North American Committee Against Zionism and Imperialism (NACAZAI)

Excerpts of Hasan Nasrallah victory speech delivered in the southern suburb of Beirut (AlDaheyah) 9/22/2006

Alsalamou Aleikom, you the greatest of people, the most honorable, and the most dignified, and the most heroic. I am standing in front of you today and i know that it is a risk. Many in recent days have used psychological war-tactics to prevent you from coming today to celebrate this victory. Until 30 minutes ago there were extensive discussions to ask me to deliver my speech to you from afar but my heart, mind, and soul would not allow me to speak to you from far. You by showing up today have defeated those who have tried to sabotage our gathering.

I welcome all of you from the south, north, and mountain areas of Lebanon who have shown such great courage and pride. I salute you in the Palestinian refugee camps and to all those Arabs who came to celebrate with us here from Bahrain, Syria, and all over the Arab world.

Today in your gathering here on the 22nd of September you have proved that you are much stronger than the 14th of March forces.  

Brothers we are witnessing here a God-sent victory.

How was it that a few thousand of your sons and daughters were able to defeat one of the most powerful of armies in the world.

A resistance that has turned the enemy’s elite units into nothing, that defeated the enemy’s air and naval power, and that was able to destroy that joke of military inventions the so-called Merkeva tank.

The secret to our victory is our strong faith and good preparation. We are not a disorderly resistance force. We are well organized and well prepared. This resistance is an example that has to be taught to other people around the world.

I am here to declare to you that our resistance and state army are capable of protecting our regional waters and coasts against any Zionist presence.

Today you are amazing the world. We have heard recently the Americans speak to say that they are pleased that the popularity of the Lebanese resistance has decreased in Lebanon.

Today i want the Americans to come and see you because you are the best evidence of the lies and falsehood of these reports. I urge the Americans to file a law-suit against those who are giving them these erroneous reports.

I want to note to you here that the most number of tanks destroyed, the most soldiers killed of the enemy, and the most aircrafts downed happened on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They stopped the war not because they cared about Lebanon or the children of Lebanon they stopped the war in Lebanon because they feared for "israel" they wanted to protect "israel".

One of the objectives of this war was to crush Hizbullah. The reason why they stopped the war was because of the strength of your resistance fighters and our nation's people’s unity, it is people like you who have protected and ensured this victory we have witnessed.

Some doubt whether this victory is a victory or defeat for Lebanon. In answer to this question it is the one who has his vision and objectives accomplished is the victorious obviously.

This victory will be understood and properly analyzed and needs some time to come. It is too huge and too important. This is not just our victory but the victory of all Arabs and Muslims and not just our party.

Let us just say for now that your resistance fighters foiled all American and Zionist plans for Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the American plans of a New Middle East.

Let us just say that a great, great, great man such as Hugo Chavez, one I think is a great Arab, delivered his great speech yesterday at the UN because of this resistance.

Yesterday a bunch of Arab delegates went to the UN to ask for a settlement plan with "israel". I want to tell these Arabs, wow do you expect to get any settlement when you don't want to fight, you do not want to boycott, you do not even want to help the Palestinians in Gaza and you help to besiege them and help to starve them; you do not want to use oil as a weapon, all you want is that Gondolezza Rice be happy with you and satisfied with you. How do you expect to get anything from the Zionist enemy who does not even recognize you!

All those who are seeking American approval, when these are put in a position to choose between their people and their throne, they choose their thrones.

This steadfastness and victory of yours and your resistance, has destroyed the myths of an "israel" and has defeated all myths that say that the Arab armies are not capable of liberating Palestine. On the contrary the Arab and Islamic armies are more than capable of liberating Palestine from the river to the sea.

In fact as one has once said if each Arab or Muslim had thrown a bucket full of water on "israel" then we would drown it!

Two million are capable of defeating "israel". Only a few thousand in Lebanon had defeated "israel".

Many of you are expecting for me to speak about internal Lebanese issues. And surely i am going to address those today!

However, before i begin let me say that our hearts and minds and souls are with the people of Palestine who are daily being bombarded and starved in Gaza. We must work to support the Palestinian people. We must support the Palestinians in all ways and i am sure the Palestinian men and women there will be able to repeat the God-sent victory and miracle that we experienced here.

In Iraq we are seeing the spiral into this mad like war that heads the country into fragmentation and the prospects of civil war. The ones behind that madness and sabotage and attempts to splinter the country are the Zionist Mossad and Americans in Iraq. The ones who want to drive Iraq into a war and to destruction are the Americans and Zionists.

Here in Lebanon the Zionists and Americans wanted to split Lebanon apart like Iraq. It was the Lebanese resistance that protected Lebanon from fragmentation.

The only sure defense against this is the strong state, that is fair, and just and can protect the country from foreign sabotage and invasion. Tears don't protect states only a strong state will be able to protect itself.    

To those in Lebanon eager to raise the issue of disarming the resistance, I want to say that these arms we have must come to an end. They must eventually come to an end. Once we have a strong state that protects its citizens from danger then these arms will disappear.

But until we have such a state that is capable of protecting its citizens, its waters, its occupied territories including the Shebaa Farms, free its prisoners in Zionist jails, we can not give up our arms. This of course we will not accept and indeed refuse.

We did not fight since 1982 so that "israel" can continue to usurp and destroy our land and commit aggression against us any time it likes. To trespass into across out borders like it pleases.

To those who are working to create friction and a conflict between the resistance forces and the state’s army we have other news for them, this will not happen! We at the resistance and the Lebanese army are twins we are together and not against one another.

Those who entertain thoughts of destroying Hizbullah let me just share with you what the Zionist ministers had confessed to: THERE IS NO ARMY IN THE WORLD CAPABLE OF DISMNTALING THIS ORGANIZATION!

I want to tell you that no army in the world can take away our arms.

I want to pledge to you here that i shall not turn in the gun and that i will not finish my life with treachery but with martyrdom.

We shall never use these arms internally against our fellow Lebanese we have never used it against any Lebanese. These arms will not be used against Lebanon this is to safeguard Lebanon. These are not Shiite arms but Lebanese arms.

Internally we have to admit that we have real conflict now in Lebanon.

There are real divisions in our country. Patriotic divisions exist today in Lebanon. We do not have sectarian divisions here; this is not a Christian/Muslim issue this is not a Shiaa/Sunni issue. Instead this is a patriotic and national division. We are against sectarianism we want this issue to be placed into its appropriate Lebanese national context.

We want a new government formed. This current government can not function anymore it does not work! It is incapable of uniting the Lebanese, nor defending the country, nor reconstructing the country.

We must all work to build a strong government that is truly capable of uniting all in a strong state that is capable of moving the country forward. One of the things we will work on hard next will be to accomplish this government. And one of the most important things we shall work on is to build a new electoral process that is nonsectarian.

Next, why have these international forces been dispatched into Lebanon? Well the German minister has confessed in answer to this question when she said: We are carrying out a historical duty to help protect "israel's" existence.

I want to share with you this: that what we displayed in this last war was just a small fraction of what we have. When i had said before we have over 12,000 rockets in my speech in Bent Jbeil. they started bringing out the calculators to figure out how much we had. Today i want to clarify something to them. We have over 20,000 rockets. Over(and I underscore the word over twice!) 20,000 rockets not 20,000 rockets!

Today i want to tell you that only in a few days after the end of the aggression i want to assure you (to put your feet into cold water) we have regained our military, organizational, and resource strength. They can besiege us by air, land, and sea. We are even stronger today than ever before!

I want to assure you here that all the prisoners will be returned to you. If the whole universe should come they won't be able to free those two Zionist soldiers we have captured without a prisoner exchange.

We want to assure you that all villages and towns and land taken from Lebanon will be returned to you.  

Should the state and army not be capable of protecting our citizens and the borders of Lebanon, then the Lebanese people shall act and so shall the resistance fighters to get the job done.

I tell the Zionists if anyone had given you guarantees for your safety then i am not obliged by that Ask them about your safety, we shall act accordingly if you keep trespassing into our country.

As to the UN sponsored forces let me tell you this: your duty is to protect the Lebanese borders not to spy on Hizbullah nor take away its arms.

Be careful on what your mission is and do not interfere in internal Lebanese affairs.  

Some in the Lebanese circles have accused us unjustly that this was an Iranian or Syrian war because of the nuclear issue or because of the international court and Syria this we do not accept! We are proud of our relations with Iran and Syria people and leadership and in solidarity with them, but this war was not for Iran or Syria.

"israel" has termed this the first war with the Arabs meaning they do not consider all other wars with the Arabs as wars. The Arabs term this war the 6th war with "israel" but “Israel: calls it its  first!

 One million Lebanese celebrated today with Hasan Nasrallah the victory over “Israel”!