by Amelie Botbol
“We also have a September 11. We remember October 7. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
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The
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York on fire after
hijacked planes flew into the buildings on the morning of Sept. 11,
2001. Credit: Michael Foran/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons. |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday invoked the memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States as he defended Israel’s strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
“We remember September 11. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery on American soil since the founding of the United States,” Netanyahu said. “We also have a September 11. We remember October 7. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
The premier drew a direct comparison between Israel’s actions and the U.S. campaign against Al-Qaeda.
“What did America do in the wake of September 11? It promised to hunt down the terrorists who committed this heinous crime, wherever they may be,” he said. “And it also passed a resolution in the Security Council of the U.N., two weeks later, that said that governments cannot give harbor to terrorists.
“Well, yesterday, we acted along those lines. We went after the terrorist masterminds who committed the October 7 massacre. And we did so in Qatar, which gives safe haven, it harbors terrorists, it finances Hamas, it gives its terrorist chieftains sumptuous villas, it gives them everything,” Netanyahu continued.
He stressed that Israel’s operation followed the same model the United States used when it pursued Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and ultimately eliminated Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
“Now, the various countries of the world condemn Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves,” continued Netanyahu. “What did they do after America took out Osama bin Laden? Did they say, ‘Oh, what a terrible thing was done to Afghanistan or to Pakistan?’ No, they applauded. They should applaud Israel for standing up to the same principles and carrying them out.”
The prime minister ended with a warning: “And I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners set to travel from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions to California.
The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the world’s five tallest buildings at the time.
A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Va., while a fourth aircraft crashed in rural Pennsylvania amid a passenger revolt.
The attacks killed 2,977 people.
“This comparison between Oct. 7 and 9/11 is appropriate in that Hamas’s goal on Oct. 7 was to destroy Israel. The percentage of the Israeli population that was murdered on Oct. 7 is greater than the percentage of Americans murdered on 9/11,” Likud Party lawmaker Ariel Kallner told JNS on Thursday.
Kallner said Israel lacks the international support the U.S. received after 9/11, citing European leaders’ reliance on electorates with large Muslim populations and short-term politics. He also blamed what he called the “progressive worldview” and a red-green alliance, saying the radical left erodes family, national and religious identity and threatens the West.
“What we need to do is destroy Hamas. It is more justified for Israel to do so than any other country in the world—and of course, what the U.S. did after 9/11 is justified, and the right way to fight evil and radical Islam and its call to conquer the whole world,” the lawmaker concluded.
Religious Zionism Party lawmaker Simcha Rothman, who heads the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, told JNS that “the terrorists who conducted this attack on Israel should be treated no better than Al-Qaeda.”
As to why Israel does not enjoy the same level of support America did back in 2001, Rothman explained that Israel is not a superpower.
“Those who would never have dared to support anyone attacking America because they feared American power now feel free to do so when it comes to Israel,” he said. “They even coordinate with antisemitic trends on both the left and the right, which always emerge when Israel is the issue.”
“I believe many in the West do support Israel and its fight against Iran’s terror regime—we saw this during the attack on Iran and against terrorists worldwide,” he added. “These people understand that Israel stands on the front line of the West as jihadist Islamic organizations seek to take over all of Western civilization. Israel may be the first to be attacked, but it will not be the last.”
Religious Zionism Party lawmaker Ohad Tal
told JNS on Thursday that Netanyahu’s comparison “between the attack in
Qatar and the free world’s response to 9/11 was correct and precise.”
“Israel
stands on the front line of the Western and free world against radical
Islam,” Tal said. “Facing the forces of evil and barbarism—from Iran to
the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters—Israel’s security forces are
fighting with strength, bravery, and determination. The terror that
struck this week in Jerusalem is the same terror that strikes in Paris,
London and Berlin. And it is the same terror that finds refuge in Doha.”
“While
the nations of the world are confused and fail to grasp these simple
facts, President Trump and the United States stand with us, unshakeably
and courageously,” the lawmaker told JNS.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote, “Remember 9/11. Remember the victims. We stand together in our shared fight for freedom and against terror.”
Remember 9/11.
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) September 11, 2025
Remember the victims.
We stand together in our shared fight for freedom and against terror. pic.twitter.com/701ZmpZB88
Amelie Botbol
Source: https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-likens-israels-strike-in-qatar-to-us-response-after-9-11/
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