Nasrallah & Hillary – readings each other’s minds

Mideastwire's Nick Noe/ here

I have a long piece coming out soon in Tablet magazine that explores these issues in greater depth. The draft was done before Nasrallah’s liberation day speech, but I amended it afterwards. Originally I had cited this passage in Hillary Clinton’s AIPAC speech from april, which I would argue is exactly the logic which Nasrallah is employing when he calls for using the power – the QME – of the resistance axis for a negotiated settlement

“We must recognize,” Hillary said, “that the ever-evolving technology of war is making it harder to guarantee Israel’s security. For six decades, Israelis have guarded their borders vigilantly. But advances in rocket technology mean that Israeli families are now at risk far from those borders. Despite efforts at containment, rockets with better guidance systems, longer range, and more destructive power are spreading across the region… These challenges cannot be ignored or wished away. Only by choosing a new path can Israel make the progress it deserves to ensure that their children are able to see a future of peace, and only by having a partner willing to participate with them will the Palestinians be able to see the same future.”

Well, Nasrallah and Hizbullah do their reading and he used Hillary’s speech at length in order to make his points – here are the key excerpts

“Thirdly – and here she touches on technology, and from here I will go to the new formula. Here again I better read the text lest I make any changes in it. She says: Finally, we must realize that technology, which develops as a result of the continuation of the war, makes it difficult to preserve the security of Israel.

The technology keeps developing. How does it develop? For six decades; that is, 60 years, the Israelis have been able to guard their borders alertly. But developments in the missile technology mean that the Israeli families that are far from the border are in danger. Let us explain this. First of all, the missile technology is no longer complicated, costly, or difficult to comprehend. Missiles can be manufactured locally, and we in the Arab region have as many talents and brains as you want. They need only a political decision.

They are not costly. You can create a missile force that will create a balance of deterrence at a cost that is worth only 10 MIG aircraft. (wink at Elias Murr) It is simply that. It is not costly, complicated, or difficult. Moreover, confronting this missile force will not be easy. All the talk you hear – patriot or matriot, the Iron Dome and whatever they call them – will not be able to do anything to our missiles. Technological development means that you do not fight on the border, but every town, every village, every facility, every airport, and every harbour inside the Zionist entity will be threatened.

This means that the Israeli domestic front will be threatened in any future war and the Israelis will not be able to withstand this.

Thus as a result of these considerations, she tells them – she wants to convince them – come and let us have a settlement. Act before it is too late. Now when the Isr ae lis review what happened in 2000, they will weep in regret. They will say: Had we reached an agreement with Syria before 2000 and returned the Golan to it, we would have gotten rid of Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Jihad and everything called resistance, in addition to Iran also. Regrettably, we were stubborn and we failed to reach such a settlement. Of course this is their evaluation, their revision.

Now the Israelis are being stubborn. I tell you that because of their arrogance, their tyranny, and their racism, they will continue to be obstinate until they fall into the abyss, God willing.... This is Mrs Clinton: If you do not help us; if you do not help Obama to reach a settlement, then there will be no purely Jewish state. Now you might find someone to reach a settlement with you but you will not find anyone in the future...

“…If the war takes place, which we do not want but which we do not fear and which we believe will change the features of the region - here I think Mrs Clinton agrees with me; she is with me and not with her friends in the region - if the war takes place – and here I have to add something – in the past we said that the Israeli domestic front, God be praised, was open, and we know everything about the domestic front, where we should aim at the domestic front, and what the points of weakness and the point of strength…”

Allow me to allude to those who speak about war day and night. There is talk about war and they say:... Let them save their breath. This is no use. The resistance and its strategic presence and its existence in the equation has transcended by a long distance all these speeches and calculations. Today the enemy is scared and it will remain scared, and we will keep it scared…”