With Washington increasing economic pressure on the Islamic Republic, and the mullahs responding with a series of naval provocations, Iranian media are claiming that Jews and Zionists are behind it all. David A. Weinberg writes:

After the U.S. blamed Iran for . . . attacks in June on two [oil] tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency cited a former Iranian government spokesperson calling the attacks “a plot hatched by the Zionist regime of Israel and the U.S. to exert more pressure on the Islamic Republic.” . . .

After British authorities seized an Iranian oil tanker suspected of violating international sanctions on Syria on July 4th, the focus of Iran’s aggression and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories shifted somewhat from the United States to Great Britain. On July 19th, Iran seized at least one British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf in retaliation. . . . Iran’s Press TV reported in mid-July on Boris Johnson’s efforts to replace Theresa May as UK prime minister with the headline “The Zionists Tighten Their Stranglehold on British Politics.” The focus of this article was on decrying what it called “the depth of Zionist penetration across the British political establishment.”

[In May], Iran’s government-run Hamoon TV aired a music video showing the Statue of Liberty with a Jewish menorah in place of its torch, which the singer describes as “a flame straight from hell.” That same day, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s official representative to the Iranian city of Birjand called Iran’s enemies “a fusion of Jews and polytheists” who are “impure and evil, . . . a crossbreed of dogs and wolves that has pounced on the convoy of humanity, [and] predatory, reptilian, and satanic.”

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.