Hi, Matt--

On October 5, This American Life ran an episode called "Rashomon", which looked at the events of 9-11 through different eyes. Act I, "1001 Arabian Nightly Newscasts", features interviews with a Palestinian teenage girl living in Chicago, as well as other Palestinians. The girl remarked that she had heard on overseas Arabic radio that thousands of Jews didn't report to work at the WTC on Sept. 11, and that this was because they had been warned, because the Israelis were behind the attacks. When the reporter challenged her with simple arithmetic (that would mean that almost half of the people working in the WTC were Jewish), she was confused, defensive, yet adamant. This was The Truth.

(Anyone interested can listen to the program on RealAudio by going to the website, www.thislife.org, clicking on "01" under "Episodes/RealAudio by year" in the blue sidebar on the left, and scrolling down to "Rashomon; October 5, 2001, episode 196". Click on the RealAudio button. You can't select an interview, and the show is an hour long, but the Palestinian girl is in the first segment. You might find the rest of the show interesting as well: check out the program notes.)

This is hatred at its most profound, hatred that confounds logic and self-interest. Hatred like this hijacks not only planes, but hearts and minds of whole peoples. This is what, ultimately, we will have to confront and fight if we are to defeat terrorism. It's not enough to call it garbage and blow it off. It's more than garbage. It's toxic waste.

Regards--
Mary Anne