Israel’s Challenge in Responding to a Brutal Surprise Attack

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“Surprise attacks happen so often," former U.S. deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz once observed, “that the surprising thing is that we are still surprised by them." But history shows that the tactic almost always backfires. Nations subjected to surprise attacks may be weakened in the immediate days and weeks afterward, but they tend to be more unified, more resolute and more focused on righteous vengeance than nations that drift into war. Hamas’s attack on Israel last weekend fits this pattern. The Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas fired some 3,500 rockets at Israel and militants invaded by air, land and...