Having won the recent elections in July, the former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan is set to take office as his country’s prime minister on August 11. Khan entered politics in 1996, and, for at least a decade, has remade himself as an Islamist of sorts. The translators at the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI) present some of Khan’s stated views:

[A]bout a week before the July 25, 2018 parliamentary and provincial elections in Pakistan, the veteran jihadist leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil joined Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) political party. . . . On September 30, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil a “global terrorist.” In May 2014, the jihadist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (“Movement of the Pakistani Taliban”) released a video clip in which Imran Khan tells an audience: “By ending the politics in the name of language and [territorial] nationalism, [I] will gather the entire Pakistan in the name of La Ilaha Illallah [there is no deity but Allah].” These Arabic words are used to proclaim one’s faith in Islam. . . .

In 2012, Khan was asked by Pakistan’s Aaj TV about the decline in Pakistani media coverage . . . of his political activities. Khan said: . . . “Advertisements play a big part and [therefore] a small minority, the Jewish lobby, which controls the global media [is responsible].” . . . In another interview, Khan was asked to explain the U.S. agenda. . . . Khan responded: “There is a very big lobby in America, and it’s a very powerful lobby, and that’s basically the Israeli lobby. It wants the Pakistani nuclear program rolled back. . . . And that lobby is very powerful. The one which is trying to get an attack launched on Iran, the same lobby is after the nuclear program of Pakistan.” . . .

In 2011, when his party was still insignificant, Khan criticized the U.S.-led war on terror and blamed the Pakistani elite for being complicit in it. Opposing U.S. aid to Pakistan, he said: “I have been warning against this for a while, because according to all the polls taken in Pakistan, all the surveys, over 80 percent of the Pakistanis think that the U.S. is an enemy. Why do they think of them as an enemy? Because they think the U.S. is not fighting a war against terror. It’s a war against Islam. So, if 80 percent of the population thinks like that, then if you take it to the army, surely 80 percent of the armed personnel would also be thinking like that. That is why it is very dangerous.”

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.