A recent speech by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah contained unusually aggressive statements, calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, and claiming that a future war would lead to Israel’s “demise,” the Algemeiner reports.
Nasrallah said that Israeli Jews should “leave and return to the countries from which they came so they are not fuel for any war that the idiotic Netanyahu government takes them to” and emphasized that they’ll have no secure place in occupied Palestine.
The speech echoed rhetoric recently espoused by the Iranian regime and its military officials, who said that Tel Aviv would be “destroyed” if Israel made “a mistake,” and that Israel would not survive for more than 25 years.
“Israel should remain silent and count down the days to its death, because any minor mistake would lead to its demise as fast as lightning,” said Iranian army commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi.
These threats contain two messages. The first message is a reaffirmation of the Shi’ite axis’ jihadist, ideological, long-term commitment to Israel’s destruction. The second message is more immediate; it is an attempt to deter Israeli decision makers from trying to stop Iran and its proxies from taking over Syria. Iran, together with its chief agent Hezbollah and several other Shi’ite militias, are helping Assad to complete its victory in Syria with the assistance of Russia. The upsurge in war-like rhetoric towards Israel is a signal of growing Iranian-Hezbollah confidence, fueled by their victories in Syria.
Radical Shi’ite forces — armed, funded and commanded by Iran — are now moving into the vacuum left behind by ISIS. Tehran’s objective is to turn Syria into another Lebanon: a heavily armed outpost from which Iran can launch attacks against Israel.
So far, the international community has shown no interest or willingness to stop this development from happening, but there is a wider Israeli warning here: Jerusalem has no intention of sitting on the side and watching Syria turn into an Iranian-Hezbollah base.
Israeli leaders are issuing their own warnings, making it clear that provocations by the Shi’ite axis can lead to devastation. In addition, Israel has stated that it will not tolerate an encroachment on its border by Iranian or Hezbollah forces operating in Syria.
Sunni states like Jordan and Saudi Arabia are equally disturbed by events in Syria. But Israel is the only regional state with the ability to stop the Iranian game plan. Meanwhile, recent comments by the head of the Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, serve as a timely reminder of the fact that the Iranian nuclear program remains a threat — and is only temporarily dormant.
“Iran continues to possess a vision of having a significant nuclear capability, leading to a military nuclear ability,” Mossad chief Yossi Cohen asserted in recent days.
Furthermore, Cohen added that “Iran continues to act with increasing aggression in activating military forces and operations in the Middle East, closer to our border than ever, in the Lebanese and Syrian arenas [which are] as one. Iran continues to support Hezbollah, and recently, it is increasingly supporting Hamas. Iran continues to transfer advanced and precise weapons to terrorist organizations in our area.”
This not-so-cold war between Israel and the Iranian axis looks set to continue. Lines are being drawn in Syria by both sides. Israel’s lines are purely defensive, while Iran and its agents are following a belligerent, encroaching agenda, which threatens to destabilize the entire region.