Chicago — Sept. 27. 9/27. That date doesn’t come within a trillion miles of having the same power as does Sept. 11.
In truth, Sept. 27 makes Sept. 11 look like a minor incident. Yet the first anniversary of Sept. 11 was the occasion for an outpouring of remembrances and observances and memorials, the occasion for the expression of all kinds of thoughts and feelings.
The second anniversary of Sept. 27 went by barely noticed, just as the first anniversary of Sept. 27 did. It shouldn’t have. Not by Jews.
Sept. 27 is the date the second intifada began. On Sept. 27, 2000, Sgt. David Biri, 19, of Jerusalem, was fatally wounded in a bombing in the Gaza Strip.
Sept. 11, was of course, a horrible day on which 3,000 innocent men, women and children lost their lives, a day that shook us, scared us, made us feel what we had never felt before.
But Sept. 11 was also one day. From then until now, there have been no other acts of terrorism against Americans in America. None.
In fact, outside of having to wait in longer lines and occasionally have our shoes inspected at the airport, Sept. 11 has not changed our lives at all. We do what we have always done.
We’re mindful of what happened on Sept. 11, especially near its anniversary. But it happened only once and at the symbols of capitalism and military power, in New York and Washington, D.C. For most of us, it is something distant, fading more each day.
Yet, look at how we’ve reacted to Sept. 11. We have said that we are in a war that justifies us doing whatever we want, wherever we want to whomever we want for as long as it takes.
We will overthrow governments in Afghanistan, Iraq and, after that, as we deem necessary. We will take any action in whatever place to get those who did what was done to us Sept. 11. No matter what anyone else in the world thinks. All because of what happened on one day.
Cost of not acting
I think America is absolutely right to feel as it does, to be acting as it has and will. I believe we are the force for good in this world and that it is not only our right, but our duty, to root out evil, to ensure that some madmen, claiming to be doing God’s work, don’t destroy us while we debate the finer points of judicial etiquette.
If the 20th century taught us nothing else, it is that evil thrives when good people sit back. There are always reasons not to act. It is always easier not to act.
Tens of millions of dead people from the 20th century — including my grandparents — are testimony to the cost of not acting. Or acting late.
But let us have some perspective when considering how incredible the Israeli people have been since Sept. 27. Unlike Sept. 11, the intifada was not a one-day affair.
Indeed, exactly two years later, it is still going on.
Indeed, between the time I write and the time you read this, it is likely more Israelis will have been murdered.
Sept. 27 makes Sept. 11 look minor because the hell didn’t began and end with Sept. 27, as it did with Sept. 11. From Sept. 27, 2000, to Sept. 27, 2002 — 730 days — there were 1,072 terror attacks in Israel against Israelis, in which 623 people were killed.
If you compare the populations of the United States and Israel, per capita, 623 Israelis being killed is like 31,150 Americans being killed, or ten times the number of people killed on Sept. 11.
Sept. 11 was one day. We were shocked and freaked. But by the first anniversary of Sept. 11, we had time to heal, recoup, absorb, move on. To leaven our fear with pride and patriotism.
Sept. 27 hasn’t stopped. And not just in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel’s New York and Washington, but in every corner of the country. And not just in giant, symbolic buildings like the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but in pizza shops and ice cream parlors and buses and bat mitzvah halls and vegetable markets and hotel banquet rooms.
When it came time to mark the first anniversary of Sept. 11, America and Americans held stirring ceremonies, watched tear-evoking TV specials, heard rousing speeches, took part in concerts and parades, flag-raisings and building dedications. We mourned for what was, but rejoiced for what is.
Israel marked the second anniversary of Sept. 27 with no pomp and circumstance. It couldn’t, for the circumstances it finds itself living with are no different this Sept. 27 than they were two years ago.
In just the last few weeks, the charred body of David Buhbut, 67, of Ma’ale Adumim, shot in the head, was found near a Palestinian village east of Jerusalem, the victim of a terrorist killing.
Yosef Ijmi, 36, of Jerusalem was killed when terrorists opened fire on his car near Mevo Dotan, north of Jenin in the West Bank.
Solomon Honig, 79, of Tel Aviv; Yossi Mamistavlov, 39, of Or Yehuda; Yaffa Shemtov Hanoun, 49, of Tel Aviv; Rosanna Siso, 63, of Gan Yavneh; Ofer Zinger, 29, of Moshav Pazael; and Jonathan (Yoni) Jesner, 19, of Glasgow, Scotland, were killed and about 70 people were wounded when a terrorist detonated a bomb in a bus in Tel Aviv.
Shlomo Yitzhak Shapira, 48, of Jerusalem was killed and three of his children wounded, one seriously, in a shooting attack near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
Having gone through Sept. 11, Americans think we have some sense of what Israelis have been going through. In truth we have absolutely no idea. Indeed, the danger is that because of Sept. 11, we fool ourselves into thinking we really know.
We cannot. We don’t know. We can’t even imagine.
Imagine if there had been 1,072 terrorist attacks in or near the city where you live or all over your state for two years. Try to imagine what living with that is like. You can’t, but you can try.
As American Jews, we lived one terrible day. Israeli Jews have lived through a Sept. 11 every day, day after day, for the last 730 days.
If you feel pride as an American for how we dealt with and responded to Sept. 11, imagine, just imagine, the admiration you should feel as a Jew for what Israelis have gone through and are going through, for the dignity and resilience and courage and determination and fortitude they have shown.
Imagine the pure, unadulterated, overwhelming nachas you should feel in the Jewish state and the Jewish people living there.
Joseph Aaron is editor and publisher of the Chicago Jewish News.
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