At the end of last year, the Knesset authorized a fifteen-billion-shekel plan to better the circumstances and further the integration of Israel’s Arab population over the next five years. Sanguine about the plan’s prospects, Meir Elran and Eran Yashiv outline its most significant elements and explain its importance:

Special emphasis is being placed on teacher training and professional development, learning achievements, and expanded informal education. . . . Transformation in allocation mechanisms, [however], is perhaps the most significant measure in the new program, and connotes a clear public assertion by the Israeli government that it acknowledges the ongoing discrimination in allocations to the Arab population and Arab communities. The [most] prominent objective of the program is that allocations to minorities match those to the Jewish majority.

These two components, acknowledgment and change, bespeak a fundamental political change that must be tested over time. The fact that the program was adopted by the current right-wing Israeli government, in the midst of yet another time of rising tension between the Jewish and Arab populations, reflects awareness that improving the conditions of the Arab population is in the economic and social interest of both the minority and the majority.

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.