This past Friday marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the worst terror attack on the United States in history. At the same time, we are only weeks away from the third anniversary of the worst terror attack in Israel’s history.
The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, are often compared to 9/11 to elicit the necessary respect and empathy from the Western world. This is often sadly appropriate. 9/11 completely changed the trajectory of the United States, just as Oct. 7 permanently changed Israel’s.
Both were surreal massacres thought to be impossible to carry out. While 9/11 brought Islamic terrorism to the attention of naive Americans, who previously viewed it as a distant concern, it also served as a reminder to both the United States and Israel—which was well acquainted with the threat already—that those who hate another’s ideals will go to any lengths to destroy them.
The issue is that comparing Oct. 7 to 9/11 seems necessary to evoke any empathy or respect from the world. Unfortunately, for a disheartening number of people worldwide, Oct. 7 is not a concern on its own.
Though it has been said numerous times, let’s say it again: Can we even imagine the world treating the United States after 9/11 the way Israel has been treated after Oct. 7?
What if the global media suggested that perhaps the American victims had it coming, and NGOs wondered why the United States wasn’t using enough restraint or proportionality in retaliation?
What if groups sympathetic to Al-Qaeda formed at prestigious universities to call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the United States, openly excused and justified 9/11 or even rewrote the event entirely? What if other nations presumed they could dictate the terms of the U.S. response, or outright labeled it a genocide? What if allies continued to hamstring American defense for their own political gain?
Incredibly, that is what our society has done.
Today’s Western world maintains an insidious attitude towards Israel and the entire Middle East, characterized by double standards and lack of empathy. While the West often uses 9/11 as a solemn reminder of lessons learned, it is increasingly clear that it is also a chilling reminder of lessons left unlearned.
This year’s 25th anniversary of 9/11 particularly highlighted how far we have distanced ourselves from that moment and how easily its severity and importance have been forgotten. This includes not only the act itself, but also the underlying ideology that caused it. As this domestic encounter with terrorism recedes from people’s personal lives, we see an increase in terrorism’s international presence, and the reaction is often apathy, sympathy and sometimes even glorification.
We know who celebrated America’s terror tragedy decades ago, and it is an utterly repulsive irony that they are who young Americans are celebrating today.
The fundamental promise to “never forget” has been disregarded in numerous ways. It has been forgotten that, like the youth’s “heroic” Palestinian “freedom fighters” of today, Al-Qaeda also framed itself as a victim of the West. It has been forgotten that 9/11 was also the result of “globalizing the intifada.” And “activists” have completely forgotten that the freedom to publicly strut around as wannabe jihadis is due precisely to the Western freedoms for which their headbanded heroes would murder them.
The barbarity of Oct. 7 was unthinkable, and the subsequent denial and ignorance of it is insulting. However, perhaps the most infuriating aspect of the world’s reaction is its moral inversion, in which the abuser’s sadism is sadistically projected onto their victims.
Never in history has there been such widespread labeling of terrorist acts as freedom fighting and a democracy’s defense as criminal. No other democratic nation or global community has faced such disrespect and unhinged vilification in the face of such obvious tragedy, especially from fellow nations that have experienced similar devastation at the hands of similar perpetrators. The bar for common compassion was set extraordinarily low, yet too many not only failed to meet it but also insisted on lowering it further.
As the saying goes, freedom is not free. It must be defended. Above all, it must never be allowed to include emboldening those who despise it.
Over thousands of years of history, the Jewish people have consistently overcome such vitriol and abuse. However, they should not have to do so while being diminished and demonized. All other democratic societies must not only remember the fundamental lessons of their own tragedies but also extend the same respect and understanding that was given to them.
This is important not only for Israel’s future but for their own as well. The world can no longer afford this dangerous combination of short-term memory and long-term denial of reality.
