Hezbollah chairman Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech on Saturday celebrating the “anniversary of the end of the Second Lebanon War.” Speaking from his bunker, his speech was broadcasted on giant screens in the town of Bint J’beil, located only a few hundred yards away from the border with Israel.
Nasrallah said that Israel is in need of a new doctrine. “The whole issue of ‘after Haifa’ is over.
The Israelis have adopted a new doctrine which isn’t based on a quick victory – meaning that they know that they are unable to achieve (quick victory), and they know that the Israeli home front will be hit during the fighting.”
He also responded to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements, whereby the prime minister said that anyone who thinks that Israel is weak like a cobweb will receive an iron fist.
“We saw your ‘iron fist’ in Bint J’beil in 2006. I say this to Netanyahu – you are a society which is weaker than a cobweb, and are fed up with fighting and self defense.”
The Hezbollah leader also said that as a result of the war in 2006, “the Israeli military establishment has been undermined, and there is a lack of trust between the different ranks – something which continues to this day. (The war) also undermined the trust which the Israeli public has in the military, and undermined the Israeli public’s belief that the IDF can win wars.
Eisenkot himself said that the largest threat to the IDF is the public’s lack of trust in it. The trust in the political leadership was also undermined, something which has created a crisis which continues in Israel to this day.”
“In light of all of these results,” Nasrallah continued, “it is possible to surmise that Israel was hurt in the last war in terms of its spirit, trust, and will. It also lost confidence in its very existence.”
Nasrallah stressed that “after the (Second Lebanon War), the question was raised as to whether or not Israel will continue to exist. Both Israel’s enemies and even Israel’s ‘friends’ aren’t sure of the answer to the question of Israel’s existence.”
The Hezbollah leader went on to claim that the quiet on the border isn’t due to agreements between Israel and the UN or the Lebanese government, but because “Israel is deterred by this country. (Israel) knows that the resistance (Hezbollah) has grown in terms of weapons, strength, faith, and determination. Israelis today are afraid of the possibility of an invasion of the Galilee after OUR villages lived in fear.”
Regarding the “divine victory” over Israel, Nasrallah said that newspapers all over the world said that Hezbollah “thwarted the goals of the aggressors.” He argued that Israel; and its backers failed to defeat Hezbollah during the war, failed to drive Hezbollah back from the border, failed to form an international coalition, failed to restore Israel’s deterrence factor, and failed in retrieving its captured soldiers without paying a price.
He added that what he claims was the main objective of the war – to re-shape the Middle East as per an Israeli-American conspiracy – also failed.
