One of the many ways last weekend's drone and missile attacks on Israel could have been worse: If Iran's rulers had instructed their U.S.-based operatives to simultaneously carry out a terrorist attack, and our intelligence agencies failed to learn about it.

Preventing such a catastrophe requires that those intelligence agencies have the ability and authority to surveil – think wiretap – terrorists abroad and their communications with operatives in the U.S.

Which gets me to a little good news: The House last week, on a bipartisan basis, took a step to ensure that we don't lose what may be our most important defensive weapon against terrorists eager to slaughter Americans on American soil.

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"Today, the people of Israel are under attack, orchestrated by a terrorist organization, Hamas." So said President Joseph R. Biden six months ago last Sunday.

He went on to speak of the "innocent people murdered, wounded, entire families taken hostage by Hamas."

He made clear that "the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. ...My administration's support for Israel's security is rock solid and unwavering."

So, when did the rock start to crumble, and the wavering begin?

I'd say last month when Mr. Biden allowed a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by Moscow, Beijing, and 22 Arab states, to pass.

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In 1993, a massive truck bomb exploded at the World Trade Center, the first major international terrorist attack on American soil.

Five years later, two massive truck bombs struck two American embassies in East Africa. That was not long after Osama Bin Laden, in an interview in southern Afghanistan with reporter John Miller, vowed to continue waging jihad against the United States.

Two years after that a boat packed with explosives struck the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen.

Despite all this and more, it came as a terrible shock when, on September 11, 2001, al Qaeda operatives hijacked passenger jets and used them to murder nearly 3,000 Americans on American soil.

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"Israel Alone" is the headline on the cover of the March 23rd issue of The Economist, a British weekly. The illustration shows an Israeli flag buffeted by a sandstorm.

I wonder if Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, is sitting in a tunnel under Rafah gazing at that image, and if it's brought a smile to his lips.

Perhaps, when he was planning the Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, one of his deputies advised that their fighters target only soldiers and spare Israeli civilians, at least children and babies; that they not rape women and mutilate corpses; that they conduct themselves, in short, as honorable warriors rather than barbarians.

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Starting in the 1920s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union pioneered the art of dezinformatsiya. A hundred years later, the Communist Party of China has developed disinformation into a high-tech science.

You probably know how the Kremlin did propaganda: Thousands of KGB operatives would feed false information to journalists in dozens of countries to advance Moscow's goals. Increasing anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism were high on the list.

Some of those journalists were fellow travelers. Others were what the Soviets called "useful idiots."

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