Even those who profess not to believe in the divine or the supernatural, writes Peter Berger, can sometimes find themselves confronted by a feeling that something beyond the realm of rational explanation is taking place. As Berger puts it, these sensations occupy a spectrum that includes “what I feel when I first hear the strange noise in the attic, when I hear it every midnight accompanied by Gregorian chanting, and when an angel appears in my bedroom and addresses me in sonorous Latin.” He goes on to describe the “distinctive mix of fascination and fear” that is part and parcel of religiosity, and an experience of his own:

[My wife and I] were living in Brooklyn, and often had to drive to and from LaGuardia airport on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The route goes through Williamsburg, which has one of the densest concentrations of ḥasidic Jews in the country. A number of bridges crosses the BQE. . . . One day I was driving home from having dropped someone at LaGuardia [Airport]. There was a strong wind. Suddenly a large, typically ḥasidic hat flew off one of the bridges and landed right in front of my car. It was a shtrayml, a velvet and fur concoction imitating the headgear of Renaissance Polish noblemen (it can be ordered online for about $600).

My options speeded in my head. It would have been very dangerous to brake suddenly at the speed I was going. I would have braked for a person, but surely not for a hat! When I arrived at home, I said to my wife: “Something very strange happened just now—I drove over a ḥasidic hat!” A few weeks later, a statistically improbable event: the scene repeated itself, same spot on the BQE, same type of hat. I drove over that one, too. I was scheduled to give some lectures in Jerusalem. I had the eerie thought that a third hat was waiting for me there.

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.