When he became mayor of Israel’s capital in December, the fifty-seven-year old Moshe Lion was a relative outsider who had first run for public office only five years earlier. He is the first Sephardi Jew to hold the post—his father was born in Thessaloniki—and unusual in that he is a religious Zionist who was elected thanks largely to ḥaredi voters. Having interviewed Lion, Tal Kra-Oz writes:

Lion’s [electoral] victory did not come easily. When I asked him about his policy for the handful of city businesses that operate on the Sabbath, he was adamant that he was a staunch supporter of the existing status quo, which allows for restaurants and bars to operate seven days a week in certain areas, but volunteered that his opponents had always accused him [of wanting to shut down these businesses on the Sabbath].

During his first run for office in 2013, Jerusalem residents knew only that Lion’s candidacy was the result of a political deal between his two unlikely patrons: Avigdor Liberman of [the staunchly secular] Yisrael Beytenu and Aryeh Deri of [the Mizraḥi and ḥaredi] Shas. The two master politicians who, at least publicly, agree on very little, decided to mount a joint effort to place their friend at the helm of Israel’s capital. When Lion finally prevailed in last November’s elections, it was in no small part thanks to his success in securing wide swaths of the ultra-Orthodox vote in backroom deals. None of Lion’s candidates made it into the city council. But of the 32 elected council members, fifteen are ultra-Orthodox and form the core of his coalition. . . .

Lion is charged with the well-being of some 900,000 residents. Upward of a third are Arab, and nearly another third are ultra-Orthodox, making him mayor of the largest Arab and ultra-Orthodox city in the country. Though the remaining non-Orthodox Jewish population is still sizable, it has gotten smaller. . . . Lion . . . plans to spend billions on overhauling eastern Jerusalem’s much-maligned roads and sewers, and on revolutionizing its schools, many of which are run by the Palestinian Authority.

“So far, not enough effort has been made to bring the Israeli education system to the residents of eastern Jerusalem,” Lion said. “Today only 7 percent of schools in eastern Jerusalem are run by the Israeli Ministry of Education. My goal is to bring that number up to 50 percent within five years. That will make a world of a difference. The level of education will be much higher. And even more important, we’ll be rid of the incitement that you find in the Palestinian curriculum.”

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.