The following are excerpts from an article by the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel's Northern Branch, Raed Salah, written less than one month after the 9/11 attacks; in it, Salah espouses antisemitic conspiracy theories on 9/11, and Nazi propaganda. This article was published in the movement's paper, Saut Al-Haqq Wa-Al-Hurriyya, on October 5, 2001.
Whoever Perpetrated the 9/11 Attack Had Israel's Interests in Mind
"Who is the real perpetrator, and when will he be discovered? Why do some people attempt to cover up [the identity of] the real perpetrator? Who is the unique mover [of events] who pushed America into rushing to condemn the Islamic awakening [that is, the Islamist movement] immediately upon the occurrence of the operations, without any proof? Who is the mover who wants to exploit the bombing operations and the blood of this American nation in order to push America into a global war that will leave and spare nothing?
"Faced with this enormous and heavy burden of questions, I am recording the following comments:
1. "The unique mover is one who knew perfectly well that the Israeli government was in trouble because of the results of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and wanted to extract it from this morass.
2. "The unique mover is one who was intimately familiar with the fact that the Israeli establishment had begun to collapse, in terms of economy and tourism, and that it crucially needed a way out, so that its critical situation would not deteriorate any further.
3. "The unique mover is one who knew full well that 50% of the settlers had left their settlements during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and that 10% of them had left their homes in Tel-Aviv and Haifa and Netanya, moving to Europe and America.
4. "The unique mover is one who knows the extent of the anxiety that has spread through Israeli society, so that a large percentage of [its members] take tranquilizers or attend psychiatric clinics.
5. "The unique mover is one who knows that the image of the ideal and pampered Israel has been severely damaged by the insane measures taken by Israeli governments against our Palestinian people.
6. "The unique mover is one who envies our Palestinian people for its strong unity, which has brought together all [Palestinians] despite their divers [approaches] to confronting the Israeli occupation.
7. "The unique mover wanted to carry out the bombings in Washington and New York in order to provide the Israeli establishment with a way out of its entanglements, and in order to divert the attention of the media towards the American continent. This would allow the Israeli establishment to deal with our Palestinian people without [outside interference], and would give the Jewish extremists a rare opportunity to work towards destroying the Al-Aqsa mosque.
8. "The unique mover knew that, on the day the bombing occurred, the leadership of the Islamic diaspora in America was to meet with [former U.S. president] George Bush, Jr. He knew this leadership meant to assert that Muslims must become partners in American decision-making and that Muslim academics must be accepted to government positions.
9. "The unique mover knows that the Islamic diaspora in America has begun to penetrate the fabric of American life and to influence it – so much so that, according to some statistical [data], approximately 90,000 Americans embrace Islam every year.
10. "The unique mover [also] knows and fears the growing influence of the Islamic diaspora in Europe. Suffice it to say that 16 Italians convert to Islam every day, on average...
20. "The unique mover knows that the Israeli administration is ceaselessly penetrating the Arab and Muslim world. It is clear that the Islamic awakening forms a strong barrier which prevents this penetration, or at least limits it. Consequently, [the unique mover deems] it necessary to attack the bases of this awakening...
21. "The unique mover understands that the Durban [resolutions] equating Zionism with racism are very dangerous for him, and that [even] if these efforts have failed [to go any further], they have begun. Hence, they must be foiled in light of the bombing operations in America..."
The Benjamin Franklin Document
24. "The unique mover knows that American history is beset with endless mysteries: Who murdered John Kennedy, and why, considering that he was the first Catholic to become president of the U.S.? Who was behind the Monica [Lewinsky] scandal, and why, and who benefited from it?...
"Considering these endless mysteries, [we may conclude that] the unique mover had no problem adding yet another unprecedented mystery to American history, which is [has always been] riddled with ambiguities and with 1,001 questions, from the [Benjamin] Franklin document[1] until today."
4,000 Jews Were Warned Not To Come to Work on 9/11
25. "Apparently, the unique mover found a suitable way to warn the 4,000 Jews who worked at the World Trade Center, so that they did not come to work on September 11, 2001, which is what actually happened. Was it a coincidence that 4,000 Jewish employees were absent from work, or what? On the other hand, this warning did not reach the 2,000 Muslims who worked at the World Trade Center. Consequently, there were hundreds of Muslim victims.
26. "Perhaps the unique mover read what was written in the British daily The Observer – [namely] that the Western media, and especially the British [media], did dare to mention that Israeli elements were behind the attacks in the U.S. – and I do not know what was the response of the unique mover to [this claim in The Observer].
27. "All of this leads me to ask: Has America fallen into a new Oklahoma trap? Will George Bush sacrifice the entire American nation for the sake of the unique mover, and why? Or does the unique mover have a score to settle with George Bush Jr. and therefore pushed him into this trap, burdening him with something that is beyond his power to cope with? What will the American nation say when it learns that it has been completely deceived in [the matter of] the bombing operations in New York? No doubt, these are difficult questions. However, none of this stops me from reiterating that the future belongs to Islam, even if the infidels dislike it. Though some may disapprove of our calling on George Bush Jr. to embrace Islam, we continue to call on him and on everybody else to embrace it, because it is Allah's religion."
[1] This refers to an allegation that Benjamin Franklin made comments warning against Jewish immigration to the United States during a recess in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The Franklin document is a piece of Nazi propaganda from 1935 that appeared in the Nazi "Handbook on the Jewish Question"; for more on this see MEMRI Special Dispatch 175, "On Antisemitic Statements Attributed to America's Founding Fathers," January 12, 2001, On Antisemitic Statements Attributed to America's Founding Fathers .
