3000 Israelis or Jews don't show up to work on 9-11 - Can someone help me debunk this?

[free biscet]

Can some help me with this. I keep on getting e-mails and articles to my list from folks, even coservative ones, that state that 3000 to 4000 Israelis or Jews did not show up to work in the World Trade Center on 9/11. This is lunacy. I hate conspiracy theories - and I don't believe this - but what are your opinions. It disturbs me when so called conservatives say these things especially when we must support Israel. Or are they really conservatives? Pardon me for asking such a stupid question.

[LaraCroft]

http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://slate.msn.com/%3Fid=116813

might help

[Stone Mountain]

Ridiculous on the face of it. What kind of communication network would have to be in place for this to work? More here:

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/israel.htm

[andrew]

Some issues are worthy of debate. Some are not. I can guarantee you a good thorough explanation with documentation is the least your debating partner needs. Anyone who believes this is pretty much terminal.

[Paradox]

Most conspiracy theories are for the intellectually lazy, thus their spread in "backward" areas of the world like the Middle East and Latin America. The sight www.snopes.com sight debunks most of these types of things. They are pretty accurate too. They debunk this one right here.

[Physicist]

It disturbs me when so called conservatives say these things especially when we must support Israel. Or are they really conservatives?

I would say they aren't really conservatives. They probably come from the Holocaust-denying David Duke crowd. Just ask them to remove your name from the email list and have done with them.

[zarf]

Just tell them that Gearge Washington was a figment of the white man's imagination. The first president was actually a native American. Washington was created from whole cloth in order to justify white domination of the new country.

Then tell them to prove you wrong.

When they come up with so called evidence to contradict your claim, call the evidence "fabricated".

[lsee]

From the Snopes report Is it any surprise that this story emanated from Pravda and Al-Manar Television, the pro-Palestinian "Channel of Arabs and Muslims"?

Stories like this one are attempts by the guilty to deflect blame from themselves onto their hated enemy, the Jews. Totally untrue and typical of the perpetrators. People and groups with an axe to grind ignore the evidence and continue to spread lies like this "Jews knew" to further their own agendas.

[aristeides]

Aren't the conspiracy theories saying that foreknowledge of 9/11 was pretty widespread among Moslems in the NYC area pretty well-sourced? Are you saying that people who believe in those theories as well are intellectually lazy?

I'm not one of those who believe in the claims that 4,000 Israelis or Jews stayed away from the WTC on 9/11 because they had been warned. But I would like to see the claims debunked. It ought to be fairly easy to show, using the NY Times memorial series, that a reasonably large number of Jews were killed on 9/11.

[SerpentDove]

THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS didn't show up in time for the attack, thankfully! So big deal.

[AppyPappy]

There weren't 4000 Israelis IN the WTC. Ask them to name them.

[imperator007]

I personally know Jews that were killed at the WTC. (Including the chief of the Port Authority) There were several Israelis killed as well. It is nice of you to bring up this anti Jewish libel. I am a little suspicious of your motives.

[shadowman99]

Do you beat your wife? Prove it.

You can't counter the argument of somebody who wants to believe something, no matter how outragious.

[El Sordo]

Consider whether or not it's even worth your time. Those who would beleive this kind of rumor tend to be beyond any help of logical argument anyway.

[Bob Buchholz]

Don't know how to tell y'all this, but it is true. I know of at least 8, right here in NC that didn't show up to work at the WTC that day. Course they all work here and would have had to make a long trip to NY. So I'd bet that there were at least 2992 other Jews across the country that didn't show to work there that day. Sharon didn't show up that day either, neither did Bill Clinton or Alec Baldwin.

[archy]

An immediate question in reply would be to ask how many did so perish- at least 130 Israeli citizens, many of whom almost certainly held dual citizenship.

So if less than 130 Jordanians and Egyptians were killed, does that indiacte that they were warned away- and/or were resoponsible for the attacks? And of course, Israelis are a lot more sensitive to both actual warnings of potential attacks and to personal habits of avoiding such prime target locations, based on their experience as victims of terrorist bombings over the last decade. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some Israelis gave others prudent warnings that the Islamist terrorists might try to bomb the WTC again. But that does not indicate that it was those so warned who were responsible, only that their intelligenmce sources are better than ours- hardly a surprise.

And, of course, consider the probable origins of the reports of the absent Jews/Israelis.

-archy-/-

[VOA]

IIRC, the brother of the guy who heads Cantor-Fitzgerald perished.
(and, although I'm presuming this, I think these brothers are of Jewish ethnicity).

Oops, I've probably given some Islamic nut fodder for another conspiracy theory...some Jews
who know about the attack even let relatives perish so the secret wouldn't get out...

[Paradox]

Are you saying that people who believe in those theories as well are intellectually lazy?

I said "most" conspiracy theories. Sure there are some that have some good evidence, but I believe the majority are bogus. The worst part about them is that any evidence to the contrary is claimed to be fabricated, part of the conspiracy, therefore it becomes more evidence FOR the conspiracy!These theories are non-falsifiable. "Falsifiability is the internal logic in a theory that allows a logical test to see if it is right or wrong." Thus they are BAD theories (logically speaking).

I know from personal experience how well these theories sell in Latin America, and I have read about how much mileage they get in the Middle East. Coincidentally (?) both these areas of the world are, well, somewhat backwards if not brutal.

[Cicero]

There's really no argument you can make with people who are impervious to rationality.

[yarddog]

I love conspiracy theories although nearly all of them are false.

This one would be a real blockbuster if true. Fact is tho it isn't even worth checking out.