September, Oh September

I suppose I have to write something about September 11, right? I mean, there's no way that I, or anyone else, could let such a day pass without saying or doing something. Maybe I should just link to what I wrote two years ago? back then I tried figuring out where G-d was on 9-11-01.

I think the New York Times put it best when they wrote:

"...the anniversary, falling for the first time on a weekend day - with soccer games, weddings, and the rest of life - accentuated how much time has passed. People at observances across the country and those simply going about their morning business reflected on a day seared in the national psyche, but edging toward the middle distance between current events and history, between gash and scar, between the fresh grief of a new tragedy and the solemn remembrance of heartbreak long past."

What did I do today? Well, I had a friend from New York and a friend from England visiting Tel Aviv and staying at my place so we decided to talk politics and get drunk. We had a few bottles of Goldstar (what I refer to as the Budweiser of Israel) and a whole bottle of Smirnoff vodka.

What is there to say? What else is there to do? I have no idea. It was my first 9-11 commemoration outside of New York so it was harder to feel and process the memories.

However, I would like to take this opportunity to say that I never want to hear any politician ever saying the phrase "these are difficult times that require vigorous decisions" ever again. Everyone always thinks whatever he or she happens to be going through right this second is the most difficult, important time in life. The same applies to politicians, bosses, countries, the world and any other denomination. We lose perspective of bigger pictures and contexts way too frequently.

And now, I'll continue this directionless posting with an excerpt from an article I read last week and thought hit the nail on the head:

On Terror and Hypocrisy
By Yoel Marcus

September is steadily gaining a name for itself as the most damned month of the year. World War II broke out in September. In "Black September," King Hussein confronted Arafat and his cronies, and exiled them to Lebanon. The Al-Aqsa intifada, in which 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians lost their lives, began in September. The assault on the Twin Towers, which exposed America's vulnerability to foreign aggression for the first time since Pearl Harbor, took place in September. This September will be remembered for the terror attack in North Ossetia - one of the cruelest, bloodiest rampages the human eye has ever seen on live TV.

Unlike September 1939, when Europe quickly realized that it was looking at a world war, it's not clear whether Europe today realizes what America grasped long ago - that World War III is in full swing. This war is different from all the wars in history. It's not countries fighting countries. It's not a war that can be won by conquest or some cut-and-dried military victory. Because the enemy is terror. It's everywhere and nowhere.

Terror is not bound by the Geneva Convention. Not only is harming civilians not a problem, but those are precisely the targets it seeks out - women, children, old people. Ordinary folk are murdered just because they happen to be there. To make it hurt more. If the Al-Qaida pilots had settled into the cockpit two hours later, the casualty figures for 9/11 would have hit 30,000.

The world has known all kinds of terror since World War II: anarchists like Danny the Red and Carlos; the Irish, the Basques and the Palestinians, spurred on by nationalism. But those who have inflated terror to its current proportions - murdering indiscriminately, shooting helpless children, choosing random targets - are the Muslims, and to what aim no one has entirely figured out.

(appeared September 7th in Ha'Aretz)