At the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Israel was governed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and was deeply embroiled in the Second Intifada, a period of intense and violent conflict with Palestinians marked by frequent suicide bombings and military operations. [1, 2, 3]
Political Leadership and Domestic Context
The Prime Minister: Ariel Sharon of the right-wing Likud party took office in March 2001, replacing Ehud Barak after the collapse of the 2000 Camp David peace summit. [1, 4, 5, 6]
The Second Intifada: By September 2001, the Palestinian uprising had been raging for a year. Israel was experiencing severe security challenges, with frequent attacks on civilians in cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. [2, 3]
Immediate Reaction to 9/11
Official Solidarity: Prime Minister Sharon immediately condemned the attacks, declared a national day of mourning, and offered to send specialized Israeli search-and-rescue teams to New York City. [7]
Public Outpouring: On September 12, thousands of Israelis lined up to donate blood for American victims. Years later, Israel built the 9/11 Living Memorial Plaza in Jerusalem, which remains the only memorial outside the United States to list the names of all 2,977 victims. [3, 7]
Strategic Security Actions: Fearing a broader global conflict or coordinated attacks, Israel immediately increased military alerts, closed its land borders, and temporarily grounded civilian airspace. [8]
Geopolitical Shifts and Diplomatic Tension
Framing Terrorism: Figures like Sharon and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the attacks proved the U.S. and Israel shared a “bond of spilled blood” and faced a common extremist enemy. Over the long term, 9/11 shifted American foreign policy toward a global “War on Terror,” which ultimately aligned U.S. counterterrorism strategies closely with Israeli military tactics.
Early Diplomatic Friction: In the immediate weeks following 9/11, temporary friction arose between Washington and Jerusalem. President George W. Bush’s administration sought to build a broad international coalition against Al-Qaeda that included Arab nations like Saudi Arabia and Syria. Fearing that the U.S. might make diplomatic concessions to Arab states at Israel’s expense, Sharon publicly stated that Israel would not “pay the price” to stabilize the region for Washington’s coalition. [8, 9, 10, 11]
Impact on the Palestinian Authority
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat publicly deplored the 9/11 attacks and was filmed donating blood to American victims. However, scattered television broadcasts showing small groups of Palestinians celebrating the attacks in East Jerusalem and Nablus damaged global sympathy. Arafat quickly recognized that the Western perception of political violence had fundamentally changed, leading him to heavily suppress those celebrations and order armed groups to temporarily halt operations to avoid having the Palestinian movement branded as synonymous with Al-Qaeda. [2, 8]
[1] en.wikipedia.org
[2] npr.org
[3] facebook.com
[4] ebsco.com
[5] britannica.com
[6] gov.il
[7] en.wikipedia.org
[8] nytimes.com
[9] washingtoninstitute.org
[10] aljazeera.com
[11] theguardian.com
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