As the world grapples with the aftershocks of the violent Hamas invasion of southern Israel, the “who,” “what,” “when,” and “where” all appear to be accounted for.

Hamas militants launched a brutal all-out assault on southern Israel on Saturday morning, killing and capturing an untold number of unsuspecting people.

(The current death toll sits at over 700 people, according to ABC News, but that figure is expected to rise.)

The “why” has similarly been answered, even beyond the explanation of the historical animosity between the parties.

Hamas leadership has gone on record stating that a big part of this bloody offensive was to use hostages as a bargaining chip to free Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.

That just leaves the “how” part of this horrific episode left unexplained and trying to get to the bottom of that raises all manner of concern about just how much Israel and its allies knew — or didn’t know — about this invasion.

One of the biggest red flags comes from one of Israel’s biggest allies, courtesy of The Atlantic.

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That ally? The United States of America.

That red flag? The remarks made by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at The Atlantic Festival, which took place over Sept. 28-29.

After rattling off a number of purported successes and accomplishments in the Middle East by President Joe Biden and his administration, Sullivan dropped this doozy: “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

Sullivan spoke on Friday, Sept. 29th.

Just eight days later, on Saturday, Oct. 7th, Hamas launched its assault.

How was Sullivan so wrong about how it’s “quieter” in the Middle East than it’s been in decades?

Now, in fairness, there is always the possibility that Sullivan knew something catastrophic was afoot and simply opted not to divulge that in a public forum.

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But in that case, that would mean Israel and allies knew what was coming and still failed to do anything about it — a considerably darker scenario.

Occam’s razor would suggest that, as the devastating results and scrambling response to the invasion attested to, this was a genuine surprise.

You can judge for yourself if you think Sullivan’s remarks are authentic below:

Additionally, even before the Hamas invasion, there was ample reason to doubt the veracity of Sullivan’s remarks.

It’s well-documented at this point that Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal left a vacuum of power and a whole lot of weaponry and equipment in the country, creating the perfect Petri dish of circumstances for attacks just like the one Hamas launched.

Regardless of who knew what and when they knew it, you don’t need any advanced intel to know what’s next: Israel has declared war for the first time in 50 years.

Things are about to get a lot worse and a lot bloodier before they get any better.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.