Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel is so close to the Lebanese border that patrons of a local pub joke, with gallows humor, that Hezollah terrorists could see if they were eating sunflower seeds or potato chips with their beers. The proximity made Manara so vulnerable in the war between Israel and Hezbollah that rockets and explosive drones damaged the majority of homes, turning the tiny community into a symbol of the heavy price of terror. The kibbutz’s 300 residents were among the 60,000 Israelis evacuated by the government from communities along the Lebanese border during the 14-month war. A tenuous truce was a “ceasefire” only in name. Hezbollah has violated the ceasefire hundreds of times, and not only has the Lebanese Army failed to stop them but has actively assisted the terror group, with a recent report saying that dozens of Lebanese Army senior officials leaked information about IDF movements to Hezbollah during the so-called ceasefire. For now, residents of Israel’s north are taking their time returning, uncertain when — or if — they will go back to shattered communities. Many wonder what future they can have in a place so exposed to violence. The vast majority of displaced families still haven’t returned home. In hard-hit places like Manara, some who have ventured back have found unlivable, blackened homes. It will take years to rebuild. “We are trying to understand what we can fix, what we can do better, how we can prepare for the next round (of fighting),” said Igor Abramovich, who remained in Manara during the war and believes it’s just a matter of time before fighting erupts. All homes on the ridge facing Lebanon are destroyed, with gaping holes left by missile strikes or fires that burned so hot that cars partly melted. Because the kibbutz is so exposed, 70 meters (yards) from the border in some places, firefighters sometimes couldn’t respond to the blazes. Instead, the emergency squad was forced to watch on security cameras as fires burned. Hezbollah began launching rockets and missiles toward Israeli border communities on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the deadly Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza. Soon after, Israel evacuated dozens of towns, villages and kibbutzim along the border, including Manara. Hezbollah rockets killed 77 people in Israel, more than half of them civilians. Israel made returning the displaced residents to their homes an aim in its war against Hezbollah and has promised incentives to entice them back. The return has been slow, in part because many residents are skeptical of the government’s pledges to ensure their safety and because much work remains to rehabilitate communities. Remote kibbutzim on the borders Manara is prone to howling winds and snow usually once a winter, attracting a hardy, close-knit group of people. Such remote kibbutzim were an integral element of the Israeli pioneer ethos, and Israel as a fledgling state once relied on them to protect its borders in the face of threats from neighboring Arab countries. Those threats appeared to have waned until Hamas attacked into southern Israel and Israeli authorities assessed that Hezbollah was planning a similar cross-border raid in the north. The war was a clear reminder for Israelis that the country still depends on the border communities and needs to ensure their viability so that […]