“I repeat: all possibilities are on the table” – The Press Project

“Those who defeated you in the 1980s are still alive, and they have their children with them”

If anything was clear in the nearly hour-and-a-half speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, it was that the goal was not conflict, the declaration of war, in the footsteps of Ansarullah (Houthi) of Yemen, but the repetition of some firm positions, the interpretation of what is happening today and the clear warning that Hezbollah, therefore Lebanon, is ready to go to war. His speech* was wisely measured, precise and one could clearly read, finally, the intentions of Hezbollah and its respect for all the movements of the Axis of Resistance, which have already, independently of each other, been positioned. In fact, he especially saluted the forces in Iraq and Yemen – something with special weight.

He praised “the al-Aqsa storm” as an act of resistance by an imprisoned people, and emphasized that, although the West cannot understand it, this attack was 100% the work of the Palestinians, who acted in complete secrecy. “It was a surprise for us too,” he said. “They keep saying that we are serving Iran just to divert the conversation,” he said, “but let friends and enemies understand that the decisions of the Resistance are the decisions of the leadership of the Resistance. We ask [από το Ιράν] that we need, but Iran has no say in the decisions.”

He also stated that “the victory of the 7th”, as he described it, “is in the national interest of all the neighboring states”, and especially Lebanon, implying that the power of Israel is decreasing. As for Israel’s violent reaction, “Hamas expected it” and knew it was the price to enter what he called a “Historic New Phase” of the Palestinian issue. A little later he would also call it a “Decisive” phase.

For USA and Israel

Although this is a political and religious leader, his speech was not just humane, it was far from the genocidal cries that the current, deeply racist, government of Israel considers statements to be representing it. An Israel towards which he showed contempt, considering it the “showcase” of the true enemy, the USA, which is ruled by “idiots and brutes” and finances with billions. Ironies about Israel permeated the entire first part of his speech. “They tell us that they have learned their lesson, but they have learned nothing, especially from the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon. They have not learned their lesson since July 2006,” he said, recalling the expulsion of the Israeli occupier from South Lebanon, “when they said they would crush Hezbollah… But our people prevailed and survived.” Israel’s current attitude, apart from “stupidity”, he also attributed to the fact that the Netanyahu government “is afraid and failed” towards a people, the Palestinians, who “put the bomb in the tank with their own hands”. Israel “in 75 whole years is only good at one thing, the massacres… They want to hit the resistance, they want us to raise a white flag while we are pulling women and children out of the rubble… But Gaza will win… Against the brutal, barbarians and planters” who “have neither democracy, nor morality, nor civilization” as Gaza proves. And if they can and act as they do, “it is the USA’s fault” for helping them violate international law and “bringing the law of the jungle to the world”. It is the USA “wholly responsible for what is happening, Israel is their tool. The USA does not let the destruction end.. It is the great Satan from Hiroshima until today”. Indirectly threatening US bases in the wider region, he called the Iraqi decision “wise and blessed” resistance to labeling US military installations in Iraq as legitimate targets, and stressed that “the US must finally pay the price”

Especially for the Greek public, it is worth mentioning that, given the support of the Orthodox Christians in Hezbollah, whenever he spoke about the recent destruction and bombings in Gaza, he began by referring to the churches, while later he specifically referred to, under apartheid , Church of the Nativity.

The objectives and hints

The presentation of the “short-term goals” he set was also the beginning of raising the tone. As such it put an end to the aggression against Gaza and the victory of the Gaza Resistance. The second “short-term goal” is interesting, for which he clarified: “If Gaza wins, Iran does not win. If Gaza wins, the Muslim Brotherhood does not win. If Gaza wins, Palestine wins… but this victory is also for the benefit of Egypt and Jordan and Syria and, first of all, Lebanon”, something completely understandable, if you consider what has been going on for a month in southern Lebanon . “If Israel wins we are lost, first the Palestinians and then Lebanon… They are already threatening us” he clarified. “It is the US that stands in the way of a cease-fire in Gaza,” he stressed. And he referred, therefore, again to the Iranian and Yemeni resistance, to make it clear that any attack on Lebanon would be generalized and would have mainly American targets – although he reminded that Ansarullah “has missiles capable of hitting Eilat”, the port of Israel on the border with Egypt.

He has not been kind to Arab governments. He was stern about their stance, and clearly demanded that, in order to really support the Palestinian struggle, they immediately proceed with an embargo against Israel, on gas, oil and food, to the minimum they owe, as well as to ensure the opening of the passage of Rafa.

To those who would like a more intense involvement of Hezbollah and “total war” he replied that Lebanon is already at war, it already has 74 dead among the men of the organization, and thus manages to occupy a large part of the Israeli forces. This is a “new type” of war and victory is “a matter of endurance”, it is, well, a war that is evolving so “the Resistance will not limit itself to these” so as not to allow the second Nakba.

Finally, he turned again to the USA. “If the Americans want the conflict not to escalate, let them stop threatening us,” warning that Hezbollah has taken measures against the presence of warships in the eastern Mediterranean – which the US has beyond the range of its missiles. they think the organization has. He then addressed Israel, with the most important phrase of his speech: “all options remain on the table.”

Something that “leaves on the table” the option of a wider war in the region, a prospect that comes closer after Israel’s indirect “response”, which hit ambulances and schools immediately after the speech. Despite the sobriety of Nasrallah’s words, the racist government of Israel continues to try in every way to escalate the conflict, with the sole aim, as many Israeli analysts now say, of Bibi’s political survival.

That’s why

It is wrong to consider Nasrallah’s speech as a “speech of weakness”. On the contrary, he spoke in such a way as to hint at the possibilities of resistance but also to avoid a generalized war, something only Netanyahu’s Israel desires. And he transferred the responsibility to the US, which, however, seems powerless to contain the beast. His references to the vulnerability of US military installations in the region – with three references to the Iraqi resistance and the importance of a Palestinian victory for Syria – and to the fact that this conflict will be decided “on endurance” show more clearly than anything else the intentions and the preparations: not only have they not left the Palestinians to their fate but they will continue, but in their own way – and perhaps also given the lessons they have learned, because they have learned them, from the defeats, normal proxies, of the USA in recent years. Far-right Israel will hardly stand up to a war of endurance, especially as the internal situation in the country is shaping up. That is why all the moves of the specific Tel Aviv government have as their only visible goal the immediate start of wider hostilities and the admission of the Arab states to the war as well – the challenges are at all levels, it is not only the ongoing genocide. It is the only way, as we wrote, for Netanyahu to survive politically and the only way he has found, throughout his political career, to unite the people of Israel. If this will also cost thousands of Israeli lives, he doesn’t seem to care.

The attitude of the US will decide the future – hence the many mentions of Nasrallah. With the Ukrainian front open – although it seems as though it was as long as it takes – the war party, which permeates both American parties, is called upon to support a genocide and decide whether to strike Iran in its name. Netanyahu, who has been pushing for this since the Trump presidency. A few days ago, it passed the House of Representatives, by a vote of 354-53, a law that allows “the US, its partners and its allies, including Israel” to “use all means which they consider necessary to prevent … Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” The door to the wider conflict and the justification for it officially has the stamp of the USA…

For now, Hezbollah is keeping the southern Lebanese front open, already intensifying its attacks and forcing Israel to divide its forces, as a deterrent to the complete razing of Gaza. At the same time, international pressures from below continue and intensify – the West’s diplomatic losses in the Global South are unprecedented in recent decades. And yet another crumbling narrative is that of equating the reaction to the policies of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism: the actions of the Netanyahu government are tearing it apart day by day.

The Greek involvement

In this climate in the wider region, the Greek government, a staunch ally of Israel, is not only involved in the ongoing genocide in Gaza but also involves the country in the wildest war scenarios. American weapons pass through our country to go to Israel and hit Gaza. In his statements, at a press conference for Greek media, the representative of the Tehran government on the nuclear agreement, Mohammad Maradi, emphasized that “from the Iranian side, any assistance to the Israeli regime is considered assistance in committing genocide, so Greece, even and if she’s not happy and does what she does under duress, she’s still somehow involved. Because it’s obvious what’s happening, it’s genocide, it’s a holocaust, and a unique event, because it’s unfolding in front of the world public, something we’ve never seen before. We have seen massacres of more people in history, in the B and A world, in Vietnam, but never before have we seen such massacres happen one after the other live on television, or learned instantly by image by the entire international community. This horror is unprecedented. So the aid to Israel is also unique, in its horror.”

In another question regarding the Palestinian issue, hours before Nasrallah’s speech, he also said that “the US is vulnerable in Iraq” and that if the massacre does not stop “it is possible that the US will leave both Iraq and Syria”. Despite the warmongering voices, however, he hopes for a final calm solution, because “if the situation gets out of control in the region, which is already boiling, the world economy will be destroyed.”

He also stated that for Iran “the real threat is and always has been the USA” and that “Israel does not even consider it militarily”, as well as that “Iran is not going to accept the ethnic cleansing and holocaust in Gaza”. “The issue of escalation or not is in the hands of the Americans,” he said, “who I don’t believe want escalation. They have the most to lose.” Finally, he recalled the importance of the Straits of Hormuz and said that, in the event of an American attack against Iran, “their bases in Qatar, the Emirates, Iraq… are legitimate targets” under international law. And not only these bases…

*The excerpts from Hassan Nasrallah’s speech I translated from Press TV’s English translation.