Hamas’ horrific attack in Israel on October 7 was quickly labeled “Israel’s 9/11” — it was a surprise strike that destroyed a large number of innocent people and traumatized a nation. Yet the parallels do not end there. They are not difficult to see. Let us consider them, while keeping in mind that in the same way one recognizes terrorism as reprehensible, one should, through careful study of history and current geopolitics, recognize where terrorism comes from and how to prevent it from occurring in the future. As Sarah Schulman writes in New York Magazine, “Explanations are not excuses” — to understand why the Hamas assault occurred is not to say it was right. To understand the world as it actually is, such as how harmful state policies can inspire terrorism, is not to condone terrorism; it is simply to oppose both. “But the problem with understanding how we got to where we are,” Schulman notes, “is that we could then be implicated.” She writes:
My parents raised me with the idea that Jews were people who sided with the oppressed and worked their way into helping professions. They could not adjust the worldview born of this experience to a new reality: that in Israel, we Jews had acquired state power and built a highly funded militarized society, and were now subordinating others. No one wants to think about themselves that way… Humans want to be innocent. Better than innocent is the innocent victim. The innocent victim is eligible for compassion and does not have to carry the burden of self-criticism.
The situation is too well-documented to be controversial. For a long time, Israel has seized Palestinian land, blockaded the rest, and subjugated Palestinians in Israel itself. The United Nations (including its Human Rights Commission), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other bodies have condemned Israeli policies as illegal and crimes against humanity. Palestinians and Israelis alike oppose Israel’s occupation, military violence, and apartheid system. I wrote of all this at length in Is Standing with Israel Standing with a Violent Oppressor? Predictably, oppression breeds extremism and terror. Hamas declared its attack a response to “the crimes of the occupation.” There were both long-term and short-term causes linked to the sorry conditions of the Palestinian people.
But in much news and commentary, no actual explanation is given for Hamas terror. There is no serious look at the realities of Israeli-Palestinian relations, no history or context. Israel is the good guy, its enemies seek its eradication, The End. “They hate Jews and want to destroy Israel” is an empty statement, explaining nothing, but is quite popular. True, those are real sentiments, especially among Islamic extremists (other Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians, Druze, atheists, and so on, want to peacefully coexist with Israelis through a unified one-state solution or even a two-state solution), but they’re missing the major why. All of this is virtually indistinguishable from the American experience of 9/11. The noble United States was divorced from the terrible thing that happened to it. There were no causal ties between our activities and the 3,000 people massacred, save perhaps one: Al Qaeda, vaguely, hated our freedom! Americans had little interest in root causes, in pondering Al Qaeda’s rage over bloody U.S. military interventions and wars in Muslim lands in the 1980s and ’90s, America’s devastating sanctions against Iraq and its support of Israel against the Palestinians, our close relationship with Saudi Arabia and our military bases near Islam’s holy cities, and so on. Extremism comes from somewhere — somewhere concrete like the bodies of Muslim children, not somewhere vague like the First Amendment of a nation 7,000 miles away. This is not to say that all the religious extremists and fundamentalists among the Palestinians would tolerate a Jewish state with friendly policies and equal rights for all, nor a secular one-state solution that’s likewise for everyone regardless of faith or race (we should all favor the latter). For some it’s a Muslim nation for a Muslim holy land or nothing, similar to Zionist Jewish thought. But by addressing the grievances and needs of the Palestinian people, you can reduce radicalization and violence, ensure there are fewer extremists and plots against innocents. To prevent terrorism, you have to change policy.
But that is unthinkable. It would suggest you’ve done something wrong, and it would curb your own dominance and self-interest. Lessening American military power in the Middle East was unacceptable, and Israel probably won’t be giving back Palestinian land, withdrawing its military and citizens from the settlements in the West Bank. It won’t end its decades-long blockade and stranglehold of Gaza, which has caused a massive humanitarian crisis. And Palestinians in Israel will not enjoy equal rights and real protection from discrimination any time soon. Instead, the policies that caused Hamas’ terrible attack will be supercharged. This is the second way Israel’s experience of 2023 is like America’s of 2001. Not only are root causes ignored to maintain your patriotic, pure-as-snow self-image and your national power, but the response to the violence doubles down on the policies that caused it in the first place. The United States launched a War on Terror — more military intervention in the Middle East. Predictably, our invasions and bombings spawned many new terror groups, increased recruitment to established ones like Al Qaeda, spread cells to new countries, and led to far more plots and acts of violence (see A History of Violence: How the War on Terror Breeds More Terror). Israel is now laying waste to Gaza and, as it has in the past, cut off water, electricity, food, medicine, and so on from the region. The suffering of ordinary people is greater than ever before. This will of course encourage radicalization against Israel and breed more terror attacks. Even if Hamas is destroyed, which is unlikely, another group will take its place. The problem will not be solved through war, it will be magnified, worsened. That endless cycle of violence and revenge.
Finally, and briefly, a third way in which the current crisis echoes 9/11. “War Worsening Terrorism” of course refers to how bombings and invasions as a response to terrorism simply encourages more terrorism. But it also refers to the terror rained down upon the innocent people who had nothing to do with Hamas or Al Qaeda. War is State terrorism, expanding the violence to an unprecedented scale, of which extremist groups could only dream. 3,000 Americans died on 9/11, but our War on Terror killed about a million people. 1,400 Israelis died in Hamas’ attack; Israel has thus far killed 4,200 people in Gaza. Many more innocent Palestinians will perish before the end.
None of this sounds like justice or reason, but it certainly sounds familiar.
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