4,000 Israelis did not show up for work

Claim

4,000 Israelis did not show up for work on September 11 2001. ⁰

Background

The claim indicates that Jews, employed in and about the World Trade Center, had been warned in advance about the terror attacks on September 11 2001.

Fact

The story derives from an article in The Jerusalem Post published the day after the terror attack:

“The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attack.
The list is made up of people who have not yet made contact with friends or family, Army Radio reported.”¹

The 4,000 is thus merely a guess, based on family members in the area, regardless of whether they were American citizens with or without employment or merely tourists who happened to be in the area on September 11 2001, all of whom was unable to be reached in the ensuing chaos.

Shortly after the attack, the phone lines were overloaded when relatives tried to contact family members in New York. ²

“For example, the city had somehow received reports of many Israelis feared missing at the site and President Bush in his address to the country on Thursday night mentioned that about 130 Israelis had died in the attacks. But Friday, Alon Pinkas, Israel’s consul general here, said that lists of the missing included reports from people who had called in because, for instance, relatives in New York had not returned their phone calls from Israel.
There were, in fact, only three Israelis who had been confirmed as dead: two on the planes and another who had been visiting the towers on business and who was identified and buried”.¹

The myth quickly found a more than willing audience, e.g. through the Lebanese television station Al Manar and other anti-Jewish groups who spread it via the Internet where it also found a home among conspiracy theories about the terror attack on September 11 2001. ³

Logic

New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, the three states in the so-called New York Metropolitan area, are home to the largest Jewish population outside the borders of Israel: About 1,970,000. Of these, about 972,000 Ashkenazi Jews were living in New York City. ⁴

If the Jews of New York had been warned beforehand, it is very unlikely that none have spilled the beans. It is difficult enough to keep a secret in a small group for a brief period of time but clearly implausible for such a large group for more than a decade.

It is illogical that the New World Order should be selectively sparing Jews, but not Christians, solely based on the fact that several in the U.S. Government, then President George W. Bush, were Christians or belonged to all sorts of other religions than merely Judaism.

It is in conflict with the New World Order’s goal with a false flag operation to scare the population into accepting going to war, e.g. to murder as many Americans as possible, if at the same time efforts are made to spare the Jews. The fear of a new Holocaust, this time with global terror attacks as a means of extermination, would undoubtedly create far better international support for the planned initiatives than what the terror attack actually resulted in.

Conclusion

The claim is therefore:

• Undocumented
• Unlikely
• Illogical

Sources

0. Alleged absence of Jewish employees, 9/11 conspiracy theories, Wikipedia
   Paula Zahn Now, CNN, 30. januar, 2007

   Ekstra Bladet: “Ahmadinejad: 9/11 var propaganda”

   “Evidence that Israelis had been forewarned several hours before the attacks surfaced at an Israeli instant messaging service, known as Odigo. This story, clear evidence of Israeli prior knowledge, was reported only briefly in the U.S. media – and quickly forgotten.”
   Christopher Bollyn, erichufschmid.net

   Stormfront: 4,000 Israeli Employees in WTC Absent the Day of the Attack

1. Thousands of Israelis missing near WTC, Pentagon, Jerusalem Post, 12. september 2001
2. Communication during the September 11 attacks, Wikipedia
3. Slate: 4,000 Jews, 1 Lie – Tracking an Internet hoax (Webarchive)
   What They are Saying, Anti-Defamation League, 24. september 2001
4. Demographics of New York City, Wikipedia

Q & A