 Those who question Hizbullah's loyalty to Lebanon must show their credentials first, Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday in his toughest response yet to critics who believe the resistance acts upon Syrian and Iranian orders.
Nasrallah was speaking to a mass rally in Beirut's southern suburbs, gathered for a funeral procession for the three resistance fighters killed during Monday's clashes with Israeli troops. "While encouraging dialogue and discussion," the cleric stressed "the resistance will not tolerate being named a traitor or an agent for foreign countries."
| Even though everyone but the willfully blinded realizes that's exactly what they are. |
"Hizbullah appreciates the different points of views over many Lebanese internal issues and invites all parties for a dialogue," he said. "But before we hold a dialogue with someone, we will ask, 'Who are you and what have you done for Lebanon? What are your relations with embassies and ambassadors? What are your relations with Israel and Western countries?'"
| "If we don't like your answers, we'll blow up your car!" |
Nasrallah emphasized that Hizbullah values its friendships with Damascus and Tehran, calling on the Lebanese people to do the same because the resistance's ties with the two capitals have benefited Lebanon and "freed it from occupation."
| Wasn't it Leb's relations with Damascus and Teheran — and the PLO, of course — that resulted in the occupation in the first place? |
"Hizbullah's orders do not come from Damascus, or Tehran; they come from Beirut," he said.
| Oh, they still have resident satraps there? |
According to Nasrallah, Hizbullah has a duty to try to capture Israeli soldiers and swap them for Arab prisoners in Israel.
| It's called "kidnapping." They have a duty to kidnap. |
"Our experience with the Israelis shows that if you want to regain detainees or prisoners ... you have to capture Israeli soldiers," he said. "It is not a shame, a crime or a terrorist act. It is our right and our duty which one day we might fulfil," Nasrallah asserted to thunderous chants of "death to Israel."
| Sorry. Kidnapping is kidnapping. Kidnapping as policy is a shame, a crime, and a terrorist act. And has anyone but me noticed that Arabs spend a lot of time laying out "rights" for themselves that civilized countries don't have? Where does it say that the mere act of claiming them means they actually exist? |
Addressing those who may be worried about such continued attempts, he suggested "Israel release all prisoners and foil this threat."
| Or they could roll over Hezbollah and wipe it out. |
Unfazed by a statement released Thursday by the UN Security Council condemning Hizbullah for this week's violence along the border, Nasrallah criticized the Council for failing to condemn what he said were continuous Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
| That could be because they weren't the subject of the conversation; Hezbollah was. |
"The resistance exerted great constraints on its fighters not to be provoked by the Israeli violations, just to wait for an international reaction or condemnation," Nasrallah said, "But nothing happened." |