Nasrallah vows 'surprises' if Israel hits Lebanon

Resistance now 'three times stronger' than in 2006
By Elias Sakr
Daily Star staff
Saturday, August 15, 2009

BEIRUT: Hizbullah has the power to hit any location in Israel with its weapons and has more “surprises” up its sleeve in the event of a future Israeli attack, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday. The Hizbullah leader also encouraged the authorities to continue their search for networks of Israeli spies in Lebanon, claiming that there are “agents in every village and every neighborhood.”

Nasrallah made the comments during a speech in front of thousands of supporters via a large screen in Beirut’s southern suburbs, to celebrate the third anniversary of the party’s “divine victory” in the July-August war of 2006.

“We no longer hear about the ‘new Middle East,’” Nasrallah said, arguing that the local, regional and international situation today “is not worse” than three years ago.

Nasrallah was defiant in the address, mocking the Israeli army’s military capability on several occasions, and urging the Lebanese to show national solidarity to prevent an outbreak of conflict, which he said Hizbullah didn’t want, but didn’t fear.

Nasrallah said that since the 2006 war, the Israelis have “been training and getting weapons, and changing their military leaders … if this is a ‘victorious’ army, what would a defeated army look like?”

Israel’s verbal campaign against Hizbullah in recent weeks has rebounded against the Zionist state, as the resistance party is now “three times stronger” than it was in 2006, Nasrallah said.

Amending a recent party slogan Nasrallah added the Beirut to the southern suburbs, promising that “if you bomb Beirut or the southern suburbs, we will bomb Tel Aviv.” The earlier slogan was “the southern suburbs for Tel Aviv,” as Nasrallah appeared to be reaching out to supporters beyond the party’s stronghold.

Amid the speculation and media reports of an imminent war, the Hizbullah leader said there were two choices for the Lebanese. “We can say ‘take it easy, Israel, we’re ready to do whatever you want.’ Or we can strengthen our capabilities, to prevent the possibility of war.”

The Hizbullah leader said that when Lebanon possesses a deterrent capability, via a national defense strategy, it would be able to prevent Israeli leaders from “even thinking” about waging war.

“It’s not easy for any Israeli government to take the decision of war against Lebanon,” he said. “They won’t think 1,000 times, but one million times” before taking such a step.

“Any new war against Israel would involve ‘new rules of the game,’” he said.

He said the Israeli army had come up with the notion of the “suburbs doctrine,” a reference to the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hizbullah’s stronghold.

Nasrallah said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other officials had incited the international community against the party and its military capabilities. He said this had backfired, meaning that they were forced to admit to the Israeli people that Hizbullah’s arsenal could now hit anywhere in Israel.

In July 2006, “the people of Haifa, Nahariya and Kiryat Shemona fled,” Nasrallah said, adding that the entire population of Israel would flee their homes in the event of a new war.

Nasrallah devoted most of the speech to evaluating Israel’s recent stream of statements and threats, warning about Hizbullah’s military capabilities in Lebanon, and its supposed plans to target Israeli diplomats abroad, as revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the party’s special operations commander.

There will be “no war now,” Nasrallah said, calling the campaign a psychological ploy to sow fear and confusion, which he said would fail.

“The Israelis are like we were decades ago,” he said. “Whoever talks a lot and threatens a lot, doesn’t frighten.”

Nasrallah said the “Israeli media commotion,” helped by outlets in the United States and Great Britain, had several objectives: hampering the formation of a new government in Lebanon, focusing on Hizbullah’s weapons to put the resistance on the defensive, and obstructing the role of UNIFIL peacekeepers in the south, as a deadline approaches this month for the extension of the troops’ mandate.

Among those in attendance was Taimur Jumblatt, the son of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, who last week announced his group’s departure from the March 14 coalition. Accompanying Jumblatt’s son at the rally was PSP official and Aley MP Akram Chehayeb.

Nasrallah began his address by reading a statement by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu that he said was made after the war, but before he became premier. The statement read by Nasrallah contained Netanyahu’s acknowledgment that due to the 2000 withdrawal from most of south Lebanon and the 2005 withdrawal of Israeli forces from within Gaza, Israel was “no longer seen as invincible in the eyes of its enemies, as well as its friends.”

Engaging in one of his trademark sarcastic comments, Nasrallah at one point mentioned Netanyahu’s name, then added “may peace be upon him,” drawing laughter from the crowd.