We’ve emerged into the “day after the war” period, eyes squinting and tearing as we try to adjust to the vast horizon that lies ahead. I longed for us to get to this stage since the early days of the war, so very long ago. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But at least we would be moving in a forward direction.

Yet, these past weeks I have found myself struggling to stay grounded given the enormity and complexity of what lies ahead. By chance, traveling with visiting family over the last week or so, I was in war-affected Israeli communities in the North and South. In both areas residents were forced to flee and wait out the war elsewhere. Though the situation in Gaza and Lebanon is still – each in its own way – ongoing, residents are in the process of trying to return and rebuild. I was able to get a glimpse into what makes this process so incredibly complicated, and also into what is needed to make it more feasible.

The North

Driving along a narrow ribbon of road which twists and turns with the hillside curvatures, more or less paralleling Israel’s border with Southern Lebanon, we passed some of the surrounding kibbutzim and areas impacted by Hezbollah.

As we passed Kibbutz Manara, we craned our necks up the steep hillside to see blackened windows staring out vacantly from bombed out abandoned buildings. These lie nakedly exposed to the Lebanese villages sprawled out on the rolling hills on just the opposite side of the road. It’s easy to understand why Manara is one of the hardest hit communities in the North, with some 75% of the kibbutz’s buildings destroyed by Hezbollah rockets. Now the community is working to rebuild, however they are doing so on the other side of the hill so as to no longer be as exposed. But this will take a long time.

Manara was always a small community, I learn a few days later when I meet Ariela Lerman who leads development efforts on behalf of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund. It was also an aging community. Known as the kibbutz of 70 over 70 – meaning 70 members over the age of 70, half of their community was older and they struggled to bring in younger members. They had just been on a pathway to grow before the war, with fifty new families with kids gearing up to move in and make this their home. Now the kibbutz is back to wondering who will come live there, given the very real risks.

Then we drove by Kibbutz Yiftah, also situated right along the border with Lebanon. Some years ago, I had stayed there with my family for a weekend getaway, and we’d been astonished to see just how close. With the kibbutz’s back fence literally right up against the security road winding alongside the border with Lebanon, our hosts’ windows looked out over the area and we took morning walks paralleling that road. When we asked the hosts how safe they felt, they shrugged with heavy stoicism, saying that........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)