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Epilogue
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, terrorist teams commandeered four jetliners departing from airports in Boston; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C. Within forty minutes, they flew two aircraft into the twin towers of Manhattan’s World Trade Center, and a third aircraft into the Pentagon in precisely pla
Most Arab states were uncomfortable with an expanded U.S. military presence in the region. Their lukewarm support for America’s war on terrorism made the United States doubt a number of its long-time allies in the region—none more so than Saudi Arabia. The fact that Bin Ladin and fifteen of the suicide hijackers in the September 11 attacks were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and that private Saudi funds had bankrolled al-Qaida, only worsened relations between the Saudis and the Americans. Other countries came under new scrutiny as well. Egypt was seen as soft on terror, Iran and Iraq were labelled as part of an “axis of evil,” and Syria rose to the top of the ranks of countries supporting terrorism. The Arab states found themselves under irreconcilable pressures after 9/11. If they opposed America’s war on terror, they risked sanctions that might range from economic isolation to outright calls for regime change by the world’s sole superpower. If they took America’s side, they opened their own territory to the threat of terror attacks by local jihadi cells inspired by Bin Ladin’s example. Between May and November 2003, cities in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Turkey were rocked by multiple bomb attacks that left 125 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded. In November 2005, three hotels were ripped apart by coordinated bombs in Amman, Jordan, that left 57 dead and hundreds wounded—nearly all of them Jordanians. The Arab world faced tremendously difficult choices as it managed its relations with the United States. The same pressures that drove America and the Arabs apart drew Israel and America closer together. And the more America took Israel’s side, the greater its tensions with the Arab world. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon persuaded President George W. Bush that the United States and Israel faced a common war on terror. The Second Intifada, which broke out in September 2000, had grown increasingly violent by the time of the 9/11 attacks. Palestinian suicide bombers had inflicted heavy civilian casualties on Israeli society. According to Israeli government figures, Palestinian groups carried out thirty-five suicide bomb attacks in 2001, causing 85 deaths. The death toll more than doubled the following year, with fifty-five suicide attacks killing 220 Israelis in 2002.2 The worst incident came in March 2002 when Hamas suicide bombers killed 30 and wounded 140 Israelis celebrating Passover in a hotel in Netanya. The use of suicide bombings by Islamist groups to target i