Former Shin Bet chief: Israel is losing war and heading towards end of Zionist project

Former Israeli Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon said he believed Israel had achieved military victories on several fronts but had failed to achieve the war’s strategic objectives.

In an interview on Rumble, Ayalon said: “Israel is winning battles, but losing the war.” He said the Israeli military had achieved exceptional battlefield gains against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, but that these tactical victories did not amount to victory in the wider war.

He said Hamas and Hezbollah had not been dismantled and continued to pose a strategic threat despite the heavy losses they had suffered.

Ayalon said the main problem was the lack of a political objective for the war, turning it into an end in itself rather than a means of achieving a better reality. “A war without a political objective does not end in victory,” he said.

The former security official warned that Israel is losing the battle over ideas and international legitimacy. He said the war is now being fought on two fronts: the military battlefield and the arena of ideas and ideology.

Military power alone, he said, cannot defeat an idea or ideology. He warned that continuing the war without offering Palestinians a political horizon means Israel is heading towards “the end of the Zionist project.”