Revisiting the Distance Between September and October

The connection between the horrific events of 9/11 and our own trauma of October 7.

Last year, I published an article in the Israeli news site YNET on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I stressed the connection between that horrific event and our own trauma of October 7. My thoughts, I believe, bear repeating—albeit in an expanded and updated form—below.

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Smoke at the site of the World Trade Center, New York City on September 11, 2001. (Photo by Paul Morse; National Archives and Records Administration)

Twenty-four years ago, on September 11, 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft and crashed them into the Pentagon, a field in rural Pennsylvania, and the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Close to 3,000 Americans were killed. Nearly two years ago, Hamas terrorists attacked the State of Israel, overrunning communities, army bases, and a music festival, murdering 1,200.

The two events—9/11 and October 7—were similar in multiple ways. Like al-Qaeda, Hamas is a Sunni Jihadist organization that sanctifies mass violence to conquer the Middle East, and eventually the world, for radical Islam. Both are recognized as terrorist groups by the U.S. and most of the Western world. Al-Qaeda and Hamas alike are viciously antisemitic and sworn to destroy the Jewish State. The attacks of 9/11 and October 7 identically caught their victims unawares and spurred them to mount large-scale retaliations.

But there the similarities end.

The United States responded to 9/11 with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both countries are located thousands of miles away from the U.S.; neither was directly involved in al-Qaeda’s attack. By contrast, Israel struck back at the terrorists who were directly responsible for October 7. Their state—the Gaza Strip—is not thousands of miles distant but borders Israel’s south.

The 1,200 Israeli victims of 10/7 were the equivalent of 40,000 Americans. And yet Israel’s response, according to the White House in February 2024, was “over the top.”

While America’s wars resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the United States was never once accused of committing genocide. Israel, which has reduced the civilian-to-combatant fatality ratio to a quarter of what it was in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been accused of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinians. And while every civilian death is a tragedy, members of the media routinely cite Hamas’s casualty figures that make no distinction between civilians and terrorists.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States never once considered negotiating with al-Qaeda. Instead, the U.S. hunted down and eventually killed al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden. By contrast, Israel has been expected to continue in prolonged and detailed talks with Hamas via mediators who treat the terror group as a legitimate and honest negotiator. The United States eliminated Bin Laden in Pakistan and was praised for it. Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Qatar and was condemned.

On October 7, Hamas took 251 hostages—the equivalent of more than 8,000 Americans. al-Qaeda took no hostages, yet even if it had, it is unlikely that the United States would have refrained from waging war. It would almost certainly not, in exchange for securing the hostages’ freedom, agree to a ceasefire with al-Qaeda and allow it to reorganize and rearm. It’s hard to imagine that, as part of that deal, the U.S. would have released dozens of convicted killers from its jails.

Clearly, the differences between 9/11 and October 7 outweigh their similarities. In one fundamental way, though, the two events are fatefully linked.

How a nation confronts terrorism shapes its future. For Israel—and for its indispensable ally, the United States—the imperative is clear. We must maintain and strengthen deterrence, and act decisively against Iran-backed jihadist movements. We must fortify our democracies against internal unrest and work to achieve national unity. And we must uphold our historic alliance, which is vital for the stability of the Middle East and, arguably, the entire world.