Last month’s Greek elections ended the far-left Syriza party’s control of the government and replaced it with the conservative New Democracy party. While Syriza once shared the hostility toward Israel common to the European left, its prime minister, Alexis Tsirpas, moved his country closer to Jerusalem, enhancing economic and even military cooperation. If anything, writes the former Israeli ambassador to Athens Arye Mekel, things will continue to improve under the new government headed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis:

Greek-Israeli relations have been greatly upgraded since 2010 and are now at their peak despite the frequent changes of government in Athens. There is no doubt that these relations, which include significant security cooperation, will improve even more in the era of Mitsotakis. It was his father who, as prime minister in 1990, raised ties with Israel to the ambassadorial level. The younger Mitsotakis visited Israel last year and publicly vowed to enhance relations even more if he were to be elected prime minister. He also met with Benjamin Netanyahu and made similar statements. . . .

Another welcome development is that the neo-Nazi Yellow Dawn party, which had eighteen members in the outgoing parliament, did not pass the minimum threshold of 3 percent [of the vote] and will be left without representation in parliament. The party is demanding a recount, but the chances of that happening are very small.

The new government does include one member with a problematic past: the minister of agricultural development and food, Makis Voridis. When younger, Voridis was an activist in far-right student organizations in Athens and London. . . . Later he joined . . . a far-right party whose leaders included such known anti-Semites as Konstantinos Plevris, the author of the book The Jews: The Whole Truth. . . . It can reasonably be assumed, [however], that Voridis’s presence in the government will have a negligible effect, if any, on the close and intensifying relations between Greece and Israel.

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.