{"id":2999,"date":"2026-04-29T03:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:50:36","slug":"the-country-is-broken-israeli-journalist-who-left-israel-warns-of-growing-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/the-country-is-broken-israeli-journalist-who-left-israel-warns-of-growing-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The country is broken’: Journalist who left Israel warns of growing insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>Tel Aviv’s escalation with Iran has made the risks of daily life in Israel more immediate and visible, according to an Israeli journalist who previously worked for Haaretz and left the country after October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was never safe,\u201d Asaf Ronel told Anadolu in an interview. \u201cBut when you live inside it, you don’t notice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it was only after leaving Israel for Berlin that he became aware of the constant underlying stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took me months to understand why I’m so relaxed here,\u201d he said. “I suddenly had hobbies. Because this layer of fear for your life is gone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, he added, that sense of fear builds gradually over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It accumulates. You keep denying it. You keep trying to maintain a facade of normalcy in your life,” he said. \u201cLike everybody does until they’re broken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ronel, the situation has deteriorated sharply in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described the October 7 attacks as a turning point that exposed deep vulnerabilities in Israel’s security system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe level of collapse of the military establishment on October 7 was obvious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Israeli forces, carry out a raid imposing security measures and restricting the movement of Palestinians in the Old City area of \u200b\u200bHebron, West Bank, Palestine, on April 25, 2026. Picture: AA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, he argued that Israel’s military response has intensified insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more violence they’re using, it’s only creating more danger to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronel also criticised the role of the army more broadly, describing it as \u201cfunctioning as a machine for oppression and violence against Palestinians and surrounding populations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frequent trips to shelters have become routine, he added, though he stressed that Israeli civilians’ experience differs significantly from that of Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsraelis never dealt with anything similar to the daily life of Palestinians around us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From February 28 until the current ceasefire, Iranian retaliatory strikes hit multiple locations across Israel, targetting military sites, energy infrastructure and other areas, exposing what analysts describe as mounting pressure on the country’s interception systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strikes penetrated Israel’s multi-layered defences in multiple districts, including Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak, Holon, Arad, Dimona, Nahariya and Haifa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronel said the scale of these developments is not fully reflected in domestic media coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe the media should tell them that \u2026 there’s also the other side that’s quite sophisticated and capable of hurting them directly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ronel, Israeli media has failed to convey these realities, focussing instead on military achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsraeli media is 99% propaganda, self-propaganda,\u201d Ronel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey’re not even aware that they’re doing it,\u201d he added, describing what he called a \u201clevel of denial of reality\u201d that has become institutionalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed to reports of a growing shortage of the most sophisticated missile interception systems and the military adjusting its defense priorities accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe media is not reporting it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronel said the current crisis reflects deeper structural problems within Israel that predate the latest escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was clear that the country is broken,\u201d he said, pointing to widening gaps in public services, infrastructure and governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also pointed to broader institutional failures, saying basic systems were no longer functioning effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt didn’t seem like there was anyone who knows how to fix it, at least not in charge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the events following October 7 reinforced that view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then, a few days later, when the genocide started, it was clear that not only the state is broken, but the society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not be seen as the sole cause, he argued that both the government and wider society have moved in the same direction, turning what he described as the \u201cconstant state of emergency of the Zionist life\u201d into a condition that has become \u201cmuch, much more severe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronel said insecurity is not limited to Israel’s borders, arguing that perceptions of Israeli identity have also shifted internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying he had never lived outside Israel for more than a month before October 7, Ronel said he still does not feel safe abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause I’m an Israeli, and Israeli identity carries meaning \u2013 this meaning now is the meaning of genocide and attempts to destabilize the world economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He predicts that more Israelis will move abroad to \u201clook for ways to live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to recent research conducted by professors at Tel Aviv University, there has been a notable rise in emigration from Israel in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research suggests that around 99 000 Israelis left the country in 2023 and 2024, while fewer than 20 000 returned in 2024. More than three-quarters of those who left were under 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Ronel, too, the chances of his family returning are \u201cgetting lower and lower.\u201d – AA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tel Aviv’s escalation with Iran has made the risks of daily life in Israel more immediate and visible, according to an Israeli journalist who previously worked for Haaretz and left the country after October 7, 2023. \u201cIt was never safe,\u201d Asaf Ronel told Anadolu in an interview. \u201cBut when you live inside it, you don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,204],"tags":[14,65,15,16,23,24,19,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-2999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinion","8":"category-top-story","9":"tag-gaza","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-palestine","13":"tag-trump","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-war-crimes","16":"tag-zionist"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3021,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions\/3021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}