On August 12, a crowd of over 1,000 people assembled to bid farewell to Rasmea Odeh, who participated in the 1969 bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two college students. Odeh, then a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was arrested and sentenced to prison, but later released as part of a prisoner exchange. She is now being expelled from the U.S. for lying about her terrorist past on her immigration documents. Jonathan Greenberg describes the gathering, which featured the radical writer Angela Davis as its keynote speaker:

[Odeh’s] supporters on Saturday included dozens of progressive advocacy groups and anti-Israel organizations that sponsored the event, such as Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Black Lives Matter.

The convicted terrorist received well-wishers like the bride at a wedding and paused to meet children like a celebrity. Have your kid’s picture taken with a killer! . . . The room was generally young, energetic, . . . diverse, and united around a narrative that included a common enemy: Israel. . . .

[In a speech, one of Odeh’s attorneys], Michael Deutsch, . . . said that her “militancy” had been an inspiration to him. At first, it seemed that word choice might have been a Freudian slip, but as he spoke, it became clear it wasn’t. Deutsch was the first speaker of the night openly—if carefully— to cast terrorism as morally acceptable. He was proud, he said, to . . . “put forward the idea that Palestinians have the international-law right [sic] to struggle against a brutal, illegal occupation by any means necessary.” The crowd cheered. . . .

In the near future, Odeh will be deported from the U.S. The [people present] at this event consider this one grave injustice among many perpetrated against them by a government—and society—that hates them. They are awash in victimhood and antipathy for the broader society in which they live.

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.