Are Things Improving The Past Forty Years For Israel and World? What Went On Then?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Hassan Nasrallah  31 August 1960 – 27 September 2024) was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination at 64 in 2024. Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah acquired rockets with a longer range, which allowed them to strike at northern Israel. After Israel suffered heavy casualties during its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, it withdrew its forces in 2000, which greatly increased Hezbollah's popularity in the region, and bolstered Hezbollah's position within Lebanon.     

      The IDF continues striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut's Dahiya neighborhood, after issuing evacuation warnings to civilians there. Dahieh (Arabic: الضاحية الجنوبية, lit. 'the southern suburb  is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb in the south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It has a minority of Sunni Muslims, Christians, and a Palestinian refugee camp with 20,000 inhabitants today.  On September 27, 2024, Israel launched airstrikes on the suburb, which led to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah as part of the attack, as confirmed on the following day.  Of course this led to  the bombardment from Hezbollah.                                   

Israel's military says around 250 rockets have been fired by Hezbollah across the border from Lebanon, marking one of the heaviest bombardments of Israel since fighting intensified in September.

Several people were injured and buildings damaged in northern and central Israel, some of them near Tel Aviv, Israel's police said.

The attacks followed an Israeli air strike on central Beirut on Saturday, in which the Lebanese health ministry said 29 people were killed.

On Sunday, November 24th and 25, 2024, Hezbollah fired barrages of hundreds of rockets at northern Israel on Sunday and today. At least three people were hurt when a rocket made a direct hit on a residential block in Haifa. A woman in Maalot was injured from shrapnel. A man was seriously wounded near Kibbutz Kfar Blum. A man in his 60's was injured from shrapnel in Nahariya. Six people in all were injured by an enemy rocket in Northern Israel.  That's all, considering hundreds were falling from the sky, but they would have harmed those who couldn't make it quicker to a bomb shelter; like the older, the crippled from the Israelis.  Back 40 years, we read  a book in USA called Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell which is a dystopian novel that warns against the dangers of a totalitarian government. The story is set in 1984 in Oceania, a country under the control of the Party, which is led by Big Brother. The Party uses propaganda, surveillance, and a language called Newspeak to limit free thought and force citizens to obey.  The interesting fact is that George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four between 1946 and 1949. The book was published on June 8, 1949, and was released in the United States five days later. The novel's main character is Winston Smith, a minor functionary in the Ministry of Truth who rewrites history to align with the Party's views. Winston secretly rebels against the government by keeping a diary of his thoughts, which is considered a thoughtcrime. He falls in love with Julia, and they begin a secret affair. However, Winston and Julia are eventually caught and sent to the Ministry of Love for torture and reeducation.  Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four as a warning about what could happen if governments gain too much power. The book highlights the importance of resisting oppression and mass control.  This is what we worried about then. Things were quite different 40 years ago to the very date of November 25, 1984 in Israel for Danny and myself, American Jews as I notice while reading my book, "Letters From Israel".  We had made Aliyah and landed on September 28, 1980.  My husband and I had continued our profession as teachers, while also starting up his acting career with our creation of a Yiddish Theater in English on the side.  On this date we were working on our performance of Sholom Alechiam's "You Must Marry a Doctor" and it was due to open December 15th and 16th.  I had found a book of his plays and brought it with me to Israel.  I was also working on writing another play for our group from a story by Peretz called "Devotion Without End."  I was acting as well, but Danny was a Floridian Little Theater Star while I was a Portland, OR college student taking on acting.   We had been talking about returning to the states The economic state of Israel has gone from bad to worse.  Everyone is being laid off of their jobs;  teachers are never paid enough, and it's an impossible situation here.  Dan hasn't worked. as a high school teacher.   I'm not working full time in Jr. high, and the theater is fine but not a moneymaker as yet, and the only backing it has is ourselves.   Dan,46 year old  former Air Force private,  had to go for his army physical on December 6 in Tiberias and we lived in Safed.  He'd then have to serve for a month, go through training first, and live in a little tent.  He'll almost starve to death as army food is very scant these days.  Sam from Portland who lives across the street from us had to do this last year. One night his group of 12 men were given 2 pieces of meat.  He came out of his milueem thinner than when he went in.  Many men Dan's age were used to guard prisoners in Lebanon.   That's what he did in the USA Air Force, guard planes.  Leaving Israel is not easy if you're in the army.  They have to give you permission to leave.  You can just take a little amount of money out of the country.  His Hebrew was bad.  How could he understand directions if he went to an unemployment office, and was there one in existence?  How could he ever understand army commands?  All these questions were hitting us now, not before when we felt we had reason to get to Israel.  Where Dan had been teaching history, anti-Semitic comic books were making the rounds in his high school.  We thought that Israel needed our English teaching right away and so I flew to Portland to talk to the Shaliach there about it.   The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued an apology following an airstrike on a Lebanese Army post in southern Lebanon earlier today. The attack resulted in the death of one Lebanese soldier and left 18 others injured. Israel is not at war with Lebanon but with Iran's Hezbollah Terrorists who have taken over most of the country.  Meanwhile, ceasefire talks are said to be very close to fruition by some but not by realists. The wording so far of the cease fire conditions have not protected Israel, and must be corrected.   Israel is fighting on 7 fronts.  One is Samaria.  Security forces eliminated two terrorists who threw explosives during an operation in the village of Ya'bad in northern Samaria. Security forces also arrested 9 terrorists in overnight raids    Some prominent Jewish towns in Samaria include: Ariel, Alfei Menashe, Beit El, Efrat, Giv'at Ze'ev, Har Adar, Immanuel, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Ma'ale Efraim, Oranit, and Alei Zahav, all considered part of the "Shomron Regional Council" within the West Bank area known as Samaria;.    The 1995  Oslo Accords divided the Palestinian West Bank into three administrative zones: Area A (18%), where the Palestinian Authority (PA) administers civil and security matters; Area B (22%), where the PA administers only civil matters; and Area C (60%) where Israel maintains full control. Resource update:  11/26/2024--10:47am Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot IsraelAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahieh#:~:text=Dahieh%20(Arabic%3A%20%D8% A7%D9%84%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A9%20%D8%A7% D9%84%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9%2C,refugee% 20camp%20with%2020%2C000%20inhabitants.