In 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. 2,977 civilians were killed. In 2001 the population of the U.S. was 285,000,000; .002 percent of the population of the U.S. was killed. As a result of these terrorist attacks, we went to war with Iraq and Afghanistan. The war lasted 20 years in Afghanistan and we still have troops in Iraq. Over 350,000 civilians died in those wars.

In 2023 terrorists attacked Israel. 1,139 civilians were killed and 240 were kidnapped. Assuming many of the 240 will not survive, I will put the number of civilians killed at 1,250. The population of Israel is 9,174,520; .014 percent of the population of Israel was killed.

If this ratio of deaths had occurred in the U.S., the number of deaths would have been 47,600, or about the size of every man, women, child and baby in Prescott. As a result, the Israelis went to war with Gaza. The war has lasted about 10 weeks. The number of non-combatant deaths is unknown, but the total number killed in Gaza is about 17,500 (including terrorists).

I’m not surprised at Harvard and Penn, but heck, you’d think MIT could do the math.

The good news is that lots of folks in our town can do the math. Thank you to the large group that attended the menorah lighting this year.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.