Waiting for the war in Haifa

Gidon Ben-Zvi

Metula, Shlomi, Kiryat Shmona, Margaliot. Before October 7, these were small, picturesque towns. Today, they are true lunar landscapes, where only cattle and chickens live on abandoned farms. Almost all of the people have disappeared.

Since October 8, the Iranian proxy force Hezbollah in Lebanon has been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border almost daily. 60,000 civilians have been evacuated, including 14,600 children.

In the far north of Israel, the hustle and bustle of everyday life has been replaced by an eerie silence.
But Hezbollah is not content with simply destabilizing the border. Since Jerusalem’s muted response to the unprecedented Iranian attack on April 13-14, in which Tehran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at populated areas across Israel on the night of April 14, Hezbollah has steadily increased the intensity and scope of its operations.

On June 2, a Hezbollah rocket attack on Katzrin, the largest Israeli community in the Golan Heights, sparked dozens of forest fires that devastated 2,500 hectares of land. On June 5, Iran’s proxy injured at least 11 people in an armed drone strike on the Druze Arab village of Hurfeish.

Israel’s response to this escalation has been to contain the growing Hezbollah threat with strong words and predictable actions.

Israel is prepared for “very intensive actions in the north,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi added that the military was “approaching a decision point.”
Despite promises to take action, Israel’s attempt to contain Hezbollah – the same failed policy it has pursued against Hamas for years – has met with little support in the north. More and more towns that do not border Lebanon are currently being bombed.

Israelis sitting in front of their television screens notice that the Home Front Command’s list of areas where red alert has been triggered is growing longer every day.

And while Hezbollah’s area of ​​operations is expanding, Israel is de facto shrinking.

That is why residents of Haifa – Israel’s third-largest city with nearly 300,000 inhabitants – believe it is only a matter of time before they are asked to vacate their homes.

I moved from Jerusalem to Haifa two years ago with my wife and four children. The exploding cost of living in Israel’s capital, the limited number of jobs in the city and an ever-growing real estate bubble forced our family to make a decision: Haifa or bankruptcy.

When we moved to Haifa, we got a second chance in Israel. It’s a beautiful place on the Mediterranean, where Jews, Muslims and Christians come together in an informal way. People here are focused on the things that are important to them in the long term: making a living, supporting their families, enjoying the occasional day at the beach and planning for the future.

Although tensions always seem to be at a boiling point in Jerusalem, you can escape it all by visiting the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa (if you’re interested in archaeology), exploring the beautiful Bahá’í Gardens, or taking in the stunning views of Israel’s largest port from the Louis Promenade on Mount Carmel.

Haifa is now next in line to be attacked by Hezbollah. The city lives in limbo. We continue to work. Our children go to school. But red alerts are becoming more frequent. My cousin in the northern coastal town of Nahariya – about a 30-minute drive from Haifa – now regularly hears bombs overhead, forcing her and her family to run to the safety of their home. My wife and her work colleagues in Akko – a 25-minute drive from where we live – hear constant sirens. Almost every afternoon, my children come home from school and tell of another classmate whose father has been called up as a reservist for the second time, this time to the north.

We are in a time of threat and waiting. What the people of the north are experiencing today is not unlike the Hamtanah, the “waiting period” before the Six-Day War of 1967. During the three weeks of Hamtanah, the Arab nations were ready to destroy Israel. Jerusalem mobilized the reserves of the Israeli Defense Forces. During this tense period, Israeli morale sank, triggering a political crisis that led to the formation of Israel’s first unity government.

Three weeks. Today is just under three weeks until Tisha B’Av, an annual day of mourning for tragedies that have occurred throughout Jewish history.

The Hamanah ended when Israel responded to the immediate threat to its survival with a preemptive strike that destroyed over 90 percent of the Egyptian air force. A similar attack disabled the Syrian air force.

Should Israel’s political and military leaders decide to act boldly and launch a sudden preemptive strike against Hezbollah bases in Lebanon and Syria, Israel will be able to restore the deterrence against Iran that was lost on April 14. This deterrence is crucial to Israel’s long-term security and viability.

If Hezbollah’s approach is to be followed, anything that does not lead to a rapid restoration of the preemption doctrine could well result in Israel having to abandon Galilee and other parts of the north. If things continue like this, we will soon be talking about a Kfar Saba envelope in addition to the Gaza Strip.

It would be a shame to have to leave everything behind.

Gidon Ben-Zvi is a marketing expert with experience in developing online content for numerous platforms.