In the first year of his reign in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini instituted Quds Day (literally, Jerusalem day), a public holiday observed with rallies and calls for Israel’s destruction. To honor the occasion this year, the office of Khomeini’s successor, Ali Khamenei, released a celebratory poster advocating for a “final solution” to the problem posed by the Jewish state. Arash Azizi writes:

The 2020 poster is headlined “Palestine Will Be Free.” In a cartoonish style reminiscent of the Where’s Waldo series, it shows a group of people who have apparently conquered the courtyard of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque. The Dome of the Rock is seen in the background. The holy mosque is emblazoned with a picture of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force who was assassinated by the Americans in January. But the most significant feature of the poster is its unmistakable subtitle: “The final solution: resistance until referendum.”

In addition to the [appalling] subtitle, other features of the poster betray Iran’s attitude to the Palestinians. There is no flag of Iran, but there are flags of Iran’s Shiite partners in the region, such as Lebanon’s Hizballah. There are large pictures of Khamenei and Khomeini, plus those of the Hizballah figures Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh, but hardly any images of Palestinian national figures. There is a small picture of Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian imam and the founding figure of Hamas, assassinated by Israel in 2004. There are only three women in the picture, all wearing the Islamic hijab, and one holding a baby.

This is . . . the “free” Palestine imagined by Khamenei: inspired by Adolf Hitler, for men only, where icons of the Islamic regime of Tehran loom large without any sign of the rich repertoire of Palestinian national life.

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.