During the pogroms, there were no armed Jewish civilians defending their homes with deadly force.
During the pogroms, the police, the army, and the government weren’t our protectors. More often than not—they were the perpetrators.
During the pogroms, no Jews rushed voluntarily from across the country into the line of fire to repel the attackers.
During the pogroms, there were no elite units, no snipers, no naval commandos eliminating hordes of assailants.
During the pogroms, no Jewish air force reduced the homes, streets, and cities of the murderers and their supporters to rubble.
During the pogroms, there was no way to cut off the electricity, water, or gas of those who cheered the killers.
There was no way to expel the attackers and their collaborators from their towns to protect Jewish lives.
And finally—during the pogroms—there was no unrelenting, firm, and organized retribution for the rape, murder, and humiliation of Jews.
The problem is: now, there is. And still, the shallow phrase “Never Again” rings hollow.
Because a second Holocaust has taken place—right here—in the only Jewish country on Earth. The one meant to protect the Jewish people.
And it failed, catastrophically.
Many people around the world are comparing last week’s mass Hamas-led attack on Israel to the infamous 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda on America. Others liken it to the brutal massacres and pogroms that Jews endured in Europe and elsewhere during the long years of exile.
Let me push back on those analogies for a moment.
Perhaps it would be like 9/11 if 49,000 Americans had been slaughtered on that day. That’s the equivalent number when adjusted for population size.
It might be like 9/11 if al-Qaeda terrorists had stormed the homes of the victims to execute them in front of their spouses and children.
It might be like 9/11 if al-Qaeda had beheaded children in front of their parents aboard the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers.
Maybe it would be like 9/11 if the terrorists had raped women—whether healthy, injured, or dying—and filmed it for their friends to enjoy.
Or if, in addition to murdering thousands, they had taken hundreds of American men, women, children, infants, and elderly hostages back to Afghanistan.
Maybe it would be like 9/11 if one of those American children had been handed over to terrorist children to be beaten and humiliated as a toy.
So yes, the Hamas-led massacre may resemble 9/11—but it wasn’t just like 9/11.
Nor was it quite like the pogroms or the Nazi massacres of our people.
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