Yuval Noah Harari on the Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians

The aim of the attack was really to sow seeds of hatred and violence for generations to come, to destroy all chance for peace.  What is, I think, very difficult for people in Europe to understand often is the mind frame behind this that there are people - and I know it because there are also people like that in my country [Israel] - there are people who just don't care about this world and about human suffering in this world because they are fixated on fantasies about another world.  In the Middle East this is politics.  This is the bedrock where everything starts.  And from the perspective of Hamas - not just slaughtering Israeli civilians - even the suffering of Palestinians does not count.  Because if a Palestinian is killed according to Hamas, they are martyrs, they immediately go to heaven, what's the problem?  We can not live, coexist, with such people holding immense military capabilities on our border.

~ Yuval Noah Harari, Zeit Online interview, 2:25 mark, October 19, 2023