Four Weeks In: Is The End in Sight? A Fraying North, and the High Cost of Endless War

In this episode of Tel Aviv Diary, recorded on Friday, March 27 in Tel Aviv, Marc Schulman reflects on a war entering its fourth week with no clear end in sight. He examines the growing strain on Israelis living under daily missile and rocket fire, especially in the north, where residents are being told to remain in towns that still lack adequate protection. Marc argues that the government has failed both strategically and morally: it launched a multi-front war without a realistic plan for victory, while leaving civilians, small businesses, and entire communities to absorb the consequences.The episode also takes a hard look at the assumptions driving the war itself. Marc questions the belief that air power alone can deliver victory, drawing on historical lessons from World War II to Hamas and now Iran. Killing top commanders, he argues, does not destroy systems, regimes, or ideologies. If the hope was that pressure from the air would bring regime change in Tehran, that outcome now appears increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile, Israel is paying a mounting price at home, with exhausted citizens, a battered economy, and a north once again trapped in a dangerous cycle that military force alone cannot solve.In the final part of the episode, Marc widens the lens to two larger issues. First, he considers the political dimension in both Israel and the United States, including Donald Trump’s role in shaping the course of the war and the risk of a rapid end that would amount to strategic failure dressed up as victory. Then he turns to a very different existential threat: artificial intelligence. Reflecting on a recent interview with Tristan Harris, Marc warns that while AI is already proving extraordinarily useful, it is advancing far faster than governments are prepared to regulate. The result is a striking and unsettling episode that moves from the immediate dangers of war to the longer-term dangers of a world changing faster than its leaders can understand. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marcschulman.substack.com/subscribe