JERUSALEM — Here in the Middle East, crucible of much of the world's terrorism, the horror gripping the United States on Tuesday reverberated loudly among Israelis and Palestinians.
Leaders throughout the region expressed shock and condemned the bizarre series of suicide hijackings and mass murders. Some Israelis ventured that perhaps now, world opinion will mobilize behind their own battle with terrorism. And some Palestinians celebrated the attacks, so angry are they at the United States for supporting Israel in its fight against the Palestinians.
Many Israelis suspected that anti-Israel sentiment may ultimately be found behind the American disaster.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an emergency meeting of his security Cabinet, expressed condolences to the U.S. government and immediately offered assistance, including the dispatch of Israel's crack rescue-and-recovery teams, which were used after the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and after numerous earthquakes. He said in a national address that the attacks were aimed at destroying "freedom and our common values."
Israel evacuated its diplomatic missions throughout the United States, put its air force on alert and closed its airspace and borders. No flight will be allowed to land at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv unless there is an Israeli security guard on board.
"I hope the world now understands that its No. 1 enemy is Islamic terror," Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said as he canceled a scheduled trip to Washington.
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, in Gaza City, quickly condemned the series of attacks.
"We are completely shocked," Arafat said after he watched the news unfold on television, his aides at his side. "We completely condemn this very dangerous attack. It's an unbelievable disaster. It is touching our hearts. . . . God help them. God help them."
Similarly, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and the government of Jordan expressed their shock and condolences.
On Palestinian and Arab streets, however, reaction was mixed.
Izzat Hassan Ali, who owns the Jihad grocery store in Cairo, said he felt nothing but pleasure at the thought of Americans dying.
"As they did to other people [it] is happening to them now. They hit innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now it backfired on them," he said, in an apparent reference to the Persian Gulf War and the U.S. strike on Afghanistan after the 1998 embassy bombings.
