Israel’s government-sponsored International Bible Quiz for Youth takes place every year on Independence Day. For some time the contest’s winners have uniformly come out of the religious Zionist school system, but this year’s winner is a student at a secular school. To Gabi Avital the youngster’s victory marks the reversal of a trend in Israel during which Bible study disappeared from the mainstream, becoming the province instead of Orthodox Jews and (mainly) secular scholars:

How was the Tanakh pushed into the corner of the kippah-wearers, who are in fact the minority [in Israel]? Over the years, under the guise of science, the Bible underwent “critical readings” [and] was compared with the Code of Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was broken up into shreds of documents, and its soul was drugged with the “enlightened” scientific spirit. [Professors] wrote articles, attended conferences—and yet the universities’ Bible departments grew increasingly empty.

But, lo and behold, it seems that [outside the universities] Bible study is blossoming like flowers in springtime. The young people of Israel are learning verses and passages by heart, and each Saturday people read and study the weekly Torah portion. . . .

The Tanakh is the basic element of the soul of the Jewish people. Combined, the Tanakh and the Talmud, the Mishnah, and the midrashim are a [canon] any nation would be proud to claim. . . . The moment when a secular student was lifted up on someone’s shoulders [to celebrate his victory in the Bible quiz] heralded the return of the Bible to the general public. It belongs to everyone. There can be no monopoly on the wisdom of the Tanakh or its study, provided the basic condition is maintained: the Tanakh is the essence of the Jewish spirit here in the land of Israel.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.