The Fern Sidman Commentaries:
September 11th, 2006: "ON 9/11: TERRORISM IS ALIVE AND WELL"

As the world stops to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it appears that the war on terror has only just begun.

According to a JTA news release of 9/11/06, it would appear that Al Qaida is still planning attacks on the USA. The report states that "On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Qaida urged Muslims to attack Israel". In a statement aired Monday by CNN, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, warned the West that it would suffer further attacks by Islamic terrorists. "You gave us every legitimacy and every opportunity to continue fighting you," he said. "You should worry about your presence in the Gulf, and the second place you should worry about is Israel."
In remarks that attested to the fact that the statement was recent, Zawahiri lambasted the United States for supplying Israel with weapons and urged the Muslim world to "rush with everything at its disposal to the aid of its Muslim brothers in Lebanon and Gaza."

On the Iranian front, The Jerusalem Post of 9/10/06 reports that, "Iran maintained its refusal Sunday to suspend uranium enrichment as the Europeans gave signs that they might be willing to open talks first if Teheran would commit to a freeze soon after the start of negotiations. 'The issue of suspension is a thing of the past. We won’t return to the past,'" Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a press conference in Teheran.

It is clear that the Iranian government does not fear the threat of international sanctions and is planning to fully implement their uranium enrichment program, thereby creating a nuclear arsenal which threatens the very existence of Israel and the Western world. According to a report from the Israel Today web site, 9/11/06, the head of military intelligence Maj. General Amos Yadlin, warned that "international sanctions would not stop Iran from developing their nuclear program. Iran is showing great confidence and is continuing to enrich uranium. They are stalling for time, and now they want to continue with the research", Yadlin said. "We assess that the international pressure must be increased, but the pressure and the sanctions will not stop them."

Today, former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami spoke at Harvard University. While condemning the 9/11 attacks on the United States, he expressed his full support for Hezbollah in their battle against Israeli "colonization". According to a JTA report of 9/11/06, "He also mounted a defense for his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has stirred international controversy by calling the Holocaust a 'myth' and set up a cartoon competition and academic conference dedicated to those who question the extent of the Nazi genocide. I personally believe that he really didn’t deny the existence of the Holocaust", said Khatami.

If this kind of blather wasn’t enough for one day, Israel Today (9/11/06) also reported that, "Head of Military Intelligence Maj. General Amos Yadlin told the Israeli cabinet that Iran is expected to give between $150 million to $180 million to Hizballah to rebuild Lebanese homes bombed by Israel during the war. He also said that Syria is looking into creating a Hizballah-like guerilla organization to fight Israel on the Golan Heights. Yadlin said in the meeting that Hizballah is currently looking for new ways of resistance such as using the Palestinians to open multiple fronts, a move which was unsuccessful during the war."

Hezbollah can now continue to appear as a hero to the Lebanese people by bankrolling the rebuilding of their homes and providing a wide variety of social services. It is also clear that Iran is financing the military buildup of Hezbollah forces to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Now that Syria has announced the formation of its own Hezbollah like terrorist organization, there is no doubt that the terrorism will escalate exponentially.

On another front, it was also reported in Arutz Sheva (9/11/06) that the warring factions of Hamas and Fatah have come to an agreement to settle their disputes and create a national unity government. According to the Arutz Sheva report, Abu Abbas of Fatah and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas have agreed to form a unity government hoping that the international political boycott of Hamas will be removed. The report states, "The two Arab leaders announced in Gaza this afternoon (Monday) that they had agreed on guidelines for the new Palestinian Authority government".

Abbas’ Fatah party was trounced by Hamas in elections earlier this year. He said that the new government’s diplomatic plan is based on the Prisoners’ Document - a paper drawn up this past May by several leading terrorists imprisoned in Israel. Among those who formulated the document were Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for murdering Israelis, Abdel Halik Al-Natsheh of Hamas, and Islamic Jihad’s Bassam Al- Saadi.

The original goal of the document was to restore coordination between the PLO (Fatah) and Hamas, without granting recognition to Israel. The document calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, without withdrawing claims to the area known as pre-1967 Israel, within the Green Line.

The so-called "right of return" for millions of Arabs to Israel is emphasized five times in the paper, and the PLO’s stage-by-stage policy is also reaffirmed.

Significantly, the Prisoners’ Document encourages further terrorism - in violation of the Road Map plan’s fundamental demands - by calling for the "widening the circles of resistance" and for the "release of all [terrorist] prisoners" held by Israel "by all means." Support of "those who bore the burden of resistance, in particular the martyrs’ families" - i.e., suicide bombers and their relatives - is encouraged.”

At least Hamas is open, honest and forthright about their intentions. They always have been. So much for those who believed that Abu Abbas (Abu Mazen) was dedicated to furthering peace. So much for Prime Minister Olmert’s attempts to include Abbas in his convergence-realignment plan. So much for those in the Bush administration who attempted to present Abbas as "the voice of reason" within the PA camp. Mr. Abbas’ ties to terrorism go back all the way to 1972 when he was a finance officer for the group called Black September which was responsible to the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

Let us face facts. Terrorism is alive and well. It is a burgeoning movement within the Islamic Fascist world. The historical background of this movement deserves closer examination. Al Qaida terrorist activities did not begin yesterday or the day before or even on September 11, 2001. It did not even begin in February of 1993 when terrorists bombed the World Trade Center.

The first evidence of Al Qaida terrorism manifested itself on the evening of November 5, 1990 in New York City when Egyptian born Al Qaida terrorist and operative El Sayyid Nosair murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZTK”L. Within hours after the assassination, the New York City police department labeled this horrific crime as a routine homicide, without even investigating the suspect.

According to an article by Seamus McGraw on the Court TV web site, crimelibrary.com, it states, "As authorities would later discover, the bullets fired from Nosair’s gun were the opening salvo in a war, a war waged by Islamic extremists against America and its interests. Within three years of the Kahane shooting, a group of men closely linked to Nosair, men led by the blind Sheik Omar Ahmad Abdul Rahman, would launch the first attack on the World Trade Center, setting off a deadly bomb in the basement of the towering building. Later, members of the cabal would be accused of planning a reign of terror against New York, plans that included attacks on the city’s bridges and tunnels. And a few years after that, a handful of terrorists, under orders from Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network, a network that counted some of Nosair’s allies among its members, would ultimately topple those towers, and attack the Pentagon."

And now it would appear that New York City Police Department detective John Molelli has broken his silence concerning his investigation into the crime. According to Arutz Sheva (9/11/06) Detective John Molelli was the first one "to find and examine the papers in Nosair’s rented house in Cliffside, New Jersey. Molleli found and closely examined boxes of notebooks and other papers written in Arabic, complete with diagrams that revealed the existence of a terrorist cell operating in the New Jersey - New York area. The papers included plans to attack a number of targets in New York City, including the World Trade Center. Police found photos of the Twin Towers, the Empire State Building and the Washington Monument. They found manuals on how to make bombs. They also found written materials promoting terror attacks on American soil. He broke his silence about the evidence he found and its link to the World Trade Center attacks this year, the fifth since the Twin Towers were completely destroyed in a terror attack that rocked the world."

The report goes on to say that, "The evidence was quickly removed to the offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and was largely ignored until the 1993 terror attack on the Twin Towers. Six people died and 100 were injured in the bombing. In the wake of the attack, the boxes that Molelli had discovered in Nosair’s rented house and which had been confiscated by the FBI were finally opened and closely examined, and the Arabic was translated. Nosair was later convicted as a co-conspirator of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman for the 1993 bombing, as well as conspiracy to attack New York landmarks and assassinate U.S. politicians. Both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 15 years. It was only after that trial that Nosair was also convicted of murdering Kahane as part of the 'seditious conspiracy.' Nosair continued to manage the affairs of the al-Qaeda terror cell that continued to operate in the U.S. and on September 11, 2001 succeeded in completing the job it attempted in 1993 — the destruction of the World Trade Center."

It is clear that US authorities never really made an effort to investigate the murder of Rabbi Kahane. It is clear that the New York DA who prosecuted this case made no effort at uncovering facts that could have lead to Nosair’s conviction on murder charges. The murder of Rabbi Kahane was of no importance to authorities. It is also clear that the negligence displayed by the NYPD, the FBI and other investigatory agencies in thoroughly investigating and prosecuting this case directly lead to further terrorist attacks, culminating in the 9/11/01 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Thousands of lives could have been spared if the US government made a concerted effort to get to the bottom of this heinous conspiracy, rather than immediately sweeping it under the rug.

Terrorism is indeed alive and well. At this moment in time, the world mourns for the victims of 9/11. It is a date that will live in infamy, a date that has signified a drastic change in the world in which we live. We mourn for all victims of Islamic terrorism. As Jews, we know we are the major targets of terrorism, we always have been and will be. It is time to acknowledge that our fate and destiny is not in the hands of the savage and ruthless terrorist organizations who threaten our annihiliation. Our fate is in the hands of our Creator, the Almighty G-d of Israel. We must never fall victim to the fear that terrorists seek to place in our hearts. We are a people who acknowledges and fears only the Master of the Universe. Through our faith and trust in G-d, we know it is He, and He alone who has the power to eradicate our enemies.

Let us remember and recite the words that we utter after our daily prayers. "Do not fear terror that comes suddenly, nor the holocaust of the wicked when it comes. Plan a conspiracy and it will be annulled, speak your speech and it will not stand, for with us is G-d."