In The Jews Don’t Count, the British comedian, novelist, and television personality David Baddiel reacts to his uncomfortable discovery that there are many who will fight vigorously against the faintest expression of bigotry of just about any kind, but will ignore or defend anti-Semitism. Nick Cohen, reviewing the book, takes the case of the acclaimed American novelist Alice Walker—who has written vile anti-Semitic poems and endorsed the most paranoiac fantasies about Jewish world domination—as an example:

[T]he idea that an African American author could ever be “cancelled” for racism against Jews remains unthinkable to right-thinking people. . . . In 2019, a musical version of [her book] The Color Purple came to the UK. There was a hell of a fuss because Seyi Omooba, one of the cast, had once written an anti-gay post. The producers fired her, of course. Omooba’s prejudice was unforgivable, while Walker’s was, if not quite forgivable, then a matter of no consequence.

While praising Baddiel for acknowledging this, Cohen suggests that he does not fully appreciate the extent of the problem:

The Jew was the Christian world’s “other” for centuries. Islam may have taken its place at times but in in our inherited culture the face of Satan is the swarthy and hooked-nose face of the Jew. . . . These prejudices run deep, so deep that many on the left cannot acknowledge their existence or their power.

Others, however, possess all too conscious prejudices. The Stalinist tradition is as explicitly anti-Semitic as the far-right tradition, as is today’s radical Islam. To parts of the left, anti-Semitism is not just about Jews, it never is, but part of a wider far-left world view that encompasses support for Vladimir Putin and Iran, and also a contempt for democracy as fierce as anything you will find in the Trump movement. For if the “Zionist lobby” controls everything from Keir Starmer’s Labor party to the media, how can elections be free, how can democracy be anything other than a sham?

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.