JERUSALEM (WJC)–The chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Gabi Ashkenazi, has told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that Hezbollah now had rockets capable of reaching Israel’s largest cities. Ashkenazi’s warning came days after Israel’s navy seized a ship it said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons destined for Hezbollah. The group was armed with tens of thousands of rockets, “some of which are of a range of 300 km and a small part with a range of 325 km,” Ashkenazi told Israeli parliamentarians.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on ‘al-Jazeera’, said: “Ashkenazi’s threats are baseless and are an attempt to draw attention away from the enemy’s defeat in Gaza and in Lebanon.” He went on to boast that “all the cities and all Israeli military and industrial centers are within Hezbollah’s fire range,” and that any Israel attack on Lebanese cities would result in retaliation against Tel Aviv.
“The enemy knows that defeat under the current circumstances would be a critical defeat that would change the balance of power in favor of Hezbollah, leading to the destruction of the Zionist entity,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanese terror group, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said that US President Barack Obama’s pledge in Cairo to engage with Muslims had proved to be false. On Hezbollah’s ‘Martyr’s Day’, Nasrallah was shown on ‘Al-Manar’ television and said the US had shown its commitment to Israel by sending more military aid and backtracking on demands to stop West Bank settlements, and the Arab world could not depend on the US to solve its problems because the US was causing them. In a major speech in the Egyptian capital in June, Obama had called for a “new beginning” between the US and Muslims.
“However, the truth was quickly revealed and all these illusions quickly failed. The result was obviously a full US commitment to Israel’s interest and security, disregarding the dignity and feelings of the Arab and Muslim people and governments. We tell all those who asked us to give the Americans some time: It turned out that presenting a black president from the Third World was a trick that ended faster than we expected.”
Since this week, Hezbollah is part of the new Lebanese unity government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. In his speech, Nasrallah warned that the new government should avoid the “big issues,” in allusion to his group’s weapons arsenal. In Washington, President Obama urged Lebanon’s new government to comply with UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for the disarming of Hezbollah. The group has so far not only resisted such calls but, according to Israeli and American intelligence, has massively rearmed.
Also on Wednesday, a military court in Lebanese sentenced a soldier and his wife to death, after the couple were found guilty of spying for Israel. The court also sentenced the defendant’s sister and her husband, who are reportedly living in Israel, to death. According to an Israeli radio report, the four were found guilty of contacting Israeli agents in order to assist in case of an Israeli attack on Lebanon.
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress