Jerusalem Post columnist compares 9/11 attacks with Hamas attack on October 7
Israeli columnist Liat Collins, in a column for the Jerusalem Post, compared the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States with Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The author called these dates world-changing and urged against distorting the definition of terrorism.
25 years after the attacks in the United States
The column was published on September 11, 2026, on the 25th anniversary of Al-Qaeda’s attacks in the United States. Planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building in Washington. Another plane crashed in Pennsylvania after resistance from passengers and crew. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the series of attacks.
Collins recalled a discussion at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, regarding wording about the events of September 11. According to her, following criticism, the corporation clarified its policy: describing the 9/11 attacks as terrorism does not require direct attribution of that definition to an external source.
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The October 7 attack
The author also addressed the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. She wrote that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Gaza civilians took part in it. The column states that 1,200 people were killed then, while 251 people were taken hostage and brought to Gaza. In Collins’s view, the attack marked the beginning of a war on several fronts.
Collins also criticized the BBC’s approach to using the word “terrorism” in relation to Hamas. She cited an explanation by BBC international affairs editor John Simpson from October 11, 2023: he called the term “terrorism” a loaded word applied to organizations that provoke moral disapproval.
Other attacks mentioned
The article mentions the seizure of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 2005 London bombings, attacks in Paris and Nice in 2015–2016, and the 2017 Manchester concert attack. The author links these attacks to jihadist extremism and argues that refusing to call terrorists terrorists makes it more difficult to counter such groups.
