Over the past week, I have been rewatching gut-wrenching videos taken by Hamas terrorists of their own massacre of Israeli families, grandparents and children three years ago today, reading about new accounts of hostages in brutal captivity, and thinking back to my own experience taking my young children back and forth to a bomb shelter as rockets rained down from Gaza. I think often about how the Iron Dome may very well have saved my family’s lives that day, along with thousands of other innocent civilians in Israel.  Since 2007 when Israel withdrew from Gaza and turned control over to Hamas, neither Israel nor Gazan civilians have been in charge. Instead, it has been governed by a globally-designated terrorist group whose stated mission and sole focus is to wipe out Israel, which they tried to do three years ago and then carried on for years by holding hundreds of Israeli hostages in brutal conditions in their terror tunnel network. That terrorist group remains armed and dangerous in Gaza today, still fully committed to wiping out Israel, the world’s only safe haven for Jews and the only democracy in the region.  If you are someone — like me — who wants peace in the region and self-determination for all people there, then Hamas represents a complete and total obstacle to that goal. As we remember the devastation inflicted by them on this day three years ago, we must also recognize that Iranian-backed terrorist groups such as Hamas remain an existential threat not only to peace in the region but also to democracy around the world.  Today is a day of mourning and remembrance of all those innocent lives lost, those who were wounded both physically and mentally, the hostages who survived through unspeakable conditions, and a country shaken to its core by the genocidal attack three years ago. Tomorrow, I will continue working towards a path to peace, security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Am Yisrael Chai.