Where does it come from?Immediately after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, rumors began circulating that the airplane hijackings and subsequent crashing of the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been the work of Israel’s secret service, the Mossad. At the heart of this propaganda, named the “Big Lie,” were stereotypical messages: “Only the Israelis could have been skilled enough, only Jews could have been smart enough to plan and execute such a complicated and intricate plot.” There is another virulently anti-Semitic assumption underlying this notion: “Only Jews could have been evil enough.”
Another version of this falsehood is that Jews had advance knowledge of the attacks; that Jewish employees were secretly warned not to go to work that day. In fact, then poet laureate from NewJersey, Amiri Baraka’s poem, a lengthy diatribe about September 11, repeats the conspiracy about Jews and Israel having foreknowledge of the attacks and the false rumor that 4,000 Israelis did not show up for work at the World Trade Center.
What are the facts?
The 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by members of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. Jews and Israelis had no knowledge of the attacks. Of the 2,9962 victims who died during the September 11 terrorist attacks, an estimated 400 victims were Jews, including at least two
Israeli citizens. The primarypropagators of the lie that Jews were somehow behind the terrorist plot are the Arab and Muslim media in the Middle East, attempting to deflect blame from their brethren onto Jews and Israel.
The September 11 terrorist attacks were perpetrated by 19 members of Al Qaeda, ten of whom hijacked and flew two passenger airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, five of whom hijacked and flew another passenger airplane into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and another four who died when the passengers on a fourth hijacked airplane rose up and prevented the hijackers from crashing that airplane into the White House.
How we should respond?
While the notion that Jews/Israel is responsible for September 11th sounds incomprehensible to most, this myth has traveled around the Internet and throughout the Middle East with speed and acceptance. This myth plays into classic anti-Semitism. The idea that Jews control the world, and conspire to manipulate the rest of society, has characteristics of Nazi propaganda –– the Jews being the source of all evil. It is important to question the validity of the statement that Jews were responsible for 9/11 and to ask those who make the accusation where they got their information.
The Internet is where many read this lie, and while the Internet can be a great source of information, you have to be careful where you get that information. You can direct people to the Anti-Defamation League Web site that documents how these lies found their way into the media at http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/9-11conspiracytheories.pdf. You can also advise people to comparewherethey got their information to reputable news sources like CNN that have special Web pages dedicated to the September 11th attacks.
"9/11 is Mossad Inside Job" - False Accusation
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