On Tuesday, the funeral of a ḥasidic rabbi in Brooklyn attracted a large crowd and, despite the efforts of its organizers—in coordination with municipal authorities—the police eventually dispersed the crowd. The same evening, New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio made the following announcement over Twitter, “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the [New York Police Department] to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.”

John Podhoretz, addressing de Blasio directly, writes:

[L]ike moral ciphers from time immemorial, you decided to seek your jollies by attacking Jews.

There’s no way to read your tweet from Tuesday night in an exculpatory fashion. . . . Your own police department helped arrange street closures for the funeral with the Satmar Ḥasidim. People came out to show their respects to the dead. They were wearing masks. Yes, they showed up in greater numbers than was safe. That is clear. But the very same police officers who set up the pylons closing the streets to car traffic could have limited the numbers, the way they do on New Year’s Eve around Times Square.

What we saw here was therefore a failure of authority. Your authority. Not a failure of “the Jewish community.” And yet, when you announced you were going to the site personally to address this outrage, what you saw were: bad Jews.

Under your watch, as mayor, there has been an anti-Jewish crime wave in this city. Last year alone, anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 29 percent, prominently featuring the random sucker-punch attacks we’ve all seen on video. After remaining shockingly silent about them for a very long time, you finally spoke out in December 2019. In appointing a task force to look into the violent assaults on Jews in the five boroughs, you said, “An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on all New Yorkers.”

Maybe you should appoint a task force to investigate yourself.

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.