Saying what can't be said, Israel has been defeated, a total defeat.

These are my words.

This is the headline of a piece in the Israeli newspaper, Harrets, written by Israeli journalist Chaim Leventon.

Now the subheading is the war's aims won't be achieved, the hostages won't be returned

through military pressure, security won't be restored, and Israel's international

ostracism won't end.

Well, that's basic common sense, isn't it?

And the fact that in any way that's controversial

shows what a total mess we're currently in not just the role of Israel, but also Western elites and indeed much of the Western media.

This is a piece of crucial importance because its argument really is at the core of what's actually

happening right now, not least of course the desperate attempts by the Israeli state to incite a wider war with Iran.

It also offers a very interesting insight into Israeli psychology at the moment.

Now this journal starts by saying, we've lost, truth must be told the inability to admit it encapsulates

everything you need to know about Israel's individual and mass psychology there's

a clear sharp predictable reality that we should begin to fathom, to process, to understand, and to draw conclusions from for the future.

It's no fun to admit that we've lost, so we lie to ourselves.

Now he goes on to blame the country being held hostage by the worst leadership in its history,

pointing out that every military undertaking is supposed to have a diplomatic exit

with the military action leading to a better diplomatic reality but Israel has no such diplomatic

exit. Now Benjamin Netanyahu in the piece is clearly chief villain. He's announced as a scoundrel of a leader with no capacity for leadership or decision-making, though he

does note the journalist that the Israeli electorate obviously put him in power.

It bemoans what could have been a short, powerful, aggressive it suggests, eminently justified campaign, it goes on to quickly

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