking the most sensitive
financial, political, intelligence, and security centers in this country.
, in America itself there are more than enough motivated
elements with specific goals to attack the imperialist entity.”
[8] Al-Dustour (Jordan),
September 13, 2001.
[9] The Jerusalem Post
(Israel),
October 19, 2001.
[10] Al-Istiqlal
(Palestinian
Authority), October 12, 2001.
[11] Al-Ayyam (Palestinian
Authority),
September 16, 2001.
[12] Interview, October 4, 2001.
[13] Al-Dustour
(Jordan),
September 13, 2001.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Al-Rai (Jordan),
September
13, 2001.
[17] Al-Sharq
Al-Awsat
(London), September 30, 2001.
[18] Tehran Times
(Iran),
September 15, 2001.
[19] IRNA (Iran), October 24,
2001.
[20] Kayhan (Iran),
October 2,
2001.
[21] Saut Al-Haqq
Wa-Al-Hurriyya (Israel), October 5, 2001.
[22] Al-Hayat
(London),
September 9, 2001.
[23] Al-Ahram,
(Egypt), October
7, 2001.
[24] Lailatalqadr
[25] Al-Manar
(Palestinian
Authority), September 24, 2001. In another article, entitled “Two Events
and a Single Piece of Evidence,” the weekly reported, “It is known that
the Mossad station in the U.S. maintained a luxurious office in New York
under the name of a computer company.
The office’s clerks left it, with
the furnishings, 10 days before the attacks. The Israeli Rafael Security
Industries also had offices in the same tower, and its employees left the
tower before the incident (Al-Manar, Palestinian Authority, October 22,
2001).
[27] Al-Dustour
(Jordan),
September 24, 2001. It should be noted that although most versions mention
4,000 Jews who did not show up for work on that day, some cite other
figures. In an interview with the Saudi Arabian daily Al-Watan,
Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadhlallah said that 5,000 Jews hadn’t come
to
work (Al-Watan, Saudi Arabia, November 12, 2001). But Galal
Al-Sid?? brought the number down to 3,000 (Al-Akhbar,
Egypt,
October 29, 2001), while Jordanian columnist Ahmad Al-Maslah
wrote
that only “1,400 Jews were absent from work that day, which is additional
proof incriminating the Jews.” (Al-Sabil, Jordan, October 4, 2001.)
[28] A reference to an incident
reported in the Israeli media: A number of Israelis were arrested as they
were taking pictures of each other and laughing against the backdrop of
the burning buildings. They were released some two months later, as they
were found to have no connection
to the attacks.
[29] Lailatalqadr
[30] Saut Al-Haqq
Wa-Al-Hurriyya (Israel), October 19, 2001.
[31] As cited by
Al-Quds
(Palestinian Authority), November 4, 2001, and Daily Star
(Lebanon), November 4, 2001.
[32] Al-Usbu’a
(Egypt),
November 5, 2001.
[33] IRNA, Iran October 24,
2001.
[34] Al-Manar TV
(Lebanon)
September 17, 2001
[35] Al-Hayat
(London),
September 30, 2001.
[36] This is reminiscent of
another
statement following the 1999 EgyptAir crash. Amin Hamad, a ruling-party
member of the Egyptian People’s Council, said that in his opinion, “the
Mossad had infiltrated the American control tower and diverted the plane
from its path, so that it would be hit ” (Al-Ahram,
Egypt, November 23, 1999).
[37] Lailatalqadr
[38] Saut Al-Haqq Wa
Al-Hurriyya (Israel), December 14, 2001.
[39] Kayhan (Iran),
October 2,
2001.
[40] Al-Dustour
(Jordan),
September 29, 2001.
[41] Al-Ahram
(Egypt), October
7, 2001.
[42] Al-Ayyam
(Palestinian
Authority), November 4, 2001.
[43] Al-Akhbar
(Egypt), October
29, 2001.
[44] Al-Akhbar
(Egypt),
September 12, 2001.
[45] Al-Ahram
(Egypt), December
11, 2001.
[46] Al-Dustour
(Jordan),
September 13, 2001.
[47] Al-Ahram
(Egypt), October
7, 2001.
[48] Charles Krauthammer also
referred
to this article, in his March 6, 1998 column in The Washington Post
entitled “Arafat’s Children.”
[49] Al-Akhbar
(Egypt), October
26, 2001.
[50] Al-Manar
(Palestinian
Authority), September 17, 2001. Additionally, Hamas activist Yussef
Al-‘Azm wrote in the Jordanian Hamas mouthpiece
Al-Sabil
about the Jews’ desire to rule the world: “The Jews in Europe thought to
move to the U.S. so as to take absolute control of capital,
banks, stock market, media, and political decision-making in both houses
of Congress, and thus it was. The Jews infiltrated the American army,
particularly the Air Force, and they pressured their pilots to take the
planes, knowing that religion is not denoted in the identity cards of
those joining the American military. Accordingly, the airplanes were
by the Jews, as were the press, radio, television, and money
in the banks and the stock market. Thus they took control of political
decision-making. Why is Bush ignoring these facts, and announcing that an
investigation will be conducted so as to reveal who is behind the events?
They are the Jews, Bush! And don’t act like you don’t know who is behind
the recent events in the U.S., and don’t tire out the investigative
committees along with you.” (Al-Sabil, Jordan, October 4, 2001).
[51] Al-Hayat
(London),
September 24, 2001.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Al-Ahram
(Egypt), October
7, 2001. The Egyptian media have used the “conspiracy of silence” theory
to account for the 1999 crash of the EgyptAir plane. For instance, the
head of the Egypt Institute of Arab Research and Studies Dr. Ahmed Yussef
stated that it was widely thought in Egypt that there was a plot to
conceal the truth about the disaster in order to uphold the reputation of
Boeing, or to protect Israel, America’s strategic ally, as “many Egyptians
think that Israeli intelligence played a part in what happened in light of
the presence of Egyptian military personnel on the downed plane” (Al-Quds,
Palestinian Authority, November 30, 2001).
[54] Al-Wafd, October
27, 2001;
Al-Ahram, October 29, 2001.
[55] Kailatalqadr
