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Nasrallah Blasts U.S. and Israel
| Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah used the Muslim New Year to rally his followers with more anti-Israel, anti-U.S. rhetoric. Nasrallah called U.S. President George Bush's visit to Israel "a black day for Arabs and Muslims" and said the President's view of Israel as a Jewish state is "racist." "Its existence is premised on race," said Nasrallah. "Israel aspires for a racially pure existence," he said. Nasrallah criticized the President's visit to "occupied Palestine." "Bush came to Israel to celebrate 60 years [of independence] of a state that has no right to exist," Israel Radio quote the sheikh as saying. "Bush arrived here as if he is the defender of freedom and democracy. If he goes back 60 years…who started the killings? The Palestinians didn't do it, and the Jews who lived in Arab states lived peacefully. The ones doing the killing were Zionist gangs," he said, begging the question of what history book he's reading. As the crowd chanted "death to America and death to Israel," Nasrallah slammed American media's "pro-American, pro-Zionist allies" for calling Israel a democracy. "Bush the faker, who fails to protect the Arabs from the real murderer and instead argues that he wishes to defend them [Israel] from a fictitious enemy. He is attempting to convince our Arab and Muslim people of a bogus danger. It's a deception," Nasrallah warned his followers. "Oh Arabs, hope is in your hands," he said. Nasrallah said the "Zionist occupation of Palestine" is "the reason for all the wars in the region." |
