As the war drones on ...

The war's new big story is drones -- how unprepared Israel was and is, and what may lie ahead, very soon. It's not pretty.

“It’s all about the Benjamins”?

Nope, not here. In our little sliver of the world, it’s now all about the drones. The IDF has been proven horrifically unprepared for what our sons and daughters now face in the north, and as we’ll hear tomorrow from Yaakov Katz, it is not only soldiers at the front who might soon be targets.

Here’s some of what we’re going to cover this week, assuming that nothing huge changes:

• Today: a quick summary of some of the drone issues we’re facing, more on which tomorrow.

• Tomorrow (Monday): our podcast with Yaakov Katz on the drone threat.

• Tuesday: the beginning of our dive in to American Jewish anti-Zionism, and what the phenomenon has to teach us about American Judaism writ large.

• Wednesday: a podcast with Rawyah Handaqlu, an Israeli Arab leading the fight against violence in the Israeli Arab community, which is entirely out of control. Why have things gotten to where they are? Can anyone change this? What happens if it doesn’t change?

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Drones are the whole story now. At least until we see what President Trump does about Iran, a subject over which Israel has zero control, Israeli citizens are learning about yet another imminent threat, over which we also have zero control.

The new drone threat could change life in Israel. Not just at the front, but life in Israel, period. That’s why it’s the story everywhere:

Here’s a screenshot (edited for space) from the Times of Israel this morning.

Times of Israel screenshot (May 31 2026), edited

Even soldiers who are not technically combat soldiers face the threat, and the results are too often heartbreaking:

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The story is big enough that a Hezbollah drone was the cover story of the weekend magazine of Makor Rishon on Friday:

Not for naught did that drone make it to the front cover. The white headline, איום מרחף, means “Hovering danger.” And the danger is hovering everywhere.

Israeli soldiers are being killed by Hezbollah drones that Israel basically does not know how to stop. As Israelis read the press this week, they learned the following:

• The IDF, which has known about these drones for years, did nothing to prepare for what we’re facing. In committee after committee, it was said that it was being addressed, but as Ran Baratz showed this weekend, that was utter malarkey. No one was doing anything, and no one who matters enough took it seriously.

• Israelis soldiers are getting killed on the northern border, mostly without any way of protecting themselves. So the IDF is buying a huge number of shotguns and distributing them to soldiers in the north. Unlike assault rifles, such as the M-16 which is the IDF mainstay, shotguns spray their ammo more widely, increasing the chances of soldiers shooting the drones down. But by the time the drone, which evades radar, is close enough for soldiers to see it …

• The fiber optic control mechanism that Hezbollah uses to control these drones means that the IDF can’t interfere with their navigation. The fiber optic connection can extend as far as 25 km, perhaps longer. If they have them in Gaza, Tel Aviv is a target. If they have them in the West Bank, so, too, is my Jerusalem neighborhood.

• One official with whom I spoke on Friday told me that the IDF is also buying enormous quantities of fish netting, with the intent of placing it over bases and even public areas in towns. It won’t entirely stop the drones, but it will make things better. That’s where we are—the army is buying fish nets.

• Talk to parents of the soldiers who are serving in the north, and here’s what you hear: the fish netting hasn’t arrived yet, though. So soldiers are taking (stealing) nets off of soccer goals in some places and using that to try to protect themselves. The absurdity of soldiers having to steal soccer goal nets to save their own lives is beyond description.

As for where these drones come from, how easy they are to build, etc., we will hear tomorrow from Yaakov Katz.

But keep this in mind, also from the Israeli printed newspapers this weekend:

• In Ukraine, the millions of drones that the Ukrainian army uses are being assembled by civilians in basements. This is not super high tech weaponry, but it’s lethal, and the hi tech IDF has been caught with its pants down.

• Here’s a scenario that hasn’t happened yet, but that one expert believes could soon come to be. Imagine that Hezbollah or Hamas or the PA attach a speaker to the drone, and then, using AI, mimic the voice of someone who lives in a neighborhood. Imagine that that voice calls out to say they need help. Or to open the shelter door to let them in. As soon as the door is open, the terrorists send the drone into the shelter. And that’s that.

• Israeli soldiers are trained, over and over, that if someone is hit, they go get them. No matter what. But now, Hezbollah is using one drone to explore near a soldier, and then when others go out to rescue him/her, Hezbollah explodes another one and gets the soldiers who were trying to rescue the first. That’s apparently what happened when Sgt. Rotem Yanai was hit and killed. So now, the army is considering training soldiers not to rescue people, but instead, to try to pull them to safety using ropes. Seriously?

Tomorrow, we begin to unpack all of this.

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