9/11 is like a kick in the gut for me every year since 2001. The memory of events on 9/11/2001 unleashes an anger, frustration and helplessness on that date every year. 2,977 innocent victims were murdered by Islamic terrorists on a perfect blue-sky day that changed the world for 290 million people living in the US….. forever.

The same kick in the gut happens to me every 10/7 since 2023. On that date in Israel, 1,200 innocent people were brutally murdered by Palestinian Islamic terrorists from the Gaza Strip with another 251 taken hostage. On that day the world changed for 10 million Israeli citizens and, like in the US after 9/11, will never change back. I note this kick in the gut I experience on 10/7 does NOT happen to most people in the US because they are not Jews; it happens to me because I am a Jew.

In analyzing the two attacks it’s worth comparing the scale of the 9/11/2001 attack in the US with the attack in Israel on 10/7/2023. The population in the US was 290 million people when 2,977 Americans died on 9/11 in multiple terrorist attacks. Israel’s population on 10/7/23 was 10 million citizens when 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and 251 taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza.

Using basic math, the US was 29 times the population of Israel when the attacks on each country occurred. Comparing the scale of each attack on the other country; an attack on Israel comparable to a similar scale as the 9/11 attack in the US would be established by dividing the 2,977 victims by 29. The result would be 103 people murdered by terrorists in Israel in an attack similar in scale to 9/11 in the US; 103 victims.

Reversing this calculation, an attack on the US of a similar scale as the 10/7/23 attack on Israel would require multiplying the 1,200 dead and 251 taken hostage by 29, the multiple of how much larger the US population was than Israel’s at the time of the attacks. Running these numbers, the results would be 34,800 dead and 7,308 taken hostage in the US. This totals 42,108 victims if an attack similar in scale to the 10/7/23 attack in Israel happened to the US; that would be over 14 times the number of victims in the attack on Israel of 10/7/23.

Readers should take a moment and let that number sink in; 42,107 victims. Then readers should ask how the US would respond if 42,107 of our citizens were brutally murdered and taken hostage by Islamic terrorists. Now add to that horror if the terrorists who murdered and kidnapped these 42,107 US citizens were freely living in Canada with terrorist allies in Mexico instead of 6,750 miles away in Afghanistan as the terrorists from 9/11 were living. The result would be obvious: the governments of both Canada & Mexico would be destroyed, and every terrorist and supporter of the attacks hunted down and killed. That’s what the US did in Afghanistan after 9/11 and is exactly what Israel is now doing to the Palestinian terrorists and governments in Gaza and Lebanon on its borders.

There is currently a movement to undermine US support of Israel in its war on Palestinian terrorism. I fact, political leadership in the US is starting to question Israel’s right to defend itself in this war of self-preservation started by Palestinian terrorists living openly in Gaza and Lebanon on 10/7/23.

Israel won the first stage of the war and is now faced with trying to “win the peace” in Gaza and Lebanon where terrorists have ruled as dictators since 2005. In those 20 plus years the terrorist governments have indoctrinated three generations of Palestinians with hate and lies to want every Jew in Israel, and the world, dead.

The reality is that “winning the peace” is the most difficult part of Israel’s war on terror. It’s worth noting, as people in the US question support for Israel, the US tried to “win the peace” for over 20 years in Afghanistan. The effort failed and the same government that sponsored the terrorists of 9/11 now rules in Afghanistan, again. The difference for Israel is the terrorist are not 6,750 away from their targets as they were when the Twin Towers fell in NY; the terrorists are on Israel’s border in Gaza & Lebanon. To put it simply, Israel cannot afford to “lose the peace” or Israel, and its people, will not survive.

If you believe the US war with Afghanistan was justified because of the 9/11 terrorist attack, then you should understand the actions of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are equally justified. The attack in Israel, proportionally, was 14 times more devastating in Israel than in the US. Israel cannot allow a terrorist-controlled state government to exist on its border just as the US would never allow a terrorist state that attacked it to exist in Canada or Mexico.

The US received worldwide support from every democracy in the world for our war on terror in Afghanistan when 2,977 innocent citizens were murdered on 9/11. Israel deserves the same support in its war on the terrorist governments in Gaza & Lebanon who took 251 hostage and murdered 1,200 innocent people without warning on 10/7/23. Jews understand what happens if we remain quiet and allow state sponsored terrorism to exist and grow; 6,000,000 of us died in Germany in the 1930’s & 40’s when that last happened. God willing, it will never happen again.