Louis Marano worked for over two decades as a journalist, and based his recent novel The Tribalist—about a non-Jewish journalist covering the Middle East—on his own experiences. Edward Alexander describes the book as “a love song by a Gentile journalist for the state of Israel.” He writes in his review:

In Marano’s novel, politics becomes primary and in fact more interesting than the romantic adventures and misadventures of the book’s protagonist, the reporter and columnist Frank DiRaimo, a barely disguised fictional version of the author. His first love is not really any of these women but the land of Israel and the people of Israel. He knows, almost by instinct, that Israeli Jews, including (if not especially) the secular ones, really belong to a community of faith.

He is powerfully impressed by young Jewish soldiers: “These young people were standing guard, protecting their tribe. Something about this was so elemental, so primal, that it stirred Frank’s soul. . . . He felt the presence of something precious that had been devalued, discarded, and finally redeemed. It was like discovering a unicorn on a lost island.”

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.