As Israelis clean up the debris from the Iranian missile barrage Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that Iran had “made a big mistake” and would “pay for” the attack. “We had 10 million people [practically the whole nation!] in shelters for about 45 minutes this evening, as Iran shot 193 ballistic missiles at Israel,” said Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) senior contributing editor Caroline Glick on “Washington Watch” Tuesday. “It’s been a rough day.” Iran’s attack was the most intense to date in a war approaching the one-year mark and came hours after “Israel sent ground forces into Lebanon for the first time — openly at any rate — during the course of this war,” said Glick.

Fortunately, “most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome” and American destroyers, noted Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and the rest caused “largely minor damage,” according to The Wall Street Journal. One missile damaged a road outside Mossad headquarters, another exploded near a school and damaged it, and another blast damaged about 100 in “Hod Hasharon, a town north of Tel Aviv.” Other missiles made contact only with open land.

But the relatively minor damage doesn’t negate the fact that having 198 ballistic missiles airborne and incoming would rattle any civilian population, particularly as Jews prepare for their highest religious festivals.

For one nation’s government to launch approximately 200 missiles at another nation undeniably constitutes an act of war — or, rather, approximately 200 acts of war — that many nations condemned. Yet United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres could not bring himself to call out Iran by name, choosing instead to lament the “broadening of the Middle East conflict,” as if it is partly Israel’s fault. In response, Israel barred Guterres from setting foot in the country. “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” declared Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz.

Terror Attack

At nearly the same time as the missile barrage, heavily armed terrorists opened fire on a commuter train in Tel Aviv, killing seven and wounded 16 more. “Apparently many of the dead are children,” Glick related. “It was carried out by two terrorists from Hebron who were in Israel illegally. They carried it out with M-16s that were totally in good working order,” like the “weapons that the United States … provides to the Palestinian Authority security forces.”

Such a terror attack would rattle any city, on a normal day. The two men “opened fire in a commuter rail … and then they got out at a stop and they continued their murderous spree until they were killed by Israelis that were carrying guns,” she continued.

Glick added that Iran was behind this terrorist attack as well. “Iran has been working feverishly to get more weapons into Judea and Samaria through Jordan. Israel has intercepted a lot of smuggled weapons. But we know that there’s a lot that [have] gotten through,” she said. “All of the terrorism right now emanating from all of the various fronts that Israel is dealing with, including Judea and Samaria are directly linked to Iran through supply, through urging people to carry out more and more attacks, and through the operational coordination.”

Sanctions

Also coinciding with the Iranian missile barrage were more U.S. sanctions on Israeli youth in Judea and Samaria. “Today of all days,” exclaimed Glick, “when Israel is literally fighting actively along seven fronts … the Biden administration thought it was appropriate to issue sanctions against Israeli citizens who oppose the two-state solution.”

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned right-wing activists in Judea and Samaria it describes as “Hilltop Youth,” which “they claimed as an organization, [even though] it’s not,” she said. “Essentially, since it’s not an organization, it gives them the arbitrary ability to just label anybody they want to a member of a non-existent organization and sanction them.”

“Judea and Samaria … is what the Biden administration and others are talking about giving away as a two-state solution,” noted Perkins. That proposal “becomes indefensible when these attacks are emanating from within Israel.”

Aside from sharing in their missile defense, U.S. officials have responded severely to Israel’s latest attempts to defeat its enemies, including its recent campaign to cripple Hezbollah so that residents of northern Israel can return to their homes. U.S. officials complained “loudly and rather publicly that they weren’t brought into the secret plans of Israel to eliminate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah until the planes were already up in the air,” said Glick.

The reason why Israel chose to not inform their U.S. counterparts sooner is because they knew the U.S. would exert diplomatic pressure in an attempt to force them to abandon the operation, as they did so many times in Gaza. Everybody understood this dynamic, which is why a JNS poll this week “showed that 83% of Israelis agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision not to inform the Biden administration ahead of time,” said Glick.

The loud American complaints had an effect. “Apparently, because they had complained so loudly about Israel not informing them ahead of time of the Nasrallah operation, Israel did inform them of our plans to go into Lebanon,” Glick added. “And the Americans immediately leaked it to the U.S. media. This happened over [a] series of conversations that Israel had, trying to coordinate with the Americans. The administration turned around each time and leaked the information to the media almost immediately.”

Perkins agreed with the Israeli majority that Israel would be better off keeping their operational details to themselves. “This is an operational issue. This put lives at risk going into Lebanon,” he said. “You can pass this on to the Prime Minister: just tell him to send us a postcard once they’re there.”

There were even “reports that the Biden administration and Iran were negotiating the scope of the strike,” said Perkins. Of these reports, Glick was less sure. “Those reports were actually initially emanating from American sources,” she said. But when they “spurred an outcry in Israel … Americans denied that they were negotiating with the Iranians, and then said that it was just an Iranian [who] was trying to contact the Americans. … So, believe what you want.”

However, the reports were suspiciously consistent with the rest of the Biden-Harris administration’s behavior. Instead of standing as Israel’s ally, the administration is seeking to advance its own political objective for the region — a two-state solution — which none of the parties want. “The initial reports were that the United States was, in fact, coordinating Iran’s attack with Iran beforehand to try to determine what would be an acceptable amount of missiles to send over to Israel, [so] that the United States could then pressure Israel not to respond forcefully,” said Glick. If true, these reports are outrageously dangerous.

“At any rate, it’s all sort of an academic question,” said Glick, “because Prime Minister Netanyahu said tonight that Israel is going to respond harshly to Iran.” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari vowed, “We are on heightened alert on defense and offense, we will protect the citizens of Israel. This [missile] fire will have consequences. We have plans, and we will act in the time and place that we choose.”

From Israel’s perspective, whether or not they will respond is not the question — no matter how much the Biden-Harris administration wants to make it one. Instead, the question is whether the Israeli strike will hit Iran’s nuclear capabilities or oil production. “Those appear to be the top two options that are on the table now,” which are “being considered by the security cabinet,” said Glick.

The other question is timing. Rosh Hashanah (the feast of trumpets, Leviticus 23:23-25) begins Wednesday at midnight, and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement, Leviticus 23:26-32) begins next Friday at midnight. The week after that is Sukkot (the feast of booths, Leviticus 23:33-43). In the middle is October 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s surprise attack against Israel. Will Israel respond on one of these days, or wait until afterward?

“There seems to be a correlation [between] when we’re seeing some of these attacks taking place during these spiritually significant holidays,” noticed Perkins. “I want you and all of our friends there in Israel to know that we’re praying for you.”