10/7 was not Israel's 9/11 . . . [View all]

. . . it was far worse.

With the one year anniversary of Yom Shabbat HaT'kefah rapidly approaching, I felt how I am still in shock and horrified by that event. I am more shocked by how the world has turned against Israel and even more horrified by how many in the Democratic party have joined in on the Israel hatred to and past the point of antisemitism. I wish I could say that I have not seen this demonstrated at DU, which has been my political home and support since shortly after 9/11.

I highly doubt that few, if any, non-Jews realize the significance to the Jewish people of the Hamas massacre of October 7 and how the tragedy of the kidnapped hostages is highly personal for every Jew. They were our relatives, family, friends, and beloveds, even if we had never met.

On September 11, 2001, approximately 2,977 were killed in the terrorist attacks. The population of the United States was around 285 million. This gives about 0.001% of the population of the US killed.

On Oct 7, 2023, approximately 1,400 Israelis were butchered by Hamas. The population of Israel was 9.7 million. That means that the percentage of Israelis killed was 0.0144%. This is about 13.85 times worse than 9/11 as a percentage of the total population.

If we compare the total world population, it gets dramatic.

The percentage of Jews in the world killed on October 7th is 0.009% of the total worldwide Jewish population. (sorry for the redundancy there, but I think that number deserves it).

The equivalent percentage of all Christians killed in the world would have been 214,200. Of Muslims, 177,300.

The equivalent number of Americans killed would be 30,060. Imagine if over 30,000 American citizens were killed on a single day by a foreign terrorist organization. What would we do? Would we let the other nations of the world dictate our response?

And kidnapping:

The percentage of Jews kidnapped on October 7th: 0.00127%

Equivalent number of Christian hostages: 30,226

Equivalent number of Muslim hostages: 25,019

Equivalent number of American hostages: 4,247. Imagine if over 4000 American citizens were kidnapped by a foreign terrorist organization. What would we do? Would we let the other nations of the world dictate our response?

(Calculations were made with the assistance of ChatGPT)