Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah began his speech by thanking the Hezbollah forces that fought off the Israeli attacks during the 33-day war and for their faith in Allah.
He also extended his gratitude to all those who helped in the "miracle", including the Lebanese people, the injured and all the nations that supported the movement during the war, singling out Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Seyyed Nasrallah said, "We must also thank the martyrs; civilians and fighters, commanders, the civilians who were martyred in the massacres as a result of the indiscriminate Israeli bombing, in particular Qana."
The Hezbollah chief listed the commanders of the battle who were martyred during the war and those who were martyred after the war, ending with his deep gratitude to the services of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's IRGC Quds Force.
"It was a historic victory," Nasrallah pointed out, "considering what Israel had done to the region since 1948, and the extent of military power and fire it used in the July 2006 war, the miracle of our victory against Israel will be written in the history books forever".
The war changed the future equation between Hezbollah and Israel, Nasrallah noted after 17 years. "The enemy understood the military capabilities of Lebanon, especially Hezbollah."
He pointed to last year's water demarcation with Israel as an example, in which Hezbollah threatened to resort to force if the Zionist regime began tapping into natural reserves that belong to Lebanon before an international party draws up a demarcation line to show what belongs to Lebanon and what belongs to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Last year, amid Hezbollah threats, an American delegation was dispatched to study the waters between Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories. It presented its findings to the Lebanese authorities, and all parties in Lebanon were satisfied with the results, which showed what natural resources belonged to Beirut.
Following is an excerpt of the Hezbollah leader’s speech:
This achievement would not have been made had it not been for the July 2006 war victory.
In the upcoming days, [the Lebanese people] will see with their own eyes that tankers arriving off our shores to begin the drilling process of our natural resources, in the face of the harsh [U.S.] sanctions imposed on us, with which all Lebanese will reap the benefits amid a gas and diesel shortage.
The Israeli fear of Hezbollah means it can't disrupt this process, which not only future generations will benefit from energy resources, but Lebanon will export its gas and oil to the international market.
Israel does not respect U.S. signatures, look at the Oslo Accords, and how Israel respected it.
What prevents Israel from stealing our natural resources is its understanding of the power of the Resistance in Lebanon, and this is why this power must be preserved so Israel doesn't regret its actions again.
From the outset, an Israeli committee presented the weaknesses of its army's combat readiness, while keeping some of the aspects secret.
Has Israel reformed its army, political decisions, and war awareness since July 2006 and following the (findings of) Winograd Commission? (The Winograd Commission, established after July 2006, concluded that Israel's war against Hezbollah was indeed marked by a long series of failures.)
The answer is no, on the opposite, since July 2006, the 2008 war on Gaza, the following wars on Gaza and today we have arrived at a very important juncture in the occupied West Bank amid this unprecedented increase in Resistance; we see that Israel has declined.
Since the establishment of the Zionist entity, it had acted on three main elements: deterrence, warning, and decisiveness. They dealt with all the armies in the region on these three principles: from 1948 until 2006.
Since 2006, Israel has added a fourth key element: defense and protection related to a conflict inside the occupied Palestinian territories.
These contain negative and positive Israeli military principles. The negative element is how to deal with infrastructure that is on fire, issues about hospitals, reaching the settlers quickly, etc. The positive defense and protection aspect deals with incoming missiles, which is an important aspect that began with the July 2006 war and then extended to the wars on Gaza.
Israel has put great effort to find out how to deal with this issue, including the Iron Dome, David's Sling and every year the enemy carries out maneuver on this, to check if its defense is capable.
According to Israeli generals, their defense capability is not ready for any future war. A few days ago, an Israeli military report said there are 2.5 million Israeli settlers that have nowhere to go, if there is a war.
The most important aspect is war awareness. Even before the internal Israeli crisis, we saw over the past months, since 2006, the process of the Israeli army’s weakness has started.
And after 17 years of the Israeli army taking lessons drills?, making plans and gaining new technology, have they managed to review their army to make it better? You can listen to many Israeli generals and ministers, former and present, who speak about the difficult state of mind the Israeli army has reached.
The most important point is the lack of will to fight, the readiness to sacrifice their lives, the lack of faith between the soldiers and the hierarchy, look at how many helicopters, drones and troops it took to raid Jenin, a small trapped refugee camp.
All of their capability is striking Gaza and Syria from the air.
As for land combat, with a supposedly powerful army that can fight in the battle, we have not witnessed anything since 2006.
Now, with the divisions among the Israeli military, its army is at its weakest point in history, which Israeli military officials are speaking openly about and in a meeting with their prime minister just recently.
Today, Israel is hiding behind walls, in Lebanon, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and they are speaking about erecting another wall with Jordan.
This brings me to my final point, on how does Hezbollah deal with Israeli threats?
A few days ago, the Israeli war minister issued a threat against us. It wasn't a new threat. Officials before him had made the same threat, and they said we will return Lebanon to the stone age if and if and if...
I would like to comment on this latest statement and threat, with a view to everything I have said.
Of course, we do not deny they have the technology and bombs and support from the United States. But this is nothing new. This is from many, many years ago.
What's new in Lebanon? What is the Resistance in Lebanon? What is it capable of doing? This is what the Israeli leaders know but try to hide with their media propaganda, which has no value attached to it.
Therefore, I tell this to the enemy. Today, I can tell them this: you will also return to the stone age.
If you were to wage a war against Lebanon, you would return to the stone age
Some might say I am exaggerating. I will respond with two quick points.
We have a map of the occupied Palestinian territories and a list of targets [that will take Israel back to the stone age]. If the Israeli minister doesn't have it, we can send it to him.
Their airports, military air bases, military depots for air force weapons, electricity plants and their delivery points, ports, main communications points, a group of vital infrastructure, which we have updated, oil and gas installations, the Dimona nuclear plant.
All of these are in a tight space. We are not speaking about a country here, like Russia or America or even Sudan, for example.
He can calculate how all these targets can be destroyed with how many precision-guided missiles Hezbollah has.
And if the enemy places the Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Patriots they have, Israeli generals have said our precision-guided missiles are like being attacked by nuclear missiles.
We are only talking here about the critical infrastructure if we were to talk about other things, which I will not speak about here, but the Israelis are aware of.
This is only if the war stays limited to Lebanon. What would happen if it is expanded to the entire axis of Resistance? There will no longer be something called Israel.
It is up to the leaders of the enemy to know, they are not playing a game of dots, they are playing with their existence.
As for us, we are not afraid of such threats. Today the entity is much weaker than 2006 and the Resistance is much stronger and capable than in 2006.
By Ali Karbalaei
First published in Tehran Times
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