For many years, genealogists have asserted that Gladys Presley, mother of the “king of rock-and-roll,” had Jewish ancestors, and that she—and therefore her son as well—may even have been a Jew by halakhic standards. Archivists have recently opened a crate containing the headstone of Gladys’s original grave, which has a cross engraved in upper right corner and a star of David on the upper left. Dan Fellner writes:

“There was a lot of mystery surrounding it,” said Angie Marchese, Graceland’s vice-president of archives and exhibits, and the one who came up with the idea of unveiling Gladys’s headstone on the 60th anniversary of her death, partly to dispel doubts about Elvis’s Jewish lineage.

Marchese says Elvis’s maternal great-great-grandmother was a Jewish woman named Nancy Burdine. Little is known about Burdine, but it’s believed her family immigrated to America from what is now Lithuania around the time of the American Revolution. According to Ancestry.com, Burdine was born in Mississippi in 1826 and died in 1887. Burdine’s great-granddaughter was Gladys Love Smith, who married Vernon Presley in 1933. Two years later, Gladys gave birth to Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi.

There is evidence that Elvis’s Jewish lineage meant more to him than just a symbol on a headstone. He gave generously over the years to a variety of Jewish organizations, including the Memphis Jewish Community Center, a donation honored with a plaque that hangs in Graceland today. . . . During the final years of his life, Elvis was frequently photographed wearing necklaces with the Star of David and the Hebrew word ḥai, which means life. . . . Never one to be accused of subtlety, Elvis had the necklace designed with seventeen diamonds.

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.