We got as far as departures for the connection, where we were stranded with the looping footage of the second plane, and (my clearest memory) a couple of men falling to their deaths–having presumably lept as the better option.

Watching was a case of holding back tears at what was horrific and heart-rending, while at the same time (well aware by that time that nothing is ever sacred where foreign policy (or just politics) is concerned, and of the US’s record at proving it) filled with absolute foreboding as to 1) what a US “response” might entail, and 2) what it would mean for Palestinians, given the immediatly obvious way Israel could capitalize from such an event*.

Of the first, well we can all see those horrors.

Of the second, Sharon’s official reaction & Netanyahu’s unguarded one said it all; with-in a day the IMFA website already had at least two new essays up talking about the inroads al-Qaeda was making in Gaza and the refugee camps of Lebanon (internet was all I had to do, waiting a day and a half for my flight, btw!).

* Note, I am well aware that Israel is far from the only country that sought to capitalize in this way; I was fairly focused on the Palestinian cause at that time, having gone through a very rude five year awakening on I/P (initially prompted by an Israeli official I heard speak making what seemed an outrageously racist remark about Palestinians, and going completely unchallenged on it).

Now that I shared this info, does this makes you feel somewhat better, Becca?

I was still at school, but I remember getting on the school bus and watching tv, a it suddenly dawning on me that this would probably be the defining historical moment of my life time.