'Israel Is on the Brink of the Abyss'

'The Shin Bet security service and Military Intelligence "completely failed" to detect what Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip, had planned, one defense official acknowledged. "It's also true that a few days before October 7, the consensus of all the intelligence agencies was that Hamas was growing only moderately stronger and hadn't found an alternative" to the cross-border attack tunnels Israel blocked.

'"Nevertheless, the defense establishment's expectation was that if the government continued the judicial overhaul, Bezalel Smotrich continued his life's work of erasing the Green Line [between Israel and the West Bank] and Itamar Ben-Gvir heated up the Temple Mount and the West Bank, it would end in rivers of blood," he added.'

Gidi Weitz in the left-of-centre Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on Friday March 15. 

From the point of view of the Israeli far right the Hamas attacks are the obvious opportunity to seize more territory.  Ethnically cleanse and occupy the Gaza Strip? Is that insane? 

From the point of view of foreigners, Israel is going to be widely hated.

The Ha'aretz editorial on Friday was headlined 'Israel Is on the Brink of the Abyss'.