9/11 to 10/7: Lessons forgotten

While 9/11 is frequently used as a somber reminder of lessons learned, it is becoming apparent that it is also a stark reminder of lessons not learned.

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the worst terror attack on the United States. Simultaneously, we are also only weeks away from the second anniversary of the worst terror attack on Israel.

Oct. 7 is often compared to Sept. 11 to elicit the necessary respect and empathy for the situation around the Western world, and much of it is sadly appropriate. Sept. 11 completely changed the trajectory for this country, just as Oct. 7 has permanently changed Israel’s. Both were surreal massacres thought to be impossible to execute. And though 9/11 brought Islamic terrorism home to naive Americans — a threat which Israel is forced to confront every day — both events were reminders that those who despise another’s ideals will go to any length to destroy them.

The problem, however, is that it seems 10/7 must be compared to 9/11 to elicit any empathy or respect, or be given any consideration whatsoever. Because what we’ve come to realize is that for a disheartening amount of the world, it simply isn’t worth concern on its own.

Though it has been said numerous times, let’s say it again: Can we imagine the world treating the United States after its tragedy in the manner that Israel has been treated?

What if global media suggested that the American victims had it coming, and NGOs wondered why the United States wasn’t using enough restraint or proportionality in its retaliation?

What if sympathetic Al-Qaeda groups formed in prestigious universities to call for the divestment of anything to do with the United States, openly excused or justified 9/11, or even rewrote that event entirely?

What if other nations presumed they could dictate terms of response, or outright label them as genocidal terror?

Or what if allies continued to hamstring fundamental efforts for personal political gain?

Incredibly, that is the world right now.

Today’s Western world is bringing the most insidious Sept. 10 attitude to Israel and the entire Middle East. And while 9/11 is frequently used as a somber reminder of lessons learned, it is becoming apparent that it is also a stark reminder of lessons not learned.

This year’s anniversary serves as a harsh reminder of just how far we’ve moved away from that moment in time and how easily forgotten its severity and importance have become — not just in terms of the act itself, but the specific reasons that led to it, and the underlying ideology that birthed those reasons.

It is surreal to think of all those in this country who on 9/11 were not even born yet, or were too young to form memories. And it is no coincidence that as this domestic collision with terrorism fades from people’s personal existences, we also see a rise regarding its presence internationally in apathy, sympathy and sometimes even glorification.

We know who celebrated America’s terror tragedy 24 years ago, and it is repulsive irony that those are who young Americans are celebrating today.

The core promise to “never forget” has been forgotten in more ways than one. It seems to have been forgotten that, like their Palestinian freedom fighters of today, Al-Qaeda also blamed and framed themselves as victims of Western ideology. It has been forgotten that the violence on 9/11 was also the result of “globalizing the intifada.” And it has been grossly forgotten that the freedom to publicly strut around as junior terrorists and shout “death to America” in American streets is precisely the freedom for which their headbanded heroes would murder them.

It’s no surprise that terror against Israel goes uncondemned when many can’t even speak out against it in their own country. While this is undoubtedly a problem rooted in anti-Israel sentiment, it reflects a deeper issue: wherever antisemitism is tolerated, it exposes a deeper moral decay in society — one that allows terrorism to move from the fringes into the mainstream, even becoming a cause people proudly support.

As the quote goes, freedom is not free and must be defended. At the very least, that must include never taking it for granted, and it must never be allowed to include emboldening those who despise it through violent activism and governmental passivism.

We know throughout thousands of years of history that Israel, and the Jewish community, can and will overcome these annihilation attempts, but they shouldn’t have to do it diminished and demonized. The onus is on all other democratic societies to not only remember the fundamental lessons of their own tragic dates, but to remember to extend the same necessary respect and understanding that was afforded to them. Not simply for the sake of Israel’s future, but their own as well — as this fatal combination of short-term memory with long-term aversion to reality is simply not something the world can afford any longer. PJC

Sarah Kendis is a musician living in Pittsburgh.