US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called Hamas’ assault on Israel “the equivalent of ten 9/11s.” With Israel already responding by leveling large swathes of Gaza, Blinken promised Washington’s support for “as long as America exists.”
“If you look at (the attack) in proportion to the size of Israel’s population, this is the equivalent of ten 9/11s,” Blinken said in Tel Aviv on Thursday. “That’s how big and how devastating the attack has been.”
Some 1,300 Israelis have been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since Hamas fighters launched their attack on Saturday.
Hundreds of those killed in Israel are soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister #Netanyahu and #US Secretary of State Antony #Blinken held a joint press conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning. Here is what they said.https://t.co/EgzjytHd58 pic.twitter.com/vUKj1bAXGb
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 12, 2023
Meanwhile, more than 1,400 Palestinians – including 447 children – have been killed and around 5,000 more wounded in the same period when Israel launched a massive airstrike destroying Gaza’s infrastructures and thousands of homes.
Blinken reportedly did not mention these casualties in his speech or attempt to measure Palestinian losses in 9/11s.
A total of 2,996 people were killed on September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. Two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania following a passenger revolt.
There is no room in hospitals. The injured cannot be cared for. The dead are buried en masse. Palestine Chronicle attended a grisly scene outside Gaza’s largest medical complex, which is now “running out of everything”.https://t.co/kDfOa4hGKI pic.twitter.com/KaIjNBQ7ZR
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 12, 2023
Then-US President George W. Bush invoked 9/11 to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, although the latter had no connection to the attacks. Bush also responded by dramatically expanding the US’ domestic surveillance operations and signing into law the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which remains on US law books and has been used by subsequent administrations to launch military operations in 22 countries.
Following Hamas’ attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush” the Palestinian fighters, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Thursday that the Israeli military “will wipe them off the face of the Earth.”
GAZA'S MINISTRY OF HEALTH: The number of Palestinians killed and wounded in the Israeli war on #Gaza rose to 1,537 killed – including 500 children – and over 6,612 wounded. pic.twitter.com/aAQ5xAT6NH
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 12, 2023
The overwhelming majority of Gaza’s residents are civilians, however, and with the Strip’s borders sealed and an Israeli-imposed siege preventing food, water, electricity, and fuel from entering, they have borne the brunt of the Palestinian casualties.
In an earlier speech alongside Netanyahu, Blinken said that he implored the Israeli leader “to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
However, he added that “no country can or would tolerate the slaughter of its citizens,” and that “Israel has the right, indeed the obligation, to defend itself and to ensure that this never happens again.”
(RT, PC)
It’s standard Israeli media manipulation. Associate Hamas with a terror group and and an extremely emotive event in US history to tap into the population’s anger. It’s like Biden linking the attack to the holocaust. He is happy to use the memory of that awful tragedy perpetrated on innocent Jews in order to manipulate public feeling. It is at best, tasteless.