Monday, September 12, 2011

In memoriam "9/11"

How to memorialize "9/11", or rather the nearly 3,000 victims of that heinous attack by Muslim terrorists piloting commercial airliners into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, PA. Of course, there were heroes among them, the 342 NY City Firemen who walked knowingly into that inferno in order to save others and were killed themselves; the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 from Boston bound to San Francisco, that the terrorists turned en route towards Washington, who attacked the hijackers and forced the plane to crash rather than see it aimed at one of America's founding symbols, the White House or the Capitol. But, we always say that in any mass tragedy it is better to focus on one person, one incident in order to appreciate the general sacrifice.

In the Jerusalem Post magazine this weekend (see http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=237220) there was an article about Daniel Lewin, aged 31, a hi-tech engineer, who had boarded United Airlines flight 11 at Logan Airport, Boston, en route to Los Angeles for a business meeting. Lewin was an Israeli and a founder of a hi-tech company called Akamai in Boston. Lewin had made important contributions to the development of the internet and to IBMs systems program Genesys. There were 91 other people aboard the flight that was taken over by 5 terrorists and re-routed towards New York City. Lewin, who was originally from Detroit, had served in the IDF as a member of the General Staff Reconnaisance unit (sayeret matkal) which carried out uniquely dangerous missions. According to testimony given at the time by flight attendants Amy Sweeting and Betty Ong, who both perished, recorded and written down by an air traffic controller and held by the FBI, Lewin attacked the hijackers, but was overpowered and stabbed in the neck and left to die on the floor of the plane. This occurred sometime between the hijacking and when the plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center 30 mins later. Accordingly Lewin was probably the first victim of the "9/11" attacks, and it should be noted that he died fighting the evil. He was a hero and deserves to be remembered by all of us for his courage and sacrifice.

As well as Lewin and the many Jewish people who perished in the incidents, five Israelis were killed in the WTC attack. Israel has the only memorial outside the US that lists the names of all the victims, that is located outside Jerusalem. The incident of "9/11" had a profound impact on the US and the free world. Never again!

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