If the 10/7 attack had occurred in the United States

Israel has been put on notice. It’s time, as the journalist Michael Moore has urged the Biden administration, to “stop the slaughter” in Gaza. American journalists are similarly warning Israel not to “start a war in Lebanon,” when it is Hezbollah that made a calculated choice to start that war on its own. Many Americans, including more than a few deluded but well-meaning Jews, condemn Israel for its “excessive” response to the attack of October 7, 2023. I have had to hear from quite a few friends that Israel has killed too many Gazans in its attempt to neutralize Hamas.

I have had to hear from quite a few friends that Israel has killed too many Gazans in its attempt to neutralize Hamas.

I would like to pose a hypothetical question to those who criticize Israel’s military actions in the last eight months: What would this event look like if it had taken place in the United States? How should the United States respond to such an attack? The answers might help us make better sense of the insanity sweeping this country.

To recap, Hamas unilaterally initiated an unprovoked attack on Jewish civilians on October 7, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. (This detail has been dropped from reporting, but it’s worth remembering because it helps us understand the cowardice and moral bankruptcy that defines Hamas.) They proceeded to murder, torture, and rape 1,200 Jews. They beheaded people and burned children alive in front of their parents. Then, they took another 240 Jews hostage. All acts were gross violations of international law that have received no condemnation from the United Nations, an organization founded to uphold such laws.

Imagine an enemy force with a lengthy and public record of hating Christians mounting an attack on Christmas Day—deliberately killing, raping, and torturing 36,000 American Christians.

If this had happened in the US, proportionally, it would look like this: Imagine an enemy force with a lengthy and public record of hating Christians mounting an attack on Christmas Day – deliberately killing, raping, and torturing 36,000 American Christians. They cut Christian babies’ heads off in front of their parents and raped Christian women so violently that, like women in Israel, their bodies were found to contain semen from over 60 men. They made videos of their acts because they were so proud of what they did.

They then kidnapped 2,000 more Christians, including babies as young as nine months old and held them hostage so they could be human shields against retaliation. This enemy force proceeded to hide in underground shelters while the citizens of their region were forbidden from leaving their homes up above. The enemy’s goal was to have America kill as many of these people as possible in order to make America look like the aggressor.

Will you march proudly and demand that the child rapists and killers of Christian children not be harmed?

So… with this attack in mind, are you ready to scream in protest against any action taken to punish this enemy? Will you march proudly and demand that the child rapists and killers of Christian children not be harmed? Would you demand international condemnation of American attempts to rescue its Christian hostages? Would you seek to have elementary school curricula changed to justify the actions of this anti-Christian group?

I suspect not, and a quick look at American history reveals exactly how America has reacted to such attacks in the past. If your memory isn’t clear on this, remember that we just ended a 20-year-long war in Afghanistan that we launched in retaliation for the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center, which had one tenth of the casualties, proportionally to what we’re contemplating here. We killed many thousands of Afghan civilians. We also invaded Iraq, a country that had done nothing to us on 9/11, and proceeded to kill tens of thousands of civilians.

In Vietnam, the US killed a million Vietnamese civilians in a war we fought over geopolitical strategy.

In Vietnam, the US killed a million Vietnamese civilians in a war we fought over geopolitical strategy. The Vietnamese never attacked the United States. Same for Korea. The Korean war, fought to “stop the advance of Communism,” led to the deaths of a million Korean civilians.

World War II featured the wanton slaughter of civilians in Japan and Germany, all done in the name of avenging Pearl Harbor, an attack that killed 3,000 American soldiers. We burned over a million Japanese civilians alive in firebombing and nuclear raids, along with hundreds of thousands of German civilians in similar attacks on Hamburg and Dresden.

Americans, like every other people on planet earth, have a strong sense of justice.

Americans, like every other people on planet earth, have a strong sense of justice. We are ready to over-react to attacks, right or wrong. It’s ridiculous and hypocritical in the extreme for Americans to protest Israel’s justifiable response to an unprovoked attack on its civilians.

The fact that so many Americans are enraged at Israel says something about their views on the value of Jewish life and the right of Jews to defend themselves. Yes, they dress up their protests in the guise of protecting innocent civilians in Gaza. (If you ever find an adult who matches this description, please alert the media. They’re harboring child rapists and fostering a culture of hate so intense that thousands of their young men are prepared to commit incomprehensible acts of violence on command.) But, the protests are not really about protecting Gazans. They’re about further punishing and humiliating Jews, acts which Americans are (un)surprisingly ready to commit.