MARK PERRY:

In 2012. And they really didn't want Israel to come in on the ground. They were going to be in trouble if that happened.

In this case, that is not true. I was talking to Osama Hamdan, the head of the international relations department, three days ago and I said, how are you guys doing? He said, we're fine.

And that has been Hamas' message to the international community ever since. In the three days since, they have said, Israel wants to come in, they can come in, let's do this. But we have our principles we're going to stick to.

The standard theme of these conflicts that we hear in the United States and in Europe is that Hamas is weakened by these attacks, that it becomes increasingly isolated. But that's never been the case. In fact, over the last six years, I would argue that the opposite is the case, that it's Israel that's become isolated, especially in Europe.