Actually, I'm not aware of any such impression. I have heard from eye witnesses that Arabs in certain parts of Patterson NJ, where a large Arab community exists, were seen cheering, but I did not hear of any arrests. Furthermore, I am unaware that such cheering or celebration (as vile as it may seem) constitutes reason for arrest in this country.
I also heard that initial reports of these celebrations were swiftly retracted (upon request of the police department) because the police feared that upon such news, the Arab communities would be brutally attacked and the people would be beaten senseless by Americans who were outraged over the situation. The police wanted to prevent a riot, fearing they didn't have the manpower (or perhaps the will?) to protect these "citizens" from more patriotic members of the populace.
This makes sense to me, but why don't you enlighten us to the truth?
Actually when suspicious Israelis were arrested post 9/11 ...
Whatever came of these "suspicious Israelis"? Was it ever established that they were indeed terrorists or spies?
I heard the same thing from a friend in Jersey who was driving home through Paterson (his usual route, just at a much earlier time) on the afternoon of 9/11. He said they were literally dancing in the streets. And no, there were no arrests as far as I know. And no celebrating pedestrians rammed by cars either, which is even more surprising to me. I guess we really are more civilized than they are.
Naturally I could not possibly have seen this with my own eyes, since Manhattan was under lockdown that day, but I've known this person for several years, and I do believe him.
I don't know anything about the situation in Patterson NJ you mention.
I was discussing the Israeli tourist/movers who were observed cheering the catastrophe from three locations in NJ. Some early reports sounded like they were viewing the initial collision. The FBI thought they were possibly part of the plot and spent a lot of manpower tracking them down. They were reported as 'Middle Easterners' in the press.
(As a curious side note, bomb-sniffing dogs reacted to the vehicle in which they were apprehended while no explosives were found.)
"Whatever came of these 'suspicious Israelis'? Was it ever established that they were indeed terrorists or spies?"
Officially these guys were tourists and were deported after a while. As I mentioned in 156, the Forward recently published a claim that the FBI concluded the moving company was a front and they were spies.
There were two other tourist/movers apprehended later in an unrelated incident that I mentioned but the only press coverage AFAIK was the initial article in a small town paper.