October 9th, 2023

By Phyllis Chesler

Hamas has perpetrated a depraved pogrom. There is no other kind. This is what a pogrom looks like and what a pogrom does. The pogromchiki target civilians, the most vulnerable of civilians, and do their worst. They rape Jewish women, torture Jewish men, brutally attack children and the elderly, and then kill them—and anyone who is living with them.

Hamas took a page from ISIS’s Caliphate playbook and video’ed their atrocities in live-time in order to sow further terror (or horribly enough, gladness) in the eyes of viewers. Hamas has also raped and kidnapped women, perhaps into sex slavery, as ISIS also did.

Right away, I started emailing people and saying that this attack was far bigger than 9/11. Here’s why. In terms of demographic equivalence, the Israeli population is a bit more than nine (9) million people; the American population is a bit more than 331 million. Eight hundred (800) Israeli dead and counting is the equivalent of 29,418 American deaths. This is nearly ten times more than the 9/11 number of a little more than 3000. The number of Israeli wounded is, so far, at 2000 and counting. In American terms this is equivalent to 75,503 wounded.

Imagine if America had been told not to respond, not to retaliate, to retaliate but only a little bit to Al-Qaeda’s blow against the Zionist and Crusader entity. Bin Laden said so himself.

A handful of us knew, we knew for a long time, that the pandemic of anti-Israel/anti-Zionist propaganda was inevitably going to lead to what we’ve just seen and what Israel has just endured. Words do harm. Pogroms and genocide have always been the result. This has been the case in the Arab Muslim world and in the European Christian world.

In the early 21st century, I wrote that anti-Zionism was the new anti-semitism and that the alliance between Islamists who hate Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish state for religious reasons far more than for questions of territory—and the western politically correct elites, was the most dangerous kind of alliance. For this, I was denounced as a traitor. Laughed at. Dis-invited. Deemed an Islamophobe and a…Zionist.

Poisoned propaganda has slowly and carefully been sewn into every conceivable fabric of humanity, in every language, round-the-clock. The propaganda is now a tsunami, a cognitive mushroom cloud of death.

The Big Lies are coming at us from the academy, the gliterrati, the United Nations, human rights groups, feminist groups, street activists, government leaders. The hatred for Jews and for the Jewish state is global.

Demonstrations and statements in support of Hamas’s horrific pogrom are taking place world-wide. They have been going on for decades and may not stop anytime soon. Yes, there are also pro-Israel statements and demonstrations going on as well, including the EU, Germany, and Austria’s decision to suspend funding to Palestine. Number 10 Downing Street and the Brandenburg Gate was draped in the colors of the Israeli flag.

But really, there is no comparison, no moral equivalence between the two kinds of statements. Rallying for Israel is rallying for the real victim. Do people know that the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniya’s daughter was treated for free in an Israeli hospital for a month? Doesn’t sound like an apartheid nation state, does it?

Rallying for Hamas is applauding Nazi-like barbarians and the atrocities they commit. I wonder why so many pro-Hamas women are wearing hijab given that Iran, their paymaster, is raping, beating, and murdering Iranian girls and women if their hijab slips or is missing entirely,

Burning questions and difficult solutions remain before us.

I have been monitoring the situation, passing along information to the right people, and have not had the time to sit down and write a long analysis about this War. I will send around a video of a speech I delivered on September 21st via Zoom. I also strongly recommend that you read Liel Leibowitz and separately, Alana Newhouse at Tablet.

I dashed this piece off because a number of people have called and written to me wondering why I’ve been silent. Well—I’ve been covering this shocking, heartbreaking, truly awful War.

I’ve also helped draft a feminist statement which should appear shortly. Stand by.

Reprinted at Israel National News & the Jewish Voice

The Daily Alert links to this article on 10/10/23