Ralph Johnson of Seattle asks on Saturday, February 1, 2003 how many Israelis were among the 3,000 victims of 9/11.

A surprising figure

A LOCAL talk show host claims it is an “urban myth” that there were few if no Jewish or Israeli casualties on September 11 [2001]What is the truth?

Ralph Johnson

Related items on the Internet

 Ha’aretz: Israel and 9/11

 Screenshot archive of online news sites Sept 11, 2001

Glad to respond. Answer: Five — three Israelis in the buildings, two on the planes… Source: the main Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. On this Ha’aretz web page, they post thumbnail bios of the five (count ’em — five) Israeli victims of 9/11. They include:

• 2 people on the ill-fated flights (1 woman, 1 man — the Mossad agent Daniel Levin, shot by a hijacker sitting behind him on AA11)
• 1 deaf, 51-year-old London-born janitor who was working at the WTC that day
• 1 29-year-old man who was also at work (at Cantor Fitzgerald)
• 1 34-year-old man who happened to be at the WTC for a meeting

Perhaps you remember President George W Bush’s lying speech to a joint session of the Congress on Sept. 20, 2001 [full text], when he enumerated the people of many nationalities who were killed that day. Right up fron, he made a point of mentioning Israel’s dead, “…more than 130 Israelis.” If the word went around to skip work that day — and there is only the most tenuous evidence that it did — the poor deaf janitor did not hear it.