On this, the second anniversary of the massacre in Israel following the invasion from Gaza by Hamas and other terrorists, all commentary about that day of horrors, would begin by recalling the details of that attack – the immediate toll, the brutality of the Mayhem and the extraordinary brutality of Killers on that day two years ago.
About 6,000 terrorists invaded Israel that morning, including about 3,800 terrorists from Hamas and about 2,200 terrorists from other terrorist groups and unaffiliated terrorists.
That’s the equivalent of landing two brigades of US troops – an invasion force close to the size of what the US deployed to Grenada in Operation Urgent Fury in 1983.
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Gaza terrorists killed more than 1,100 Israeli citizens and dozens of foreigners, injured 5,000 more innocents and kidnapped 250 hostages.
Of the 250 hostages, 146 have been freed or rescued and 83 have been confirmed killed by Hamas and other terrorists. Hamas and its allies continue to hold 20 live hostages and the remains of 30 others who died in captivity.
To understand the scale of the trauma experienced by all of Israel and most of global Jewry and all decent people in the world, consider this: Israel’s population is almost 10 million; The population of the United States is 340 million. An equivalent terrorist attack on the US would kill more than 40,000 Americans, wound 170,000 and take 8,500 into captivity.
Any discussion of the two years of war that Israel has endured should start with those numbers. It is as if it emerges that when Imperial Japan began its war of choice with the United States on December 7, 1941, a total of 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 were wounded. The victims included 2,008 Navy personnel, 109 Marines, 218 Army personnel and 68 civilians. In the War of Retaliation that followed, according to the American Heritage Magazine, “the ‘Pacific War’ killed approximately three million Japanese (two-thirds combatants).”
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American casualties in the Pacific Theater over the course of the entire war totaled approximately 160,000 dead, with a much higher number of wounded.
So far, since the Hamas war began, at least 913 members of the Israeli Defense Forces have been killed. Again, to achieve equivalent costs in the lives of our uniformed troops, America would have to suffer more than 31,000 “killed in action” (“Kia”).
About 33,700 Americans were killed in action in the Korean War, 47,400 in the Vietnam War, 150 in the first Gulf War, around 1,900 in the Afghanistan War and about 3,700 in the second Iraq War.
So the civilian toll of a 10/7 level attack on America would be 40,000. Israel’s military response has cost the IDF and Israel nearly the equivalent number of lives that the US military lost in the Korean War and approximately six times the total number of our war deaths in both Iraq wars and the war in Afghanistan since 1991.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, speaks during a solidarity protest calling for an end to the war and the release of all remaining hostages on October 4, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Chris McGrath/Getty images)
These are the numbers and the scale on which Americans must absorb and reflect before expressing an opinion on Israel’s response to the invasion by Hamas and other terrorists on 10/7 – or to attacks since then on Israel on Israel from Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Shia Militia’s in Iraq and Syria, from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran, directly from Iran. Massive bombing of Israel since 10/7.
Israel’s Seven Front War has now entered its third year and may end soon. The United States has no parallel in our collective experience to the past two years in Israel.
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But only the willfully ignorant will ignore the scale of that attack on Israel or the burden Israel has borne since without making some mental calculations about what America might have done in the aftermath of something approaching an equivalent strike by her and her people.
That Israel has conquered all its enemies, on all seven fronts, should not dull the sense of shock over what happened two years ago.
To say that Israel’s response has been one of the most discriminatory wars ever waged in retaliation after being invaded and brutal is an understatement. Propagandists for Hamas and Iran and all of Israel’s other enemies have counted on the endless churning of the news cycle to dim our memories of that terrible day and cloud our vision of how carefully Israel responded in its righteous battles that have followed.
Those propagandists have actually succeeded among fellow travelers of the West and useful idiots, but not among any objective and serious outside observers.
Those observers will conclude that no other country in history has shown as much restraint as Israel in waging a clearly just war in response to such invasion and slaughter.
John Spencer is an American veteran of the Iraq War. He now studies urban warfare at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has studied Israel’s military operations in Gaza with professional detachment and a scholar’s approach to data and history.
“Israel has taken extraordinary steps to limit civilian damage,” Spencer published on X in late July. Israel “warns of attacks using text messages, phone calls, leaflets and broadcasts,” he continued. “It opens safe corridors and break operations so that civilians can leave combat areas. It addresses the presence of civilian presence down to the construction level. I have seen missions delayed or canceled because children were nearby. I have seen Israeli forces come under fire and still be ordered not to fire back because civilians could be harmed.”
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Spencer, aware of the propaganda campaign being waged against the IDF unequivocally 24/7/365 on social media and through “Activist Journalism,” laid out the facts in detail:
“Israel has provided more humanitarian aid to Gaza than any army in history has provided to an enemy population during wartime. More than 94,000 trucks carrying more than 1.8 million tons of aid have entered the territory. Israel has supported hospitals, repaired water pipelines, increased access to clean water and enabled over 36,000 patients to leave Gaza.
The IDF has coordinated millions of vaccine doses, provided fuel for hospitals and infrastructure, and facilitated the flow of food and medicine through the UN, aid groups and private partners. The US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation alone has delivered more than 82 million meals – one to two million a day – while weakening Hamas’ control over aid. This is not genocide. It is responsible and historically in the middle of the humanitarian policy of war. “
Israel has done this against enemies who have prepared for a siege in response to its invasion and brutality, building an elaborate underground fortress of tunnels and redoubt – an underground warren equipped with what it believed would be a typical Israeli war of limited duration. Hamas planned for tactical surprise and strategic survival because it has a history of international pressure on Israel not to win wars, just not to lose them.
Not this time. While fighting a multi-front war with more restraint than history has ever recorded anywhere in the annals of war, Israel has never flagged its determination to free its hostages and destroy the enemies who started this war. It seems poised to do both. But it’s not over yet.
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10/7 should have changed Americans’ understanding of Israel and the threats surrounding it. The brutality of that day two years ago – captured on film by the terrorists, unmistakable and unknowable – astounded and scarred the most civilized people and revolted every normal person who watched it. That kind of fanaticism evokes the worst of World War II or Stalin’s or Mao’s epic brutality. Worse, because she didn’t seem to publicly celebrate death. Even the Nazis were ashamed of their barbarism.
Not Hamas and its allies. They celebrated their barbarism. Israel will never forget it. Neither does the West.
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The lesson of 10/7 that everyone should hold on to: When enemies declare their intention to kill, torture and assemble you and your family before killing or kidnapping you, to wipe out your country and your race or co-religion – believe them. Understand that those enemies are serious and, given the opportunity, they will do exactly those things.
And they will do them with joy and a blood lust, we had thought subdued, at least in the west.
The events of 9/11 did not prepare Americans for 10/7 because the horror of that day appeared to have been perpetrated by 19 hijackers and a handful of planners, even though the Taliban of Afghanistan provided them with a safe haven to plan and plot.
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Six thousand invaders walked beyond our imagination. It shouldn’t be now.
For what Hamas did on 10/7, it, and its fellow fanatics, would happily do again and again to Israel, the United States, and any open and pluralistic society. The evil of fanatical theocrats is still there, along with the evil of the radical left and its atheist overlords. Every 10/7 should be an Ebenezer for humanity’s capacity for brutal murder and its celebration – not only in Israel but in America and all other open societies.
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