Nasrallah slams Arab, Zionist collaboration

(December 29, Jeruselam, Sri Lanka Guardian) Hezbollah Secretary General condemns the Israeli massacre of Gazans and points to the role of certain Arab regimes in conspiring with Israel.

Addressing a large crowd of Lebanese by videoconference, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said it is very unfortunate to begin the new Islamic year at a time where a huge humanitarian catastrophe has led to the martyrdom of over 300 innocent people and the injuring of over 1,000 in the Gaza Strip by Israel tanks and air strikes.

He said Gazans have two options - resistance or humiliating surrender - and they are resisting with perseverance.

Nasrallah likened the air strikes on Gaza to the 33-day war in the summer of 2006 that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians.

But he said the situation of Palestinians is worse than the 2006 Israeli war with Lebanon.

"What is going on in Gaza right now is in a very clear way a permanent American and Israeli scheme in the region to impose a humiliating settlement with Israeli and American conditions on the rest of the Arabs. The Americans and the Zionists want a settlement for the Arab-Israeli conflict. They want it in their own form with their own conditions. The Palestinians, the Lebanese and the Syrians must give in to these conditions according to their plan. The Americans and the Zionists are putting their efforts to impose their conditions through pressure, isolation, blockades, internal divisions, assassinations and so on."

Meanwhile he pointed to the negative role of some Arab countries in what was happening in Gaza and said, "There are some Arab regimes who are truly partners of this project, especially those who signed peace treaties with Israel. They are supporting (the US-Israeli project) politically, psychologically, militarily and culturally through the media… They are contributing to impose the conditions of surrender on the rest of the resistance groups."

Nasrallah said that there are documents that show that some Arab regimes are calling on Israel to destroy Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

He said he had heard today from some Israeli officials that the magnitude of Arab support for the destruction of the resistance in Gaza is even more than their support to destroy Hezbollah.

The Secretary General also said that certain Arab countries are responsible for some of the internal fighting among Palestinian factions. "These same Arabs armed the Palestinian factions to fight against each other."

He made it clear that the resistance in Palestine and Gaza would keep on saying that "Today the people of Gaza have made their choice - the choice of blood. They are resisting with firmness. Nothing will prevent them, without even anybody's help, from continuing with their resistance, despite bloodshed and martyrdom."

Nasrallah meanwhile criticized Arab media saying, "Some of these Arab satellite channels, which we can call them Hebrew channels and not Arab channels, were showing people in Gaza killed yesterday and today as like somebody killed in some traffic accident in India. Then they show the news going back to normal as if there is no Arab humanitarian catastrophe happening in Gaza."

"We as an Ummah, a nation, must work together to stop this Zionist campaign. We must work in order for this assault not to achieve its aims. We should be able to achieve victory in Gaza although there will be sacrifices of a huge magnitude".

"It is not only the responsibility of the people of Gaza, it is the responsibility of the governments in Arab and Islamic nations. It is the responsibility of the peoples to bring pressure on their governments, which remained silent, to take steps. There is no justification at all for the people to say we have regimes of oppression. We must go out into the streets and raise our voices, put pressure on our governments even if fire was opened on our chests. This is our duty, and who ever falls in this duty on the road to al-Quds is a martyr."

"In this period the United States of America and the Europeans are suffering from financial and economic crisis. But we in the Arab world, we have oil, we have money, we have political stands, our governments and regimes with very little effort, can very easily stop the Zionist assault on the people in Gaza," he said.

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah strongly criticized the Egyptian government and added, "All of these Arab and Islamic people must head to the streets and call on the Egyptian government. The Egyptian position is the corner-stone in what is going on in Gaza. Nobody has called on Egypt to take up arms and go to war. We are only asking them to open their borders so that food, medicine and water can reach our people in Gaza."

"The Egyptian regime must politically help the people of Gaza so that the assault can be stopped without any preconditions. This is the Egyptian responsibility. The people of the Arab and Islamic world must call on the Egyptian regime to open the borders".

Nasrallah appreciated Syria's role in the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon and asked for the same from Egypt.

"Syria had opened the borders for us although Israel bombarded the Lebanon-Syria border, and we thanked Syria for it. We are calling on Egypt now to open the Rafah border permanently for those who are alive, not only for those who are injured or martyred."

"We must tell Egypt very strongly this time that if you do not open the Rafah crossing to Gaza people, it means that you are partners in this siege and collaborating with the Israeli regime in the killing of innocent Palestinians. The Egyptian people must pour out into the streets in millions to force their government to open the country's border with the Gaza Strip. If the people took to the streets by the millions, could the police kill millions of Egyptians?"

The Hezbollah leader said that if Egypt did not open the Rafah Crossing to Gaza, it would be considered a partner in the Israeli killing of Palestinians.

He emphasized that if Egypt opens the Rafah crossing and food, water and money reach the people in Gaza, a repetition of what happened in Lebanon would occur.

"Although we are confident of this victory, the people of Gaza are living in hard conditions, and if Gaza stays on its feet, and shows perseverance, the assault will end. Israel cannot stand a long and exhausting war. This enemy will be obliged in the end to stop its assault and its goals will be cancelled."

Lastly, he reminded that Lebanon should remain vigilant to a possible Israeli attack saying, "I have asked the brothers in the resistance, in the south specifically, to be present, on alert and cautious because we are facing a criminal enemy and we don't know the magnitude of its conspiracies." - Sri Lanka Guardian