The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 13

14A Wednesday, September 12, 2001 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennessean. com 3 DAY OF TERROR: INTERNATIONAL REACTION Palestinians celebrate tragedy in America r. J'- fX 1 1 I i 1 jff JtbJ Vji h4 7.i ri-YJ, vm t. VV'K 'N. mxixx '4SS While Arab leaders express dismay, streets erupt in jubilation The Washington Pusl CAIRO, Egypt With the World Trade Center and Pentagon in flames, Arab governments expressed condolences to the United States yesterday and condemned such attacks on civilian lives.

But some of their citizens celebrated in the streets over a comeuppance they feel the world's sole remaining superpower deserved for its support of Israel. Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip cheered the attack, distributing candy and firing weapons in a show of glee over what they described as a retaliatory blow against U.S. cooperation with Israel. Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon fired weapons into the air in celebration. "The people here are gloating over the American grief," said Emad Salameh, 29, a taxi driver in Gaza "Apache helicopters, tanks and all kinds of destructive weapons have been killing Palestinian infants and women.

Palestinians have been crying and suffering, and now it is time for Americans to cry and suffer." "This is revenge from Allah," said Khaled Saada, 25, a clothing store owner in Gaza City. The reaction in Israel was starkly different. Many Israelis said they felt as if the attacks had occurred in Israel itself and expressed hope that now Americans will better understand Israel's tough tactics toward Palestinians. The outpouring among Arabs contrasted sharply with official condemnations issued by several Arab leaders, including the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. "I send my condolences, the condolences of the Palestinian people to American President Bush and his government and to the American people for this terrible act," Arafat told reporters in Gaza "We completely condemn this serious operation.

We were completely shocked." Mubarak called the attacks in New York and Washington horrific and added, "Egypt firmly and strongly condemns such attacks on civilians and soldiers that led to the deaths of a large number of innocent victims." But the street reactions in Lebanon and Palestinian-run areas of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank reflected a popular sentiment expressed often by Arabs frustrated over U.S. policy and, to some extent, by their leaders. Arab leaders and citizens have expressed growing anger over U.S. political support and military aid for Israel, regarding Washington as implicated in the violence that has claimed 700 lives over the last year, most of them Palestinians. Islamic fundamentalist groups, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, also are offended by the U.S.

military presence in Saudi Arabia the birthplace of Islam, while U.S.-led economic sanctions and airstrikes agaiast Iraq have become increasingly unpopular among Arabs. An editorial this week in the Israelis aghast at horror ofimages Knifhl Ridder Hem Service JERUSALEM At the site of one of this country's most deadly terrorist explosions, Israeli workers were shocked at the pictures coming in from New York yesterday. "We've lived with this for so long, but quite frankly, it's nothing on this scale," said Hila Paran, a waitress at Sbarro Pizza in downtown Jerusalem. The store is scheduled to reopen today nearly a month after a suicide bomber blew it up, killing 15 people. "I cannot conceive of anything like this, the pain, the size, even after what we went through," said Paran, who narrowly missed being in the pizza parlor when it was destroyed She lost one very close friend in the Sbarro bombing.

At one restaurant, a waiter found himself counseling two Americans: "We're all here in shock. I'm very sorry this is happening to you." The reaction was the same throughout Jerusalem East and West last night as Israelis gathered along streets and in bars and restaurants watching 24-hour coverage of the carnage from the United States. Despite a deadly spate of bombings that have killed dozens of people here in the past several months, few said they could comprehend what had happened in New York and Washington. "On one hand, there's a temptation to tell Americans 'I told you said a young Orthodox Jewish man who didn't want his name used. "But even if we said that here, I don't think we could have ever predicted something like this, as much as we've lived with ter- J.

ror." 1 At Pizza Ben Yehuda, on Ben Yehuda Street, dozens of people were crowded in a small space watching the devastation on CNN. "I'm in shock. I've never seen anything like this. It's beyond words, even for us," said Yael Avraham, 45. "It's beyond words, yet watching this, you just feel this urge to act, to act now, to act hard, agaiast anyone." By coincidence, a delegation from the Broward Jewish Federation is here this week to show solidarity with IsraeL But as news broke about the bombing, Israelis ended up showing their solidarity with them.

A team that specializes in helping bombing survivors asked whether any of the visiting Floridians needed counseling. "It's utterly unbelievable and disgusting," said David Paikin, foundation director for the Broward Federation. "The last couple of days we've been hearing about terrorist attacks and suicide bombers and then this happens. It's like something out of a movie." In some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, militant Palestinians cheered and handed out candy while praising Osama Bin Laden, assuming that the Saudi terrorist was responsible. But in Arab East Jerusalem, Palestinians looked as shocked and ashen as anyone else.

Many Palestinians, while polite to Americans on a personal level, are angry at the United States for supplying Apache attack helicopters and F-16 jet fighters that the Israelis have used to attack their towns and villages in the West Bank and Gaza "I have mixed feelings a lot of innocent people were killed," said Mohammed Aweidah, a 24, a shopkeeper. "A lot of Arabs' and Muslims were probably killed, and people that had nothing to do with the problems here." "On a humanitarian level I cannot support this," said George Mina 40, an engineer. "On a political level the U.S. foreign policy bears some responsibility for double standards in the world. If it doesn't provoke the sane, then it provokes the insane." sweets from a vendor as groups of locals in East Jerusalem's Old City celebrate after hearing the news of a Center in New York yesterday.

Although there was no proof, many Israelis assumed the culprits in the attacks on U.S. soil came from the Islamic world. Now, they said, Americans would finally understand Israel's predicament and think twice before condemning Israel's assassinations of Pales- l.r.v sonal and psychological bonds between the two countries would grow tighter than ever. "I feel sad because now the Americans will be like us: scared, angry, not safe," said Ilanit Amsalem, 36, a teacher in Jerusalem. "I always thought of the U.S.

as some sort of a Disneyland: innocent, naive and childlike, a place that didn't have all the scars that we have. Now they'll be cynical like us and they'll start looking for revenge, like we do." "Now the Americans won't judge us," said Shuki Barkan, a student in Jerusalem. "Now they'll get it, that these terrorists, all of them, aren't human beings. They'll do anything. And so maybe (the United States) won't be so quick "millennium" bomb plot, in which Islamic radicals tied to Osama bin Laden used Quebec and British Columbia as staging grounds for planned attacks against U.S.

targets. Those plans were thwarted after an Algerian national named Ahmed Ressam was caught by U.S. authorities carrying explosives across the border. Canadians were nearly as shocked by Tuesday's attacks as Americans themselves. The two nations are deeply intertwined by blood kinship and business there are probably few Canadians without a close relative or friend living in the United States.

The Canadian Consulate in New York City was investigating the likelihood that some Canadians were victims of the World Trade Center attacks. At Montreal's Dorval Airport, travelers who found themselves stranded in Quebec remained somber. "How can I complain? I am alive amid a national calamity," said Daniel Lepage, 76, who had been headed home to Boston after visiting relatives in Quebec. His flight and suffering, and now it is course, we are sad that so many innocent to die, but the Americans need to come from their tower and see the reaction to what their government does." Mahmoud Hassanein, a Cairo shop owner tinian leaders and other attacks on Islamic militants involved in the year-old uprising against Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Partly in sympathy, partly in relief, many Israelis said the longstanding political, military, per Canadians open up their airports, hearts to U.S.

A Palestinian woman receives free terrorist attack on the World Trade Saudi daily al-Jazirah, for instance, cautioned that "latent Arab forces" might lash out against U.S. interests in ways that Arab states would not. "Of course, we are sad that so many innocent people have to die, but the Americans need to come down from their tower and see the reaction to what their government does," said Mah-moud Hassanein, a shop owner in Maadi section of Cairo. "It is all related" to U.S. support tor Israel, said Bakir Haisam, owner of a textile shop in the upscale Amman neighborhood of ShmeisanL "Here, most of the people will appreciate such a thing.

In a way, I think it is a good thing. Perhaps it is a little improper but it is complicated." forced to remain aboard stranded jumbo planes or in terminals last night as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police conducted exhaustive searches of the aircraft and baggage, and closely questioned each passenger. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, where about 50 European and U.S. flights were forced to land, travelers were shuttled to sports facilities converted into temporary shelters and interrogation centers. Travelers were questioned closely on both sides of the border and almost every vehicle entering the United States was subjected to a close search, a highly unusual procedure.

Tightened security also caused huge traffic jams yesterday at the American border with Mexico, where U.S. authorities were on high alert. In Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, some cars waited YA hours to get into the United States because of stringent security checks. Similar checks caused a massive traffic jam at the border crossing in Tijuana, the world's busiest "Of people have down to condemn us. It was easy for them to be so super-righteous when (terror) didn't affect them." The official Israeli reaction was to assume a defensive crouch nearly as broad as America's own, assuming that the coordinated attacks in the United States might presage attacks on the Jewish state.

Israeli airspace was closed to all flights originating overseas unless they had Israeli security guards on board, as do flights on El AL the national carrier. Israel evacuated its embassy and consulates in the United States, leaving only key personnel The air force went on high alert for any unauthorized planes heading toward Israeli airspace. Extra security was added at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.

Israel, well rehearsed in public disasters, offered to send rescue teams to the United States. was canceled. "This is a dark and terrible day." Canadians reacted in disbelief and horror at the events unfolding next door. "This is not terrorism, this is war," said Peter Mans-bridge, the highly respected anchorman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's national news network, which joined other major television and radio stations in providing nonstop broadcasts about the attacks. The most common reaction among Canadians was empathy for their stricken neighbor.

In Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia, hospitals prepared emergency wards and surgical teams in anticipation of an overflow of patients from the United States. "It's a precautionary measure, we don't know for certain if Canada will handle patients," said Craig Duhamel, spokesman for Toronto's Sunnybrook Women's Health Sciences Center, a top teaching hospital "But we want to be prepared to help our neighbor any way we possibly Tttuusstm Sen Services MONTREAL As hundreds of aircraft bound for the United States were diverted to Canadian airports and Canadian authorities tightened security as an emergency measure, horrified citizens across the northern land that considers itself America's best friend rushed to donate blood for victims of yesterday's attacks in New York and Washington. Every commercial airport in Canada was ordered closed. Their runways served as diversion points for more than 500 passenger and cargo craft that originally set out for U.S. destinations from Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Within two hours of the attacks, Canada had transformed itself into a sort of emergency runway for the entire continent. The world's longest undefended border remained opened yesterday, but delays stretched for hours at the busiest points and U.S. immigration officials were generally permitting only American citizens and Canadians with urgent business to cross. Thousands of travelers were Despite concerns of closures, all main border crossings along the border were to remain open, the U.S. Customs Service said.

President Vicente Fox expressed "solidarity and our most profound condolences" to the United States and said Mexico's diplomatic missions in the United States canceled independence day celebrations this weekend. A grim Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien pledged that his country would provide whatever assistance was necessary and condemned what he termed "a cowardly and depraved attack" on Canada's closest ally. Meanwhile, Canadian investigative teams working with the FBI probed the possibility that individuals involved in the deadly assaults in the United States might have links to terrorist cells that authorities believe to be active in Montreal and Toronto. Although law enforcement sources stressed that there was no evidence so far of a Canadian connection, police remember 1999's Palestinians have been crying i 'The people here are gloating over the American grief A time for Americans to cry and suffer'' -Emad Salameh, 29-year-old taxi driver in Gaza.