SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: , Gideon Levy argues that Israel has gained little strategically while suffering profound moral and political damage,

https://x.com/paolomossetti/status/2073051578047598818

Paolo Mossetti

In an interview with the Italian newspaper @repubblica
, Gideon Levy argues that Israel has gained little strategically while suffering profound moral and political damage, and warns that the country is moving even further away from peace.

"I expected the Israeli government to use Hamas's crimes on October 7 as a pretext to unleash a devastating assault on Gaza. But I never imagined the response would become so cruel and barbaric. I also believed that, sooner or later, the United States would step in and stop it. That never happened."

"Israel has achieved nothing. Hamas is still alive and well. Militarily it has been weakened, but it can recover quickly, and politically it may even be stronger than before. More importantly, the world now sees Israel differently, including the United States and Jewish communities abroad. This is a turning point... there is a growing feeling that Israel may never recover its international standing. The crimes committed in Gaza provide powerful fuel for antisemites around the world...

"Israel has changed dramatically. Not primarily because of the war in Gaza, but because of October 7, which destroyed the last remnants of the peace camp. The Israeli left is finished. No major opposition force opposed the war..."

"The media bear enormous responsibility. They have helped brainwash the public and contributed to the emergence of a new Israel... An average citizen in [Italy] has probably seen more images from Gaza than the average Israeli...

"[T]he more we talk about October 7, the less we talk about Israel's crimes in Gaza... if we look at it from Hamas's political perspective, the attack halted Saudi recognition of Israel, and the Palestinian question returned to the center of global attention. People are discussing it all over the world... those were the political consequences. Hamas did not lose politically."

"Whoever succeeds Netanyahu... will support the same core policies: the occupation, the war in Gaza, and apartheid. None of the current candidates offers hope for a fundamental change. Civil society, meanwhile, effectively died after October 7. It mobilized for the hostages and against Netanyahu, but not against the war in Gaza."