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February 18, 2008
Cancerous growth
Iran's a letter of condolence to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah for the recent death of Hezbollah commander, Imadh Mugniyah, called Israel a cancerous growth that would soon disappear.
The cancerous growth Israel will soon disappear," Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Muhammad Ali Jafari wrote to Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the FARS news agency reported Monday.
In a letter of condolences following last week's assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Jafari said: "I am convinced that with every passing day Hizbullah's might is increasing and in the near future, we will witness the disappearance of this cancerous growth Israel by means of the Hizbullah fighters' radiation."
Iran, Hezbollah, and the rest of the terrorist crew blame Israel Mungiyah's murder, but U.S. Director of National Intelligence thinks otherwise.
...the editor of the Hizbullah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper, Ibahim El Amin, said that it was clear Israel was behind Mughniyeh's assassination and that there was an ongoing investigation to determine who had joined the US and Israel in its war against the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq.
Amin, himself considered a close associate of the guerrilla group, said that anyone who is interested should join the battle for Israel's destruction and that the tools used in the campaign would be different to those used in the past. He said that Israel should "expect a painful and rational response from an unexpected direction since the enemy broke all the rules."
On Sunday, the US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said that internal Hizbullah groups or Syria may be to blame for the killing of the top Hizbullah commander in Damascus.
McConnell said he considers the threat of retaliation for the assassination to be primarily against Israel. But he said US intelligence officials were keeping a close watch and taking any necessary action to protect the United States because Mughniyeh has been "responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other terrorist with the exception of Osama bin Laden."
"It is a serious threat," McConnell said. "There's some evidence that it may have been internal Hizbullah. It may have been Syria.
Mugniyah may have become more useful to Hezbollah dead than alive. Now, at least, he provides a pretext for more terror attacks.
Posted by Tom Bowler at 08:47 AM | Permalink
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Comments
True, the death of their leader may be used as an excuse, however, since the leader was not killed in Lebanon, the impact will be muted among the Lebanese people. Hezbollah is certainly pissed now, but it was never going to concede peace (by never I mean say within the next twenty years, because you should never say really never) with Israel and the recent events in Gaza already meant that an escalation was likely coming. But the key here is how the Lebanese will react, Hezbollah is a Lebanese party and it draws its power from support among the Lebanese Shias and among anti-American segments among the general Lebanese population. Like I said though, since the assassination was not on Lebanese soil and was not of someone necessarily important to the Lebanese general population, if Hezbollah does use this as an excuse it MIGHT antagonize the Lebanese general population. My hope is that other Lebanese politicians can frame this as Hezbollah trying to return Lebanon to the agony of war vs. the hope for peace with all neighbors (Israel could help prompt this though by opening negotiations of the Sheba Farms, a ridiculously small scrap of land which is Hezbollah's official excuse for existence. If Israel can give the currently anti-Syrian government this win, it'll be a major blow to Hezbollah's political fortunes.)
Posted by: Rand | Feb 18, 2008 11:50:39 AM
Interesting points. I hadn't thought about how the Lebanese general population might play into this. Given Hezbollah's links to Syria, where Mugniyah sojourned at the time of his martyrdom, and Syria's hand in the assassination of Lebanon's pro-independence leaders, you would think the Lebanese population might be a little tired of Hezbollah already.
One thing is certain. The political climate in that part world has changed a lot in the last few years. Hezbollah's fortunes could be in for a major blow no matter what.
Posted by: Tom Bowler | Feb 18, 2008 1:46:32 PM
Good points.
As for Hezbollah wearing out its welcome, I'm not holding my breath. Remember, after the summer war with Israel in 2006 it was Hezbollah that arrived on the scene with money (no doubt from Iran), medics, and supplies - ready to rebuild Southern Lebanon - long before the impotent Lebanese government even knew what was going on.
Add that to the fact that most Lebanese are scared to death of them and you have a permanent guest. Just my two cents.
Posted by: RHM | Feb 18, 2008 9:08:46 PM
