Israel-Gaza deaths - A comparison to 9/11 | Michael Jackson

I put together a spreadsheet of the deaths on 9/11, October 7th, and the ongoing Israel-Gaza war (see below). In addition to the numbers, there are anecdotal (but real) horror stories of suffering and death on both sides of the conflict.

Emotionally, many of us fixate on these. I want to focus on some of the death statistics as inadequate, inaccurate, and constantly updated as they may be. Individual numbers may be disputed with considerable leeway either way. However, the overall comparisons of civilian and total deaths are relatively sound. I am using the term “fighter” to describe anyone in a military capacity, frontline or rear, who is actively participating in fighting the other side.

I think we can emotionally handle the 12 to 1 ratio of the Israeli civilian death rate to the American death rate on 9/11, although 12 deaths to one death is a difficult. How much worse is twelve deaths to one death? The death rate comparison of 9/11 to Gazan deaths, in the hundreds to one, is emotionally overwhelming. In the second part of the spreadsheet below, I added, as best as I could, the fighters killed, which in the 9/11 case just includes Americans killed in Afghanistan.

My own spreadsheet (in two parts) follows. I made the spreadsheet myself using Google sheets on my home computer. The numbers in the spreadsheets re taken from public sources e.g. New York Times articles, BBC etc. Sorry about the fuzziness. Screen uploads are not made for spreadsheets

This is my own spreadsheet (Google Sheets) using statistics from public sources e.g., the New York Times, and BBC. I have never seen this three-way comparison in a public source (which does not mean that it has not been done before), but this instantiation of these statistics is purely my own.