Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks “changed the landscape in ways that could be for the good” and lead to the “possibility of a secure region,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) told a group of pro-Israel college students on Tuesday. 

McCormick lauded Israel’s “historic” military efforts that led to the degradation of Iran’s terrorist proxies across the Middle East.

“What’s happened with the conduct of military operations since then in the fight against Hezbollah, the fight against Hamas, taking out much of Iran’s [nuclear] capabilities, what has happened with Israel’s incredible military leadership … has reset the possibility of a secure region,” McCormick told about 700 attendees on the final day of Israel on Campus Coalition’s three-day national leadership summit in Washington.

“It has changed the possibilities in the Middle East and I hope it’s brought an awareness and change to our complacency here at home in the need to fight against that pure evil [and] reset the table in the Middle East.” 

“We have to eradicate [and] destroy the evil” that caused the Oct. 7 attacks, McCormick continued, referring to Hamas. 

McCormick also took aim at the rise of antisemitism across the country, including in his home state.

After Oct. 7 “there was a second surprise attack. That’s the evil of antisemitism that we saw across our campuses,” McCormick said. “Most of us didn’t know the degree to which antisemitism would rear its ugly head on campuses across Pennsylvania and across our country.” 

“It has shown us that we have to engage in a constant battle against the kind of hatred and evil that we saw in Israel on Oct. 7, but also that we saw across our campuses.”