In the Roman ruins outside the eastern Spanish town of Elche lies an ancient basilica which has become a popular tourist destination. The main portion of the structure was built in the 4th century CE, and an apse was added in the 5th. For many years, archaeologists have assumed the building to have been a church, but the scholar Robyn Walsh has recently argued that—although undoubtedly used for Christian worship in its later form—it was originally a synagogue. Candida Moss writes:

[According to Walsh], the “best evidence” for the building’s use comes from the mosaic that was unearthed on its floor. She pointed to inscriptions dedicated to the “archons and elders” and dedicating the building as a “place of prayer of the people” as suggestive of Jewish use. These, she said, “correspond well with inscriptions found elsewhere in the Jewish Diaspora—including other synagogue inscriptions.”

The most suggestive discovery, however, is the presence of what is likely to be a seven-[branched] menorah in the mosaic. The identification of the image as a menorah is difficult because visitors to the site have defaced it by picking out small pieces of the mosaic as souvenirs; because it was at some point repaired by an amateur artisan; and because it is what Walsh calls a “figurative motif.” These caveats aside, said Walsh, “the figure . . . looks an awful lot like menorahs created by non-professionals or amateur artisans in other contexts.” . . . Add the evidence of the menorah to the inscriptional evidence and it seems almost certain that this Christian basilica was originally a synagogue.

Part of the reason this evidence has long been ignored, argue Walsh and Moss, is that the main excavation of the site was conducted under the auspices of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, and overseen a German archaeologists sent there on the orders of the Third Reich.

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.