As I write it is the middle of the night in the U.S., but morning here in central Europe, where we are awakening to the shocking and barbaric attack Hamas has launched inside Israel from the Gaza strip. Some of the early videos and news accounts are horrific. This is no minor raid. It can be compared to 9/11.

Early reaction includes some criticism that Israeli intelligence may have missed seeing this coming, especially as this attack occurs around the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war when Israel came perilously close to losing. I think there is a more obvious motive for the timing. Hamas and Hezbollah want to derail the much-rumored normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will marginalize Hamas and Hezbollah so some extent.

No doubt Hamas expects—and likely hopes for—a strong Israeli response against them in Gaza, and I hope Netanyahu doesn’t hesitate, in the world of Marcellus Wallace, to go medieval on Hamas, and Hezbollah too while they are at it. It risks a wider war with Iran. So be it.

The most urgent question for Americans is how the Biden Administration will react. I do not hesitate go on record with the view that Biden has long been anti-Israel, and is likely a closet anti-Semite. Expect the worst from our State Department.