I have to take a moment to pause and post this as it hits so close to home for me personally.
I am electing to "borrow" and repost something I saw posted last year as it is so poignant. I hope you take a few moments in the next few hours to reflect.
On this day, 22 years ago (9/10/2001):
🔹️246 people went to sleep in preparation for their morning flights
🔹️2,606 people went to sleep in preparation for work in the morning
🔹️343 firefighters went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift.
🔹️60 police officers went to sleep in preparation for morning patrol
🔹️8 paramedics went to sleep in preparation for the morning shift
None of them saw past 10:00am on Sept 11, 2001.
In one single moment, life may never be the same.
As you live and enjoy the breaths you take today and tonight, before you go to sleep in preparation for your life tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never take one second of your life for granted.
I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to understand how Israel's response is proportional. My own view is that it is not. Not least of which because at the time of writing this more than 11,000 people in Gaza have been killed, which includes more than 5,000 children. Almost half of housing units have been destroyed. This is unacceptable. The total cost to rebuild is already more than 85% of Gaza's annual GDP - in 44 days.
But one thing that I've seen in the growing narrative changes is the frequent reminder that the Oct. 7th, 2023 Hamas attacks were like that of Sep. 11th, 2001 terror attacks.
Except that the Hamas attacks on Israel were, in fact, 15 times worse when we consider population differences. 1,500 people dying in a population of a little over 9-million is a much larger per capita death rate than that of 3,000 in a population of 285-million.
But absent from this discourse is Gaza's experiences. Over the last 15 years (between 2008 and 2022), Israel has experienced the equivalent of 0.93 9/11 equivalencies per year, or a total of 12 in the last 15-years predating the 10/7 attacks. Gaza, on the other hand, has experienced an average of 49 per year, or 302 in a 15 year period.
In the last 44 days, the amount of human life expended in Gaza by the hands of Israeli forces is tantamount to a 9/11 scale event 11 times a day. This has happened 503 times in 44 days.
Jews have a right to exist, and a right to self-determination. But so do Arabs, Palestinians, and Gazans. What Hamas did was barbaric. But what Israel is doing now is disproportionate, wanton, and inconsistent with any legitimate sense of self-defense.