9/11 Plus 10/7 = Boom!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not as if the news of the day doesn’t already fill us with dire premonitions. Doomsday scenarios are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Hand-wringing has been elevated to an Olympic sport.

It’s all too horrifying to face, actually. That’s why we have Trump trials—to take our minds off the serious stuff.

Of course, I am referring to the ticking clock that might, at this very moment, attach itself to an actual bomb.

Millions of unvetted immigrants have passed through our porous borders these past several years. Donald Trump is worried about incoming mental patients. Others are focused on fentanyl cartels. Human trafficking remains a concern, too. Take your pick: Many kinds of possibly dangerous people might be sitting next to you on the subway, or at a Subway.

I am primarily worried about terrorism, because, well, . . . someone should be. This past year unveiled an entirely new category of asylum seekers—people from countries that practice Sharia law and indulge themselves by ridding the world of infidels. People from such places also spend a lot of time online in jihadi chat rooms and learning how to make bombs from household kitchen items, a crockpot and backpack, and a box of nails and some ball bearings.

How about that: Terrorists bring the real tick-tock to YouTube. Unlike Venezuelan gang members, these undocumented migrants aren’t here for petty theft or to gang up on New York City cops. They arrive with more ambitious, murderous goals.

How soon we all forgot. Remember terrorism? The bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the Navy destroyer, the USS Cole? The firemen climbing up the World Trade Center on 9/11 just as it was collapsing? United Airlines Flight 93, memorialized by the heroism of “Let’s roll”? The lives cut short, and limbs severed, at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, a little more than a decade ago?

The Department of Homeland Security would issue daily color-coded terrorism alerts. Grandmothers were strip-searched by TSA agents—just in case a shoe bomber suffered from bunions and wore orthotics.

Today, as long as you’re not white-skinned, the United States is more than happy to be your refuge—no questions asked, apparently. A blonde Finnish pole vaulter would not be allowed to leap over our non-existent walls. Immigrants from nations where terrorists are considered skilled laborers, however, bypass the velvet rope altogether, and receive a hero’s welcome from the Squad.

We’re either sloppy or plain stupid, or both.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has been testifying before congressional committees and warning that “the threat from foreign terrorists” is reaching a whole other level. Eight illegal aliens with possible ties to ISIS-K, the same group that opened fire on a Moscow concert hall in March, were just picked up by ICE in New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Apparently, they were paroled into the United States without an interview.

The FBI director was full of surprises. He informed Congress that we aren’t even creating watch lists anymore, so an interview might not even lead to denied entry. Let me get this straight: We handcuff Homeland Security, making it impossible for them to do their jobs, while simultaneously taking the cuffs off actual terrorists—their wrists never cinched to begin with?

Someone, anyone, please start taking names.

I am not especially clairvoyant, but I might suggest that if your commute regularly includes the Space Needle in Seattle, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the French Quarter in New Orleans, Faneuil Hall in Boston, or the Brooklyn Bridge, you might consider taking an alternate route. Swifties, let’s just say that you are all fortunate that Taylor’s Eras Tour is coming to an end.

Terrorists, after all, favor iconic targets, and specialize in surprise. Mass murder requires a bit of ingenuity. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Boston Marathon, were once thought to be sacred and impregnable.

This is where “progressive” politics has taken us. Our ever-expanding inclusiveness had the browning of America as an endgame. It might also spell the end of our democratic republic. I hate to break it to Joe Biden, but white supremacy is not America’s most looming national threat. Neither is Donald Trump. If you’re taking your cues from MSNBC, the New York Times and Robert De Niro, then you have no idea what’s really going on.

I hate to break it to Joe Biden, but white supremacy is not America’s most looming national threat. Neither is Donald Trump. If you’re taking your cues from MSNBC, the New York Times and Robert De Niro, then you have no idea what’s really going on.

The signs of real chaos are everywhere. New York City police arrested a foreign national who was living out of a car that doubled as a weapons warehouse. Additionally, they discovered the kind of end-of-days writings favored by martyrs looking to fast-track their destiny with 72 virgins.

What kind of belief system strikes such a pathetic bargain?

If you’re Jewish, the threat levels no longer require color-coded advisories. Pro-Hamas forces are on a daily prowl. Five homes in New York belonging to Jews who are associated with the Brooklyn Museum were vandalized with splattered paint. A large gathering of protesters chanted, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” and “Long live 10/7,” outside the exhibit memorializing the victims of the Supernova music festival. Jewish subway riders, or anyone with Zionist leanings, were warned to leave the train instantly or face a lynch mob.

We have terrorism masquerading as free speech; antisemitism is now a credential for the human rights community. New York’s governor has hopes of reinstituting the anti-mask law. It was repealed on account of the pandemic. It’s now once again necessary—this time to unmask violent antisemites who benefit from the anonymity of crowds and the darkness of night.

It’s even worse in Europe, which has had to cope with Islamic fanaticism far longer, requiring the creation of “no-go zones” and an exodus of European Jewry to Israel. Speaker’s Corner in London often descends into mobs of Muslims screaming for Jewish blood.

None of this bodes well for Western nations harboring would-be terrorists in need of a nudge before slipping into their suicide vests.

We are obliging the terrorist fantasies of angry Muslims, grievance-obsessed blacks, anti-colonialist faculty, and some of the dumbest, most unemployable college students America has ever produced—shrugging it all off as harmless First Amendment freedoms. And as for Jews—they either deserve it, or can take it.

If you’re cheering for Hamas, then you’re on the side of those who brought down the World Trade Center. On 9/11, Palestinians threw candy in celebration.

You sure “Free, free Palestine!” is your jam?

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”