Hassan Nasrallah
Nasrallah: Israelis lack motivation to fight
Speaking on anniversary of battle against Syrian rebels in Lebanon, Hezbollah leader ridiculed condition of IDF manpower, took credit for ISIS defeat, warned against dependence on US.
In a speech delivered at the end of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that "reports from Israel suggest that the primary difficulty for the IDF is the personnel component.
“The Israeli leadership knows that it is difficult to convince people to enlist in the elite units, the combat units, and everyone prefers to serve in rear units. They lack the willingness to sacrifice that they once had, they have no motivation to endanger their lives," the Hezbollah leader said.
Hezbollah Sec. Gen. Hassan Nasrallah
The speech was delivered on the occasion of the “second anniversary of liberation” (in the battles in Lebanon against Syrian rebels).
Nasrallah claimed that "more and more (soldiers) are going seeking to be excused from service on mental health grounds. According to the Israeli media, in 2017 more than 44,000 soldiers met with military mental health officers, compared with 39,000 in 2003. The soldiers want convenience, the opportunity to make money."
The bottom line, according to Nasrallah, is that "this army is not built for another war, even though since 2006 they have received a lot of new planes and greatly improved military technology. We know it and are monitoring it.
Hezbollah rally
“But the Israeli army failed to recover from its ‘crisis of confidence’ and to remove the sense of defeat and mistrust between the commanders and the soldiers,” Nasrallah continued. “Our people, unlike the Israelis, are ready to go out and fight, to die and sacrifice themselves for their homes and villages. They are just waiting for an order.
"They say we are a mafia, drug smugglers, money launderers, and that we are a terrorist organization, all of these are lies. They have not succeeded in undermining our people's trust in us, in our home environment. There is no military solution to Hezbollah. Who will dare fight us? Israel will fight against us? They face a risk, they fear the consequences of a war. The USA will fight us? No they will not, they send others to fight in their place,” he added.
“They are trying to exert economic pressure on us to hurt us. They think that if they hurt us economically, people will distance themselves from us, and we will not be able to pay salaries."
Nasrallah also addressed the United States and said that "it has decided to stop the aid (to Syria), they are only playing their game in the region. When they say that they defeated ISIS they are lying. The ones who defeated ISIS in Syria and Iraq are the ones who fought in Syria and Iraq; on the contrary, the United States only acted to help and prolong the life of ISIS.
"We have sources that report that US helicopters land in areas controlled by ISIS and deliver weapons and aid, especially in areas where ISIS was close to defeat. The United States does not think about your interests at all. Anyone who has hope that the United States will solve the problems must learn from history.
“Look at what happened in Vietnam. Vietnamese allies clung to the (departing) helicopters and begged for their lives and the Americans threw them out. Look at the Shah of Iran, who was the most loyal person the US could have, and they abandoned him as soon as we became weak. Even a medical visa they refused to give him.”
