Hamas made a “critical miscalculation” thinking that it would be business as usual in Israel. “Believe me, it is not,” said Ron Dermer, Israeli strategic affairs minister and a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, in an interview with Bloomberg.
“The people are outraged, and they have awoken not a sleeping giant but a sleeping Maccabee,” he said. “They’re going to see it in the days and weeks ahead.”
“You really have a battle between the forces of civilization on the one side and the forces of barbarism,” the minister added. “Civilization is going to have to win.”
Citing remarks from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Dermer stated that “it may take some time, but we’re going to exact such a high price that not only will Hamas never consider doing this again, I think none of Israel’s enemies are going to ever think about doing something like this again.”
