Many commentators compare the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7 to the 9-11 attack on America in 2001, or at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This is a gross under-appreciation of the full magnitude of the catastrophe.

At Pearl Harbor about 2,400 Americans were killed out of a total U.S. population of about 130 million people, and on 9-11 about 3,000 Americans were killed out of a total population of over 3oo million people. By comparison, on October 7, about 1,200 Israeli Jews were slaughtered out of a total population of only 7 million Jews.

These figures should be put in perspective by adjusting the populations and the death tolls of the three events. Compared to the number of Jews killed on October 7, the equivalent number of Americans killed at Pearl Harbor would have been almost 22,000, and the equivalent number on 9-11 would have been 51,000.

As terrible as the American casualties were at the time at Pearl Harbor and on 9-11, they were dwarfed in size by the massive, brutal Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. In addition, America is a very large country and also has the advantage of being isolated from further attacks by vast oceans, while Israel is a tiny country bordered on all sides by hostile foes whose stated goals are to wipe it off the face of the earth.

Max Wisotsky
Highland Park