Yedioth Ahronoth: Sinwar may rise from the grave and drag Israel into defeat… We’re losing to the images of starving children in Gaza

Israeli writer Ari Shavit warned that Israel stands on the brink of political and moral collapse, despite what appears to be a military victory over Hamas.

In an article in Yedioth Ahronoth, Shavit said, “Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to have been killed, may achieve a victory after his death, not militarily but strategically, by dragging Israel into a quagmire”.

Shavit wrote, “Yahya Sinwar is dead, but he may rise from his grave, extending his hand to drag Israel into the heart of the Middle East, to a reality unlike Israel”.

He added, “The real danger lies not in the military battle, but in the loss of the Israeli identity that has distinguished the state for decades”.

Shavit believes that the October 7, 2023, attack wasn’t a conventional attack, but rather an attempt to strike at what he claimed was the magic formula for Israeli success.

In his article, he stated, “Sinwar sought to destabilize the quality of Israeli life and plunge Israeli society into the darkness of Gaza, through atrocities that forced us to resort to acts of revenge that made us lose our balance”.

He added, “Sinwar decided to attack our spirit, to break us from within… The war is no longer existential, but rather a war on who we are: Are we still an enlightened state? Are we fighting as a democratic state? Or are we sliding into the quagmire of the Middle East?”

One of the most notable aspects of the article is the author’s emphasis on the devastating impact of the image of starving children in Gaza, not only on Hamas, but also on Israel itself.

According to Shavit, “These children pose a threat not to Hamas, but to Israel… They give our enemies a political victory and inflict a moral defeat on us”.

He explained that Israel had succeeded in the past in repelling Iran and Hezbollah, but today it faces an unprecedented moral challenge.

Shavit concludes his article with a sharp plea, “Enough… We must stop the slide… We cannot allow Yahya Sinwar to destroy Israel from his grave, nor turn it into a Middle Eastern state swept into chaos and darkness… This isn’t just a war on Hamas, but on our very soul as a democratic Jewish state”.