Free Republic

Iran's goal is to emerge as the hegemonic power in the Mideast. The Arab world's traditional leaders are an obstacle in the way of this ambition. Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah reacted angrily yesterday to an Egyptian court verdict which sentenced members of a terror cell organized by the movement in Egypt to prison terms. The verdict, delivered on Wednesday, resulted in the sentencing of the 26 members of the cell to jail terms varying between six months and 15 years. The conviction of the Hizbullah-organized cell in Egypt is the latest episode in the ongoing rivalry between Egypt and Iran,...

BEIRUT – A Hezbollah government minister refused Friday to confirm or deny Israeli allegations that the militant Lebanese group has acquired Scud missiles. In the first Hezbollah comment on the Israeli charges, Minister Hussein Haj Hassan said the group was always arming and preparing itself but, "what we have is not their business." Israeli defense officials have said they believe Hezbollah has obtained Scud missiles capable of hitting targets anywhere in Israel. Israel's President Shimon Peres earlier this week directly accused Damascus of providing the weapons. Israel has not offered proof to back up the claim, and Syria's Foreign Ministry...

•Concerns about Israeli hostilities with Hizbullah are nothing new, but based on recent pronouncements from Syria, if the situation degenerates, fighting could take on a regional dimension not seen since 1973. •On February 26, Syrian President Bashar Assad hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Damascus. Afterward, Hizbullah's online magazine Al Intiqad suggested that war with Israel was on the horizon. •Raising tensions further are reports that Syria has provided Hizbullah with the advanced, Russian-made, shoulder-fired, Igla-S anti-aircraft missile, which could inhibit Israeli air operations over Lebanon in a future conflict. The transfer of this equipment...

Amid growing fears of another Middle East war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has thrown down the gauntlet for Israel by vowing to hammer Ben-Gurion Airport if Beirut's Rafik Hariri International is hit, as it was in their last conflict in 2006. That was not likely an idle boast. Nasrallah was unusually specific in what targets Hezbollah would hit, thus signaling its capabilities. "He's never been as detailed and candid," said Lebanese political scientist and Hezbollah expert Amal Saad-Ghorayeb of the American University of Beirut. According to Israel's military intelligence, Hezbollah has in excess of 42,000 rockets and missiles stashed away,...

German police suspect the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, of using drug trafficking in Europe to fund part of its activities, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. According to the report published on the magazine's website, German police arrested two Lebanese citizens living in Germany last October after they transferred large sums of money to a family in Lebanon with connections to Hezbollah's leadership, including the Shiite group's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri will announce a new national unity government to include Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in the next few days, politicians said on Saturday. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies. Politicians from both sides said Hariri had now clinched a deal with the opposition on the new government's make-up. A government acceptable to all main parties is seen as key to maintaining stability in a country facing sectarian...

Note: Photo and video included. SNIPPET: "It appeared to be a typical Al-Quds Day rally, replete with hateful speeches about the destruction of the State of Israel and the waving of Hizballah flags. The rally resembled other international versions of this year's Al-Quds Day celebration, an annual Islamist holiday initiated by Iranian revolutionary and terrorism exporter, Imam Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini. However, this event wasn't held in downtown Karachi or Damascus, but in downtown Washington, D.C's Sheridan Circle. The rally was organized by an employee of the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning, Faheem Darab. It even featured speakers as...

When a tyrannical regime dies, you can see the symptoms in the little things. Late Friday afternoon, after millions (yes, millions–this according to Le Monde, France 2, and L’Express, with the BBC saying that the demonstrations were bigger than those at the time of the Revolution) of Greens mobbed the streets and squares of more than thirty towns and cities to call for the end of the regime, there was a soccer game in Azadi Stadium in Tehran. It holds about a hundred thousand fans, and it was full of men wearing green and carrying green balloons. When state-run tv...

Everyone in Lebanon has been noticing how Hezbollah's rhetoric has been heating up lately. The group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, made it clear in a number of speeches this week that his party would tolerate neither spies, Israeli "aggression" nor what he described as Lebanese government hypocrisy. It's volatile talk ahead of critical June 7 elections in which Hezbollah needs to sway at least some Christians to vote in its favor. On Monday, Nasrallah warned that the Islamic militant group would be on high alert as Israel prepared to conduct its largest military maneuvers since 1961, a series of armed forces...

It's official - Cairo and Hizbullah are fighting a full-fledged media war. The Egyptian press and government officials have, for several consecutive days, been hurling insults at the Shi'ite group, in one instance comparing its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to a monkey.

Rosaries bearing a picture of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah have provoked controversy in Lebanon’s Christian community, whose members say the depiction is insulting. Christians are set to play a significant political role in Lebanon’s Shiite-Sunni power struggle through the June 2009 parliamentary elections, the Middle East Times reports. Hezbollah is a mainly Shiite Islamic party. "The rosaries are an insult to our Christian beliefs," an official with the Christian Lebanese Forces party said on Thursday, according to Alarab Online. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she characterized the rosaries as “an attempt to influence public opinion within the Christian community so...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/13165.htm Graffiti Praising Hizbullah On Walls Of Christian School In Lebanon Unknown persons have written graffiti praising Hizbullah on the walls of the Christian school in the Christian city of 'Amshit in the Jabil region. Among the slogans were "There is no victory but Nasrallah's," "there is no messiah but Nasrallah," and "Jabil and Keserwan [Christian regions in Lebanon] belong to the Muslims." It was also reported that pupils entering the school found that a cross that had hung on the wall lying broken on ground, and that it had been replaced...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. The Venezuelan president’s decision on January 6 to expel Israel’s ambassador from Caracas – the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step – has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians. Hamas has welcomed Chavez’s “courageous decision,” while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, urged Arab states to follow the Venezuelan president’s example. Chavez on Saturday accused Israel of being the “murder arm” of the...

"THE BRIEF LIFE AND EXQUISITE MARTYRDOM OF A HAMAS MORTAR CREW" Snippet: "Via Hamas' al-Aqsa TV station, said to be filmed in Jabaliya on 06 January 2008. At about 1'15" the crew is hit by an apparent Israeli counter-strike."

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Ttragedy_school_Jebaliya_6-Jan-2009.htm Behind the Headlines: The tragedy at the school in Jebaliya 6 Jan 2009 An initial inquiry by forces on operating in the area of the incident indicates that a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jebaliya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source. Preliminary Background Briefing Today, a reported 30 Palestinians were killed in a heartrending tragedy at a school in Jebaliya. Initial investigations indicate that Hamas terrorists fired mortar bombs from the area of the school...

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah called late Saturday on Hamas to "defeat Israel and kill as many Israeli soldiers as they can."

Chief of Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah Hasan Nasrallah on Saturday accused Arab leaders of collaborating with Israel to proceed until Monday with its attacks on Gaza, the party's TV al-Manar reported. "Arab foreign ministers gave Israel until Monday to proceed with its military attacks on Gaza," Nasrallah told a gathering on Ashoura occasion. He added that if the Israelis do not succeed until Monday, then the Arab leaders might extend the "grace period for the enemy." Nasrallah accused Arab leaders of failing to meet in an urgent Arab summit to discuss Gaza Strip situation, and come up with a...

Home Front Command reiterates that residents should immediately take cover if they hear the siren sound, or if they hear an explosion.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Monday slammed Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah for calling for mass demonstrations in Egypt to force the government to open the country’s border with Gaza Strip. "Someone yesterday called on the Egyptian people to take to the streets and create an atmosphere of anarchy. In other words, they want an atmosphere of anarchy similar to the one they created in their own country," Abul Gheit told a press conference in Turkey. "This person also called on the Egyptian armed forces, but he is not aware of the situation," Egypt's top diplomat said after talks...

In a press conference held on Monday afternoon in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit responded to criticism by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, saying that "They have practically declared war on Egypt via several satellite stations. The Egyptian people reject and opposes this declaration." "They want for there to be chaos in Egypt as there is in their country," Gheit said of Hizbullah. "I tell this man [Nasrallah]: No, no! Our armed forces can defend our homeland from people like you. Your interest in creating chaos is not in the best interest of...