Residents of northern Israel visit White House to draw attention to danger posed by Hezbollah
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

As Hezbollah fires hundreds of rockets at northern Israel, a delegation of residents of the embattled border area visits the White House to raise awareness of the plight of the tens of thousands of Israelis who have evacuated their homes since October.
The seven residents of kibbutzim and towns along the Lebanon border flew to the US on Saturday night, in a mission organized days before by former ambassador to the US Michael Oren.
“Nobody knows about this,” Oren tells The Times of Israel. “It never comes up in the news, even though it’s becoming the biggest story of the war.”
At the White House, the group meets with the heads of the Israel, Lebanon, and Palestinian desks at the National Security Council.
“The administration understands that the attention in Israel has shifted away from Gaza to the north,” said Oren’s Israel Advocacy Group to The Times of Israel after the meeting. “Though Hamas has rejected a ceasefire, there is still hope for a diplomatic solution. In the absence of a ceasefire deal and diplomatic solution, the administration understands that the people of northern Israel could not remain under Hezbollah rocket fire indefinitely.”
A full-blown war may well break out in Lebanon, says Oren, and helping allies understand the need to go on the offensive against Hezbollah is a crucial component of the diplomatic preparation for such a conflict.
“People will ask, ‘Why did you have to go to war in Lebanon?'” says Oren.
The group also meets with a bipartisan group of congressmen – Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Brad Schneider, (D-IL), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), said to be a possible vice president choice for Donald Trump.