When the twin towers fell five years ago, it especially touched Israelis. By then, the “second Palestinian uprising or "Intifada” – nearly one year old – had ravaged the streets of Jerusalem, the markets of Tel Aviv, and the roads throughout Judea and Samaria. Suicide attacks, drive-by shootings, and bus bombings had become random and everyday occurrences. A normal commute to work on the bus became a matter of life and death. A Saturday evening out in downtown Jerusalem could have been your last. Memorial markers honoring the dead throughout the city today bear silent witness to those horrible days.

After 9/11 Israelis felt a unique bond with Americans. They grieved since, by then, hundreds of Israelis had died in the “Intifada.” As America was to experience its national tragedy, Israelis too knew the pain of unexpected and sudden terror. Now, in the bond of shared suffering, many felt the U.S. could identify with what it was like to be on the front lines of the war on terror. Many felt this tragedy would allow Americans to understand the threat Israelis had been experiencing on a daily basis for nearly a year.

Some Palestinians mourned with Americans too, but not all. Palestinians cheered in East Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah, and other towns and villages. The footage of Palestinians giving out candy, honking horns, and celebrating in East Jerusalem hit the airwaves while the twin towers were still smoldering. Some Palestinian officials realized the sight of Palestinians cheering at American deaths was the wrong signal and began to quash any other footage showing Palestinians celebrating.

One major television network videotaped a couple of thousand Palestinians celebrating in Nablus. The network’s sound man related the scene to a number of people in one of the local control rooms here in Jerusalem. A Palestinian official told the network they could not guarantee the crew’s safety if the footage was ever broadcast. Because of this veiled threat, the network refused to air the footage despite the efforts of a senior Israeli government official to release it.

But 9/11 transcended the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and put it in a global perspective. On the day that changed the world, one observer in the Jewish quarter said the “vortex” that had enveloped Israel for almost 12 months had now spread to the U.S. and the world. This “vortex” was radical Islam. Just like the menace that rose up in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s, radical Islam emerged to threaten not just Israel but the whole free world.

In those five years since 9/11, the scourge of radical Islam has made its mark in the world from Madrid to Bali or London. Israel itself continues to be on the front line of this war against Islamist terrorism. It fought the longest war in its history against Hezbollah and, by extension, the radical Islamic regime of Iran, which has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Some historians’ compare this conflict to the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s when Nazi Germany stood behind the fascists in Spain in much the same way Iran stood behind the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

With the threat of a nuclear Iran, the future could be as grim for the free world as it was in the 1930’s. Iran’s nuclear ambitions cast its shadow over the Middle East and the world. Today’s headline in the Jerusalem Post is: “World’s Iran policy won’t stop bomb.’” That’s the conclusion of Israel’s chief of military intelligence. However, it doesn’t take an expert in intelligence to see Iran is stalling for time and using the appeasement of the West to continue its drive for the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. If Iran gets the nuclear bomb, then 9/11 –as horrific as it was – might pale in comparison.