Three years after October 7, 2023, the comparison to September 11 continues to shape how Israel's war on Gaza is understood, justified and remembered. But what happens when a single day becomes the starting point for an entire political history? In this episode, Alex revisits a video recorded shortly after October 7 and a September 2025 livestream examining the phrase “Israel's 9/11.” From Joe Biden's speeches to the Western media's coverage, the comparison did more than communicate the scale of an attack. It imported a familiar political framework, one already associated with the War on Terror, Afghanistan, Iraq, expanded surveillance, emergency powers and decades of American military intervention. Three years later, Gaza has been devastated, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, and millions have experienced displacement. Yet October 7 remains the fixed reference point through which much of the destruction that followed is explained, while the blockade, occupation and decades of Palestinian resistance that preceded it are pushed into the background. The episode examines what subsequent investigations have revealed about Israeli intelligence failures, including the ignored Hamas attack blueprint known as “Jericho Wall,” warnings dismissed by security officials, and institutional admissions that the October 7 attack could have been anticipated or its scale reduced. It also revisits the chaotic information environment surrounding the attack: Israeli use of the Hannibal Directive, documented incidents of Israeli fire killing Israeli civilians, disputed and debunked atrocity narratives, allegations of sexual violence, and the speed with which unverified accounts became accepted political talking points. The question is not whether atrocities occurred, but how evidence, propaganda and uncertainty were handled when governments and media organizations were already building the case for war. Drawing parallels with the aftermath of September 11, Alex explores how spectacular violence is transformed into a recurring media event, how repetition compresses decades of history into a few unforgettable images, and how the language of national trauma can turn military escalation into an apparently inevitable response. The episode also returns to Gaza before October 7: the blockade imposed in 2007, the Great March of Return, repeated Israeli military assaults, occupation and the political conditions that shaped Palestinian resistance long before the attack. At the centre of this discussion is a question about political memory: who gets to decide where the story begins? September 11 became the organizing date for an American era of war, surveillance and expanding state power. Twenty-two years later, October 7 was placed inside that same political vocabulary almost immediately. The consequences of that framing have now extended across three years of destruction in Gaza, even as questions about the failures preceding the attack remain unresolved. This episode looks at how the comparison was constructed, what later evidence has revealed, and why the history excluded from the opening frame matters as much as the events repeatedly placed at its centre.
