Letters to the editor

Northern Israel’s “quiet” has always been temporary
In “When home feels far away: The ghost towns of my heart” (April 17), Dorit Sasson expresses the pain she feels for the residents of northern Israel, who have been under almost constant bombardment from Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023. She recounts the peaceful time of years past, when she and her family lived in the north.

She might have lived there during a lull in the fighting, but the region has been under attack since before the founding of the state of Israel. In 1982 I spent a few weeks living on Kibbutz Adamit. The kibbutz is located directly opposite the border fence with Lebanon. Kibbutz children proudly showed me their collection of katyusha rocket fragments gathered from the kibbutz fields after an attack. These children knew war before they were able to walk.

In 1989 I spent a couple of days as a guest on Kibbutz Manara, another kibbutz right on the Lebanese border. In the kibbutz dining room, a kibbutz member approached our table and greeted us warmly. In the 1940s, as a young kibbutz member, she repelled attacks from Lebanon. Still alive at 100 years of age, she and other members had to evacuate Manara, which has been almost completely destroyed by rocket fire. That kibbutz member is Rachel Rabin, the sister of Yitzhak Rabin.

So, don’t be fooled by the short stretches of peace and quiet in northern Israel. It never lasts long.

Mitchell Nyer
Pittsburgh