– asked Danny Lewin. He wanted the good Arabs to have a chance, and to have rights.
And I ask, “What about the good Arabs? Where are they? Why do they not stand up for what is good and right; why do they sit quietly and watch innocent Jews be murdered, maimed, and terrorized? Why do they not fight for us in the propaganda war? Where are the good Arabs?”
Because silence is agreement.
If there are good Arabs in this world, let them stand up and fight the murderous Arabs in the news, on the web, in the media, in politics. If there are no Arabs willing to stand up for us, willing to teach their children that we are good, then they are all murderous – some actively, and some passively.
In honor – dubious honor – of September 11th, the day the world opened its eyes to terrorism, only to shut them and go back to sleep less than a year later – I present to you a tribute to the first victim of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001: Danny Lewin.
The gym owner’s responded in his typically blunt manner: “Because we don’t want any trouble—”; yet, before he could further clarify, Danny Lewin boldly asked again: “What about the good Arabs?!” . . .
. . . He married at 21 and raised two young boys with his wife. He received his B.S. from the Technion, working long hours as a teaching assistant there and as a researcher for IBM in Haifa. . . Two years later, while working on his Ph.D., he founded Akamai Technologies which offered a new and revolutionary way to deliver content over the Internet. By 2001, Danny was widely recognized as one of the most influential technologists of his generation. One well-known trade publication ranked him as the seventh most important technologist in the world.
If Danny had not been sitting in front of a terrorist, perhaps American 11 would have been saved. We will never know.
What we do know is that terrorism can be prevented. And the best prevention is deterrence.
May Danny’s memory be blessed, along with the memories of all other victims of Arab terror.
May we learn from the past, and not make the same mistakes in the future.
May this year be a year of good news, blessings, health, safety, and long life for the entire Jewish people.
