The Hero in Seat 9B
Danny Lewin is believed to have been the first person killed on September 11, 2001. An American-Israeli seated in Seat 9B on American Airlines Flight 11, he had spent four years as an officer in Sayeret Matkal, one of Israel’s most elite units, and was flying from Boston to Los Angeles when the hijackers struck. The 9/11 Commission concluded he was stabbed, probably by Satam al-Suqami, the hijacker seated directly behind him, and that he may have been trying to stop the two hijackers in front of him when it happened. He left behind his wife Anne and two sons, Eitan and Itamar.
The very next day, September 12, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that we had begun a “struggle of the free world against the forces of darkness.” He vowed that Israel stood ready to help with anything America needed.
America and Israel face the same network of enemies. Iran, which the 9/11 Commission found had facilitated the transit of eight to ten of the hijackers before the attacks, has been on the U.S. terror-sponsor list since 1984 and funds terrorist groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis of Yemen, groups that have pledged Israel’s destruction.
It is not common enemies or shared values alone that make Israel an indispensable ally. Israel collaborates with America on defense research and innovation that not only maintains the U.S. military’s edge but also keeps our servicemen and civilians safe. Under a ten-year agreement signed in 2016, nearly all of the support America sends is spent with American defense manufacturers and on the systems that keep civilians safe from terrorist rockets.
On October 7, the two countries bled together. The Hamas invaders who slaughtered more than 1,200 innocents that day also killed 46 Americans, and the 251 hostages they took included 12 American citizens.
Twenty-five years on, we should be grateful for an ally that says the hard things, and then holds its own ground. Israel’s pragmatic approach to regional security, forced on it by a hard strategic position, also means that, unlike most of America’s more geographically protected allies, we can count on Jerusalem to render real military support against our enemies when the chips are down.
A CNN poll this spring found that 47 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of Democrats say the divide over Israel is causing problems inside their own party. The consensus that once held both parties together is fracturing on both sides. The argument is that this is not our fight. Danny Lewin, the man in seat 9B, did not get to choose whether it was his.
This year, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death falls on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, which Jewish liturgy calls Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Remembrance. Remembering is the assignment.
