Hezbollah leader praises 'divine victory' over Israel
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday September 22, 11:53 PM
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Hezbollah leader praises 'divine victory' over Israel*
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has emerged from hiding and made his
first public appearance in months at a massive rally, praising what he
called a "divine, historic and strategic victory" over Israel.
Sheikh Nasrallah, 46, appearing before a rapturous crowd Friday which
Hezbollah said numbered in the hundreds of thousands, rejected calls for
his Shiite Muslim guerrilla group to disarm and claimed it had more than
20,000 rockets.
"We are celebrating a great divine, historic and strategic victory," the
charismatic, bearded cleric told the crowd in Beirut's shattered
southern suburbs waving thousands of yellow flags, the color of Hezbollah.
"The resistance is stronger today than on July 12," when Hezbollah
fighters seized two Israeli soldiers along the Israeli-Lebanese border,
triggering a month of fierce clashes, Nasrallah said. "Stronger than
ever before."
"The resistance today has more than 20,000 rockets," he said, rejecting
Israeli claims to have inflicted heavy damage on the guerrilla group.
One of Israel's stated aims in the offensive which ended in mid-August
was to eliminate Hezbollah's capacity to fire rockets, thousands of
which were launched at the Jewish state during the conflict, killing
dozens of civilians.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which halted the war, demands the
disarmament of all militias in Lebanon.
But Nasrallah said his movement would not give up its weapons as long as
there was a weak Lebanese state incapable of defending itself from Israel.
Nasrallah, a hero for many Arabs but public enemy No. 1 for Israel, had
not been seen in public since the day war broke out more than two months
ago. While his whereabouts remained secret, he made a string of
television appearances.
His predecessor was assassinated by Israel during a Hezbollah rally in
1992, and Nasrallah said he decided to make his first appearance since
the start of the war only about half an hour before the start of
Friday's rally.
"Standing here before you ... incurs dangers on you and me," he said,
but his "heart and mind" could not allow him to appear on a television
screen.
The Shiite heartland of the Lebanese capital was a sea of yellow flags
on Friday and Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said the rally was
attended by hundreds of thousands.
Their numbers were swollen by Amal supporters waving the green flags of
the some-time rival but more recently allied movement which also fought
alongside Hezbollah against Israeli forces, the mightiest army in the
Middle East.
The rally took place in southern suburbs laid waste by Israeli air
raids. On Friday the area was transformed into a huge show of force in
the face of UN demands for the Lebanese Shiite militant group to be
disarmed.
Hundreds of hardcore Hezbollah supporters marched on Beirut from
villages in southern Lebanon to attend the rally, wearing the yellow
T-shirts of Hezbollah and caps marked "Divine Victory."
"This is a historical day for all the Arabs, we are ready to go to war
again," said a Hezbollah follower wearing a T-shirt printed with
Nasrallah's portrait. "We are proud of our chief, the symbol of a whole
generation."
Asked on Israeli television whether Nasrallah would be a target if he
turned up on Friday, Israel's army chief Dan Halutz said: "I prefer not
to answer that question."
Nasrallah's predecessor Abbas al-Musawi, his wife and three-year-old
daughter were killed in an Israeli air strike after a Hezbollah rally in
1992.
The rally comes amid an unprecedented deployment of UN peacekeepers and
Lebanese army troops in southern Lebanon from where the Israeli military
has delayed its complete withdrawal initially planned for Friday.
On Wednesday, Israel announced it was holding up the promised withdrawal
until after the Jewish New Year holiday which ends Sunday evening.
Israel had said that it would complete its withdrawal once the UN force,
which is eventually mandated to total up to 15,000 troops, had deployed
5,000 soldiers, a threshold that commanders say it has already reached.
On the domestic front, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has rejected
Hezbollah calls for a government change and stopped short of declaring a
victory, after a war which cost Lebanon billions of dollars on top of
more than 1,200 deaths.
Beirut's political scene has witnessed sharp political disputes since
Israel's devastating offensive.
Hezbollah, which has two representatives in the government, has called
for a new national unity cabinet to include its allies in an apparent
bid to boost its role in the country's decision-making.