Thousands of Hezbollah supporters made their way to southern Beirut on Monday in order to take part in a rally in the honour of Hezbollah’s top commander, Haj Imad Mughniyeh, assassinated in Damascus in February.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah described Mughniyeh as the ‘leader of both victories’ referring to the Israeli withdrawal from the South of Lebanon on May 25, 2000 and the Israeli defeat in July 2006 war against Lebanon.
Speaking via satellite, Nasrallah told the crowd: ‘We feel Mughniyeh’s presence more than ever.
‘Our brothers have found nothing but courage.
‘We found in our enemy nothing but concern and fear of Mughniyeh’s spirit, blood, revenge, way, and pledge.
‘We are celebrating 40 days to the death of the martyr commander. These are festive days for Muslims and Christians.’
Nasrallah vowed to avenge last month’s slaying and said that most Lebanese are united in their wish to see Israel disappear.
He said Hezbollah will choose the ‘time, the place, the way and the means’ by which it will seek revenge for the death of Imad Mughniyeh in a Damascus car bombing on February 12.
Nasrallah declared: ‘The Israelis are worried as they should be because our blood will not be spilled in vain.’
He said to the cheers of thousands of Hezbollah supporters: ‘Those who killed Mughniyeh must be punished and must taste vengeance.
‘The killers must be punished and they will be punished, God willing.
‘We will choose the time, place and manner of punishment.’
He added that a poll conducted by clerics after Mughniyeh’s murder showed that nearly all Lebanese – be they Sunni, Christian, Druze or Shi’ite – wanted to see Israel disappear.
In February, Nasrallah had threatened to wage ‘open war’ against Israel after Mughniyeh’s death, prompting the Zionist entity state to alert its citizens travelling abroad to exercise extreme caution for fear of reprisals.
The Hezbollah leader on Monday went on to say the movement is also engaged in a ‘battle of consciousness’ with America and Israel.
He asked: ‘Why is it that when it comes to the Zionists everyone is silent?’
Nasrallah added: ‘We see unprecedented Zionist and American infiltration of the media.
‘They want to undermine our nation’s consciousness. They want the end result to be our surrender.’
He said that ‘the Zionist entity can be wiped out of existence’, adding that ‘our nation is stronger now than ever before.’
He stressed: ‘Zionist-American propaganda is aiming to harm our nation’s consciousness.
‘They, using their violent system, are trying to tell us that we are weak and powerless.
‘They want to tell us that we don’t have any hopes of winning.’
But Nasrallah argued that the victories presented by the Israeli occupation military are made bigger than they are in the Israeli-American propaganda machine, that has been operating for 60 years (since the establishment of the state of Israel).
‘The media has aggrandised this army and the Israeli soldier, officer and general,’ he said.
The Hezbollah Secretary General stressed repeatedly the fact that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 was a tremendous victory for Hezbollah, both on military and psychological terms.
‘There is a military political victory termed the withdrawal of the occupation army from southern Lebanon, but there is also an ideological victory in the battle of consciousness,’ he said.
However, he continued, in the summer of 2006 a powerful new answer became apparent: ‘In the July war we were attacked by the Israeli army and the resistance withstood the great attack, breaking and shattering the army.
‘We found and we saw the true picture of Israel and the leaders, generals, officers, soldiers and the Israeli tank.
‘The nation that isn’t facing bombings and banishment, lived in bomb shelters for 33 days.
‘Could Israel be wiped out of existence?
‘Yes and a thousand times yes.’
Nasrallah also said that the battle being waged by Israel utilises not only logic and science, but also killing and terror.
He referred to the over 50 Lebanese civilians killed in a border village during an Israel Air Force strike during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and the hundreds of Palestinians who have been killed in Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip.
Addressing the crowd, he said: ‘You are being told that the entire world has abandoned you, your women and your children.
‘The world remained silent when you were massacred in Qana and in Gaza.’
He warned that the enemy’s propaganda made out that ‘the battle’s end is nowhere on the horizon because Israel is smart and cannot be defeated’.
Nasrallah went on to say that Israel enters into battles ‘in order to kill women and children, to starve and to expel.’
‘However,’ he added, ‘We too have waged a war of consciousness with the Zionists, both in our defensive and offensive actions.
‘Today, your sons and Imad Mughniyeh and Jihad who fight in Palestine and Lebanon are creating a new Zionist consciousness.’
He said that the deployment of US warships off the Lebanese coast and the talk about a possible US war on Iran or an Israeli war on Syria is a part of the ‘psychological warfare’ waged against the people.
Nasrallah continued: ‘War is not a simple matter.
‘Here, I do not want to analyse, say what is more likely to happen, or rule out any scenario.
‘It is enough to say that it is not simple for the United States to wage a war against Iran, or for Israel to wage a war on Syria, or for Israel to initiate a war against Lebanon under the current circumstances.
‘The matter is no longer a simple one. Circumstances before the July war are different than those after it.
‘The situation before August 14, 2006 is different than that after August 14, 2006.
‘The Gaza experience also consolidates this logic.
‘Today, for those who talk about the possibility of war, I tell them I do not want to dismiss any possibility, but I want to remind them and tell them that the Israeli war is no longer a picnic, and that it has become very costly.
‘The decision to wage an Israeli war is no longer a decision that the Israeli political and military leadership can easily make.
‘An Israeli war has become very costly because there is in Lebanon the strength, will and education of the resistance as well as the blood of the resistance’s martyrs’ he added to more cheers.
On Sunday, Hezbollah Al-Manar TV reported: ‘The assassination of Hezbollah’s top military commander in Damascus last month by Israel is still casting as shadow of fear within the Israeli community, particularly within political and military ranks.’
It added: ‘In conjunction with the high level of security, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has decided to dramatically increase its level of security surrounding Israeli embassies, consulates and other offices worldwide.
‘Defence officials announced over the weekend that Israel would begin outfitting its civil airliners with a defence system designed to thwart missile attacks.
‘The officials said the system fired flares that distracted an incoming missile’s heat-seeking mechanism.
‘It will be installed first on planes flying to destinations considered dangerous, especially those in Africa and parts of Asia.
‘Israel is anticipating retaliation by Hezbollah.
‘Israel has denied involvement in Imad Mughniyeh’s assassination; however the conduct of Israeli officials in the aftermath of the murder proved quite the opposite.’
Hezbollah’s number two, Sheikh Naim Kassem claimed on Saturday that the party had 100 per cent solid proof that Israel killed Mughniyeh.
Kassem said there is no basis for the claim that others were behind the assassination.
‘Know that Israel is responsible and it must bear the whole responsibility,’ he insisted.
