Netanyahu: Israel stands with America on 9/11  

Israel stands in solidarity together with the citizens of the United States of America on September 11 to commemorate that horrific day on which 3,000 innocent people died at the hands of Islamic terrorists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that as the US marks the 15th anniversary of the horrific Islamic terror attacks that took place in America on September 11, 2001, Israel stands with its “greatest ally” on the battlefield against global Islamic terrorism.

Speaking at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said that “today we mark 15 years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We remember the victims. We embrace their loved ones.”

Israel stands “with our greatest ally, the United States of America, and with other partners in the battle against militant Islamic terrorism that spreads its fear, its dread, its murder, around the world.”

Although the battle has been waged for decades, Netanyahu said that “Our memories are long, our determination is boundless. Civilized societies must band together to defeat these forces of darkness, and I’m sure we will.”

Israel has a 9/11 Living Memorial Plaza commemorating the victims who died in the terrorist attacks, which is made partially from steel taken from the wreckage of the Twin Towers and is the only memorial outside the US that includes the names of all who perished in the attacks.

Completed in 2009 at a cost of $2 million, it sits on five acres of hillside, 20 miles from the center of Jerusalem. The memorial is a 30-foot, bronze American flag that forms the shape of a flame to commemorate the flames of the Twin Towers.

President Barack Obama is joining the American nation in remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks 15 years ago.

Obama will be observing the somber anniversary with a moment of silence in the White House residence at 8:46 a.m. EDT. That’s when the first of four hijacked airplanes slammed into the north tower of New York City’s World Trade Center.

Afterward, Obama will address a Pentagon memorial service.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon when al-Qaeda terrorists crashed the airplanes in those locations.

US forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden nearly a decade later during a May 2011 raid on his Pakistani hideout.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
AP contributed to this article.