Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah spoke Friday during a ceremony marking 12 years since the Israeli disengagement from southern Lebanon, and warned that no fence that Israel erects will protect it.
"The 2005 withdrawal was the final nail in the coffin of the Zionist ideology of expanding the borders of historic Israel," Nasrallah said in a televised address. "Israel erects fences, but that won't help it during a confrontation, because we have missiles that can reach any point in Israel."
Nasrallah emphasized the importance of resistance against Israel and called on all factions in Lebanon to rise up and support the resistance.
"If there would not have been resistance from the first day to the existence of Israel, then they would have set up settlements in south Lebanon just as they did in the rest of the occupied territories," he said. "For this reason, our unrelenting resistance is crucial."
The Hezbollah chief also commented on the recently established unity government in Israel, saying it pointed to weakness.
"Our assessment is that the unity government that was established in Israel is an internal Israeli matter, which took place due to the weakening of the coalition. But we will always be prepared for any Israeli aggression."
In some of his harshest words against Israel in several months, Nasrallah delivered a similar speech two weeks ago, in which he said that Hezbollah was capable of striking any target in Israel. He also stressed that "the days when we fled and they did not are over."
Hezbollah is both a powerful political party and militant group in Lebanon and fought a war with Israel in 2006. The group claimed it won a victory even though Lebanon suffered high casualties and many areas were heavily bombed.

By Jack Khoury

Haaretz.com