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Source: https://www.jns.org/dermer-to-jns-we-are-sending-hamas-into-the-dustbin-of-history/
Israel's Diplomatic Challenges during the Gaza War
(JNS) Amb. Ron Dermer interviewed by Alex Traiman - Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, currently Minister of Strategic Affairs and a member of Israel's war cabinet, said: "You hear a lot of criticism in the media of Netanyahu or Netanyahu's coalition. But that is just a code word for criticism of Israel....When it comes to opposing unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, dismantling Hamas, or finishing the job and winning the war, Netanyahu represents the overwhelming majority of the country." Why are the U.S. and Europeans now raising the issue of "settler violence"? "What they are doing is turning a molehill into a mountain because they are looking for some kind of moral equivalence. In reality, what you have are Israelis who have been relentlessly attacked by Palestinian terrorists, and they just want to be sure that they are not going to be shot at when they are driving on a main road, like what happened recently near Ma'ale Adumim. You have Jews that are afraid to get into their cars in Judea and Samaria." "Before we start the Rafah campaign, we are going over different ways to move Gazan residents who are now in the southern part of Gaza, to other areas north of Rafah - not to the north, but north of Rafah....The goals of the Rafah campaign are simple: First, we need to destroy the remaining battalions; we need to kill or capture the senior leadership of Hamas; and in doing so, we will essentially end the war."