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Many have referred to the October 7th attack by Hamas as “Israel's 9/11.” This analogy is useful in that it conveys—particularly to Americans—the level of national shock and anger in Israeli society.
But beyond that, the comparison is misleading, says RAND's Raphael Cohen. Perhaps the most notable difference between 9/11 (and the subsequent U.S. operation in Afghanistan) and 10/7 and Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza is that the United States could choose to eventually withdraw—although it did take Washington two decades to reach that conclusion. For the simple reason of geography, Israel lacks such an option, Cohen says.
Unlike Afghanistan for the United States, Gaza is not half a world away from Israel. Such proximity means that if it so chooses, Israel can “invest the time and resources to rebuild Gaza economically, politically, and societally, if only to prevent another 10/7–style attack from occurring in the future,” Cohen says.
In other words, Gaza will not be Israel's Afghanistan, simply because stepping away is a luxury Israel cannot afford. For better or worse, Israel and Gaza are fundamentally intertwined.
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