Qanta Ahmed, an Anglo-American physician and writer and an outspoken opponent of Islamism, recently received an award from an Israeli university. She talks about the nature of radical Islam, the failure of the United States to confront it properly, and her own experiences in Israel. (Interview by Dror Eydar):

When I heard President Obama’s speech in Cairo in 2009, I thought it was a shame that a speech like this was not given by a Muslim leader in Cairo about the need for engagement with the U.S. Also, the prominence of the Palestinian issue on the president’s agenda annoys so many Muslims from other regions, like from Bangladesh. There are over a billion Muslims who do not live in the Middle East and do not list the Palestinian issue as their top priority. Yet I do not wish the Palestinians ill. I am as pro-Palestinian as I am pro-Zionist. . . .

I found myself on one of my visits to Israel . . . in an elevator at Hadassah [hospital in Jerusalem]. I was with a very busy doctor, and I looked around the small, packed elevator. What I saw around me was a Muslim lady in a hijab, next to her a man who looked as if he was from the 18th century—with a striped jacket, white socks, and a special hat—and next to him . . . a man with peyot. In front of me was the busy modern-Orthodox doctor. I, the Muslim, am the one who looks secular.

And I realized that all my worlds—the people I used to treat [when I worked] in Saudi Arabia, the Orthodox patients and doctors I encounter in New York, my modern-Orthodox friends, Israelis living in America—all of my worlds collided in this elevator. And they don’t collide anywhere else. It is little moments like that in which you can’t help becoming a Zionist.

On Tuesday, a Hizballah drone attack injured three people in northern Israel. The next day, another attack, targeting an IDF base, injured eighteen people, six of them seriously, in Arab al-Amshe, also in the north. This second attack involved the simultaneous use of drones carrying explosives and guided antitank missiles. In both cases, the defensive systems that performed so successfully last weekend failed to stop the drones and missiles. Ron Ben-Yishai has a straightforward explanation as to why: the Lebanon-backed terrorist group is getting better at evading Israel defenses. He explains the three basis systems used to pilot these unmanned aircraft, and their practical effects:

These systems allow drones to act similarly to fighter jets, using “dead zones”—areas not visible to radar or other optical detection—to approach targets. They fly low initially, then ascend just before crashing and detonating on the target. The terrain of southern Lebanon is particularly conducive to such attacks.

But this requires skills that the terror group has honed over months of fighting against Israel. The latest attacks involved a large drone capable of carrying over 50 kg (110 lbs.) of explosives. The terrorists have likely analyzed Israel’s alert and interception systems, recognizing that shooting down their drones requires early detection to allow sufficient time for launching interceptors.

The IDF tries to detect any incoming drones on its radar, as it had done prior to the war. Despite Hizballah’s learning curve, the IDF’s technological edge offers an advantage. However, the military must recognize that any measure it takes is quickly observed and analyzed, and even the most effective defenses can be incomplete. The terrain near the Lebanon-Israel border continues to pose a challenge, necessitating technological solutions and significant financial investment.