Tunisia is home to the second-largest Jewish community in the Arab world, and the Tunisian island of Djerba is home to one of Africa’s oldest synagogues, the site of an annual Jewish pilgrimage. As Kersten Knipp explains, “religious legend has it [that] the 2,500-year-old place of worship—known as the Ghriba synagogue in Arabic—was built using remnants of the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem.” This year, between four and five thousand visitors are expected participate in a yearly festival held on the island, following a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus. Knipp sketches the recent history of Tunisia’s Jews, the synagogue, and the pilgrimage, along with the regional tensions this history reflects.

After Tunisia became independent from France in 1956, many Tunisian Jews left the country. The economic situation in Tunisia was difficult then, and there [was also increased hostility toward] the Jewish community [on the part of] Tunisia’s Muslim majority after the state of Israel was founded in 1948. Tunisian Jews found themselves marginalized and under pressure to emigrate. A second large wave of migration of Tunisian Jews followed in 1967 after the Six-Day War.

In 2002, the Djerba synagogue was the target of a terrorist attack when an extremist rammed a truck loaded with liquid propane into the building. The explosion killed nineteen people, including fourteen tourists from Germany. The extremist organization al-Qaida claimed the attack. In January 2018, petrol bombs were thrown at a Jewish school on Djerba. There were no injuries, although the school was damaged.

Before being elected to office in 2019, the current president of the country, Kais Saied, said he would not allow anyone holding an Israeli passport to enter Tunisia—not even to visit the Djerba synagogue. His statement was an apparent reaction to the ongoing normalization of ties between Israel and some Arab states, including Tunisia’s neighbor, Morocco. Asked about the . . . Abraham Accords during a presidential debate in 2019, Saied replied, “normalization is the wrong word to use. We should be talking about high treason.”

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.