Maariv: Israel is on the brink of a real existential threat Politics

The writer and military correspondent in the Maariv newspaper, Avi Ashkenazi, warned – in an article published on April 29, 2026 – that the bombing of Hezbollah’s strategic tunnels, “Arad” and “Acre,” near the town of Qantara in southern Lebanon, was not a passing field event, but rather revealed what he described as a huge political-military failure in managing the threat coming from the north.

Ashkenazi – a veteran Israeli journalist and military correspondent in Maariv, who began his journalistic work in the 1990s, covered the northern border, and previously worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press and a security and police correspondent for the Walla website – believes that the explosion that shook the homes of the Galilee revealed the extent of the infrastructure that Hezbollah had accumulated over the years.

The writer explained that “Israeli failure screams at the sky,” wondering how Israel, in the north and Gaza together, allowed the emergence of “terrorist monsters” capable of changing the face of the Middle East and threatening the state’s existence.

The value of this characterization is that it moves the Israeli discussion from the level of operational dysfunction to the level of a comprehensive strategic review.

The writer holds both the military and political systems responsible, saying that they “failed miserably” in preventing the construction of these infrastructures, especially after Israel claimed, following Operation “Arrows of the North,” that the danger of storming the northern settlements had been removed.

However, the survival of the Akka and Arad tunnels – according to the article – means that they were not treated, and were prepared as underground gathering areas for the Hajj Radwan unit affiliated with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The significance of the article expands when Ashkenazi points out that Hezbollah reinforcements, after February 28, could theoretically advance towards the Misgav Am or Al-Manara settlements, giving the warning a direct field dimension.

The writer pointed out that the American restrictions, and Washington’s linking of the fighting in Iran to the fighting in Lebanon, limit the freedom of the Israeli army and prolong the confrontation.

At the conclusion of his article, Ashkenazi criticized the political leadership’s attempt to divert attention to the maritime border demarcation agreement with Lebanon, considering this a false narrative to divert the discussion from difficult questions.

The writer concluded that the mentality of postponing dealing with threats, whether in tunnels, the stock of Hatez missiles, or fiber-optic drones, may lead Israel to “a real disaster, and this is not a metaphor,” as he says.