Israel must act now to save its precious north
We love living in Israel’s north. It is an area of beautiful rolling hills, lush greenery, open areas filled with historical sites, wineries and sweet little towns. The air is dry, the water can be drunk from the tap and life is not as sophisticated or fast-paced as it is in the center.
The north is beloved by most Israelis because they understand that it speaks to a simpler time and is an area that has always been central to the Jewish people, both in antiquity and in pre-state Mandatory Palestine.
Sadly, that seems to be a case of “that was then and this is now.” Now, the north is an area under constant attack from Hezbollah rockets and drones.
One sees fires smoldering or areas charred by them, incessant jets overhead and streaks of rockets being intercepted, while citizens flee to the nearest shelter. This has become a day-to-day reality.
Life has taken on a surreal quality for the many who have chosen to hold their ground and continue their lives as normally as possible. But a great many have chosen otherwise.
Shockingly, but hardly surprisingly, 60,000 to 80,000 and maybe even 100,000 citizens of the north have decided that living there is just too fraught. They cannot justify putting their families in harm’s way, not knowing how intense the next attack will be and whether the shrapnel or the rocket itself will be the cause of disaster.
Their departure is a grave stain on the sovereign integrity of the State of Israel. The passive acceptance of the current situation sends negative messages to our citizens and signals both weakness and opportunity to our enemies, most particularly Hezbollah.
O
ne senses that Hezbollah has concluded that Israel’s willingness to engage in a seemingly endless tit-for-tat playground shoving match means that Hezbollah is in control of both the pace and intensity of the confrontation.
Our recent preemptive attack, satisfying on one level, ultimately demonstrated the reality that Hezbollah is calling the shots. What we were able to accomplish, admirably for sure, was the elimination of the imminent threat that our intelligence had revealed.
But did we try, under cover of the need to be preemptive, to destroy other Hezbollah capabilities? Clearly not. The north of Lebanon was not touched.
So, in fencing parlance, we parried but did not thrust. By not doing so, we have submitted to the American vision of fighting defensively but not offensively. We have not been allowed, nor allowed ourselves, to win.
I am not privy to the strategizing of our political, military and intelligence leadership. I do not have confidential statistics about our ground troops’ availability, our near-term armament capabilities and the various permutations and implications of one strategic approach or another.
What I do see, however, is a real-time and intensifying reality for residents of the north. The clock keeps ticking but the only certainty that can be readily ascertained is that we will have a very hard time bringing our northern residents back.
Not only they but others, potential future residents, will also stay away if they believe that to live in the north would be to live under the proverbial sword of Damocles.
What a slap in the face of the self-conception of the Zionist vision this represents. The land of Josef Trumpeldor has effectively been ceded to the enemy. The buffer zone of southern Lebanon has been replaced by the zone of far-north Israel.
Unless and until we can create the requisite degree of security for residents, we cannot say that the north is Israel’s. It is a no-man’s land, to the great delight of Hezbollah, that only validates the effectiveness of a drip-drip war of attrition.
There must be ways to meet the dual goals of restoring the viability of the north while not ramping up to a wider war that our leaders are not yet (if ever) prepared to undertake.
For the sake of the Zionist future, let’s implore them to act. Save our north!
