On Long Island, hope and frustration after Israel/Hezbollah cease-fire

A cease-fire this week between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon drew broad support from Long Islanders with ties to the region, though some said it did not fully address the devastation of nearly 14 months of war.

The agreement, which calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting, requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon and Israel to pull its troops back to its side of the border.

It has no direct effect on the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, where local health officials say the death toll this month surpassed 44,000. The human cost of the war in Lebanon has already been grievous. Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced this month that the death toll there had surpassed 3,000. The World Bank estimates $8.5 billion in damages and losses.

Hezbollah attacks have killed 72 in Israel, according to the prime minister’s office, and more than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

Jay Rosenbaum, rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel of Lawrence, called the agreement "good news, an additional thing to be thankful for" and a powerful step toward regional peace. "You have to be positive in your thinking, and your attitude effects action," Rosenbaum said.

But critics of Israel’s response since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas said the Lebanon agreement, while preferable to continued carnage, was inadequate.

"It’s a little long overdue," said Safed Husein, a teacher and activist from East Meadow. Husein faulted the U.S. government for allowing the war to continue as long as it had by supporting Israel militarily at the expense, she said, of domestic priorities like education and housing.

"It’s been over a year, and we’re angry, hurt, disappointed in our government, our leaders. They failed us and they failed humanity," Husein said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.

Laurice Abdelhalim, an optician who lives in Brentwood and is of Palestinian descent, said that close to 100 members of her extended family who live in southern Lebanon had been impacted by the fighting over the last year, fleeing or hosting others who were.

"I’m happy there’s a cease-fire and I hope it doesn’t start up again," she said. After the stop in fighting was announced, she said, friends told her they were moving back to homes they had once fled, "but a lot is gone. They are going back to nothing."

Kathryn Levy, a Sag Harbor poet and Jewish American peace activist who is critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, said that "at this point, any cessation of killing is something to be grateful for."

But, she said, the cease-fire was not a comprehensive peace plan, "which the U.S. doesn’t seem interested in using its leverage to push."

Some staunch Israel supporters hailed the agreement, with caveats: A cease-fire "can only be a good thing," but "we have to stay focused on the hostages," said Rick Lewis, chief executive of the Mid-Island Y JCC, whose membership includes Long Islanders with friends and relatives in the Israeli army.

He was referring to 101 people, including Plainview native Omer Neutra, who were among those Hamas kidnapped more than a year ago when it attacked Israel.

Lewis, who has been in contact with Neutra’s family, described their experience as "unbearable." Any resources freed by the cease-fire should be redirected to the hostages, he said. "Our focus should be getting them home."

Isma Chaudhry, a board member and spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, said she feared months of fighting was "normalizing bloodshed and humanitarian crises."

A cease-fire could arrest that process, she said. "Anytime, anywhere where there’s a little pause, there’s a hope that would reset our humanity."

With AP