Manara, the abandoned lighthouse

I spent my childhood on the walkways and crop fields of Kibbutz Manara. My parents, members of the Hano’ar Ha’oved youth movement as well as immigrants who managed to escape the inferno in Europe, founded the kibbutz in 1943 as a front post for the state which was about to be born.

The name Manara, which is Arabic for a lighthouse, was chosen due to its location on the summit of the Ramim Ridge as the highest kibbutz in the land of Israel.

We grew up with the ethos that our kibbutz was the first line of defense for the communities in the Hula Valley below us. We wished and tried our best to maintain good neighborliness with our Arab neighbors on the other side of the border. My father, who was fluent in Arabic, was the Mukhtar (Arabic for “village chief”) of the kibbutz, and was in contact with the villages in Lebanon before the 1948 War of Independence.

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The dream of good neighborliness did not materialize, and over the years there have been numerous incidents of shelling from Lebanon, as well as mines planted in fields, that took the lives of kibbutz members.

There were also some relatively peaceful years, mainly during the civil war in Lebanon, during which Israel was able to implement the “Good Fence” policy devised by the then Minister of Defense, the late Shimon Peres. Those years of calm allowed us to grow up in one of the most beautiful places in the country, to cultivate the fields, and sometimes even to hang out in our modest swimming pool. It was that pool which later entered the political jargon, in an ugly example of demagogic instigation, when Prime Minister Menachem Begin of the Likud specifically chose it to paint us, the kibbutzniks, as “millionaires.”

The truth is that we were far from being “millionaires.”. But we really liked the life on the peak of the rocky mountain which we had turned into a flourishing kibbutz – the quiet, the spectacular view, and the sense of mission. In recent decades, the kibbutz has undergone many upheavals, security incidents, an economic crisis, a process of privatization, but at the same time it grew and new families joined the kibbutz, which brought new and fresh spirit into it, and brought children back to its walkways and lawns.

But all this ended on October 7th.

The beautiful and prosperous community became a war zone, abandoned by its inhabitants. Three quarters of the buildings were severely damaged – including my parents’ house, the dining hall and the children’s residence. The kibbutz roads were shredded under the tracks of the tanks, and members, including my brother, moved elsewhere in the country, gradually losing hope.

Ninety-nine-year-old kibbutz member Rachel Rabin, the sister of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was with my parents in the founding group, showed optimism when last Hanukkah she said: “I have no doubt that we will return to Manara.” But as the days and months go by, and the destruction keeps growing, optimism is becoming more and more scarce among the members.

Last week, in the kibbutz cemetery there was a funeral of one of the Manara veterans, the father of a classmate of mine, whom we all loved and appreciated. Only a few were allowed to attend and bid farewell to him on his last journey – just immediate family members, and the small local guarding squad.

For me, this funeral was an event that symbolizes the current state of the kibbutz, the shielding stronghold which has been abandoned by the State, forcing its residents to depart. A kibbutz that was established by a group of Zionist pioneers, but 81 years later, Israel is giving it up and turning it and the neighboring towns and villages into a buffer zone closed to citizens.

The fate of Kibbutz Manara, like of the other evacuated communities, is the “collateral damage” resulting from the Israeli policy for the war in the Gaza Strip. The damage of a war that was justified when it started but which the Netanyahu government refuses to end, the damage of a deal for the release of the hostages that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been stalling for months because he fears that by agreeing, he will seal the dissolution of his government.

The end of fighting can be achieved in the North, and to a great extent the key is in our hands. The US envoy to the region, Amos Hochstein, told Israeli officials in recent months that after a cease-fire is reached in the Gaza Strip, it will be possible to reach an agreement with Hezbollah in a relatively short time. An agreement whose framework, including border adjustments and Hezbollah’s withdrawal to an area north of the Litani River, is well known to both sides.

During the First Lebanon War (1982) I fought while a cadet in the officers’ academy and I lost many friends, among them the commander of our tank company, the late Major Tzur Maor, who is commemorated in a monument in kibbutz Manara, designed to honor those who fought and sacrificed their lives to protect our homes. He was succeeded by Giora Zaltz, another kibbutznik from the area, who now heads the regional council, and works tirelessly to help the Manara community as well as all other evacuated locations. As a soldier and later as company commander in Lebanon, I learned that in order to achieve the national goals, the use of military force must be accompanied by a political strategy. This is also one of the reasons I chose a diplomatic career.

But Netanyahu refuses to listen to the political logic of Biden and of the Israeli security officials and sticks to his personal interest at the expense of the interests of the state.

The ongoing escalation could lead to a full-scale war with Hezbollah. That – war that will result in bloodshed and mutual exhaustion – without changing anything in strategic relations. As a result, the fate of more towns and communities will inevitably be the same as the bleak fate of Manara.

After more than 300 days of fighting, it is time to stop and reach a deal that will bring a ceasefire in both the south and the north, as well as the return of the abductees to their homes and a regional political solution.

The Israeli government must immediately take care of the residents of the north who lost their homes and livelihoods, without waiting for the end of the conflict. The state must be much more present and active both in supporting the evacuated community, all its members and the community as a whole, and in its commitment to rehabilitate the kibbutz physically, as soon as it will be possible to return.

My parents and their friends settled in Kibbutz Manara out of faith in the Zionist mission to defend the country. The descendants of the founders of the kibbutz and those who joined since expect the state to be there for them in this difficult time. We, the second and third generation, are determined to provide as much help as we can to the evacuated community and to those who will choose to return to Manara. PJC

Nadav Tamir is the executive director of J Street Israel, a member of the board of the Mitvim think-tank, adviser for international affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and member of the steering committee of the Geneva Initiative. He was an adviser of President Shimon Peres and served in the Israel embassy in Washington and as consul general to New England.