Despite Israeli objections, the White House appears committed to opening a special diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital that would take over certain functions heretofore handled by the embassy. This is not, as Richard Kemp explains, a mere bureaucratic reshuffling but an attempt to “undermine Israel’s sovereignty in its own capital city.” He explains:

The new consulate, exclusively to manage diplomatic relations with Palestinians, is designed to give hope that one day Jerusalem will be the capital of a putative Palestinian state. Israel can, and rightly should, never allow that. As well as betraying Israel, President Biden’s irresponsible diplomatic signaling—which also appeases his hard-left supporters—is a betrayal of the Palestinian people. They have suffered too long and too greatly under their leadership, which has consistently refused to entertain all proposals for peace with Israel that could lead to the establishment of their own state.

Successive Palestinian leaders have been encouraged in their intransigence by the U.S. and Europe, who have for decades extracted concession after concession from Israel while Palestinians make none. The impossible aspirations of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership—which seeks not a two-state solution but the destruction of the Jewish state—were dealt a severe blow by the 2020 Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab nations, and by the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 with the opening of an embassy there the following year.

If an independent consulate were really needed for the Palestinians, it would make sense to put it in Ramallah, where virtually all PA government buildings are located.

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.