It’s Not Our 9/11, It’s Not More Pogroms

Many people are comparing the mass Hamas-led attack on Israel last week to the infamous 9/11 Al-Qaeda attacks on America. Others are saying it is like the vicious pogrom-massacres our people have faced in Europe and elsewhere over the many years of our exile and dispersion.

I’d like to push back on those analogies a bit.

It would possibly be just like 9/11 if 49,000 Americans were killed by the terrorists on that dark day. That’s the equivalent percentage of victims by population.

It would possibly be just like 9/11 if the Al-Qaeda terrorists went to the homes of the 3,000 American victims in order to kill them in front of their spouses and children.

It would possibly be just like 9/11 if the Al-Qaeda terrorists beheaded children in front of their parents on the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers.

It would possibly be just like 9/11 if the Al-Qaeda terrorists raped the women – whether healthy, injured or dying – and filmed it for their friends.

It would possibly be just like 9/11 if in addition to murdering thousands, the Al-Qaeda terrorists also took hundreds of American men, women, children, babies and elderly people hostage back to Afghanistan.

It would possibly be just like 9/11 if the Al-Qaeda terrorists handed over an American child hostage to their children as a plaything to beat and humiliate.

So, the Hamas-led attack on Israelis may be somewhat like 9/11, but it’s not just like 9/11.

It is also not quite like the pogroms and the Nazi onslaught against our people.

During the pogroms, there were no armed Jewish civil defense forces protecting their homes with deadly force.

During the pogroms, the government, the police and the soldiers were more often the enemy, not the saviors.

During the pogroms, there were no armed Jews voluntarily rushing from across the country into the line of fire and eliminating dozens of attackers.

During the pogroms, there were no elite forces, snipers and sea commandos ridding the world of our attackers in massive numbers.

During the pogroms, there was no Jewish air force pounding the homes, streets and cities of the pogromists and their supporters into dust.

During the pogroms, there was no way to cut off the life support of the pogromists and their supporters.

During the pogroms, there was no way to drive the attackers and their supporters out of their towns to protect nearby Jews.

Finally, during the pogroms there was no fearsome, vicious, unrelenting retribution for the rape, murder and humiliation of Jews.

There is now.