West Bank Palestinians Are Disappointed by Hizbullah Leader’s Speech

“Hizbullah is fighting but that’s not enough. Nasrallah has said many times that if the resistance was attacked, he would come to the rescue in full force. Where is he when you need him?”

One week after a much-anticipated speech by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who addressed Israel’s assault on Gaza but fell short of declaring war on Israel, and one day after a second Nasrallah speech in which he still did not declare war, Hizbullah reiterated the same message last Saturday.

Nasrallah’s message didn’t live up to the high expectations held by many Palestinians across the West Bank. At the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah, a constant target for Israeli army raids, 26-year-old resident Monir shared his disappointment with The Media Line: “I had hoped he’d declare war in his first sentence in his speech.” 

While Nasrallah said that Hizbullah would keep retaliating against Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, he also explained that the war with Israel would be long and that victory would “take years.”

According to Ramallah-based political analyst Fares Sarfandi, this is a “war of attrition” and not a full-fledged military confrontation.

“The Lebanese scene is very complex, and what Hassan Nasrallah said—that they are in a battle from the first moment—is 100% true. The evidence is that we are talking about more than 62 martyrs who fell during the ongoing battle,” Sarfandi told The Media Line.

“There are those who wanted Hizbullah to announce its entry in a dramatic manner, but those who do not know the Lebanese reality can say whatever they want,” said Sarfandi.

“The situation in Lebanon is based on several crises, the first of which is the conflict between Hizbullah and some Lebanese forces that are forcing the party to distance themselves from entering into war in this situation,” explained Sarfandi.

“Second, the economic reality in Lebanon is a crisis reality that forces the party [Hizbullah] to work to prevent its collapse, and any comprehensive war with Israel will lead to the situation being worse than it is currently,” continued Sarfandi.

“Third, Hizbullah realizes that if it intervenes in this battle, there are Western powers, led by the United States, ready to play the role of protector of Israel, as evidenced by its sending of American battleships,” added Sarfandi.

Meanwhile, Palestinians are glued to their televisions and phones, watching in horror the images of destruction and killings taking place in Gaza. 

The Israeli military attacks have killed more than 12,000 Palestinians—more than half of them children and women—and forced hundreds of thousands to flee to the south of Gaza, most of them on foot.

“Hizbullah is fighting but that’s not enough. Nasrallah has said many times that if the resistance was attacked, he would come to the rescue in full force. Where is he when you need him?” asked Monir.

In his first public comments since the war in Gaza began, Nasrallah said his powerful Lebanese militia had bogged down Israeli forces to help Hamas.

Nobody cares. They all give lip service, and they all use us to advance their own interests.

“Nobody cares. They all give lip service, and they all use us to advance their own interests. I don’t trust any of them,” Hamza Trashi, another Jalazone camp resident, told The Media Line.

Nasrallah said his party was already doing what it set out to do: exchanging fire with a portion of Israel’s military to keep it tied up along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, reducing the burden on Hamas.

“The Lebanese front has lessened a large part of the forces that were going to escalate the attack on Gaza,” Nasrallah said in his address. “Some in Lebanon say that we are taking a risk, it’s true. But this risk is part of a beneficial, correct calculation,” he added.

“All the possibilities on our Lebanese front are open. All the choices are available, and we could resort to them at any time,” the Hizbullah leader said.

He’s very careful because he understands that he doesn’t want to see the results of Gaza in southern Beirut

“As a leader of an organization which is supposed to be the resistance, he [Nasrallah] has to show that he’s taking part in the war, which is what he’s doing,” retired Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told The Media Line.

“But at the same time, he’s very careful because he understands that he doesn’t want to see the results of Gaza in southern Beirut, Nabatieh, and Bint Jbeil. And he understands if we go to full war with Israel that would be the result,” added Amidror, who also served as a former national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Nasrallah said his group was involved in the war, he understands it “will be devastating for him and his people” if the conflict spreads, said Amidror. 

“So, he’s taking part in the war by making all these attacks in the north, and he succeeded in killing some Israelis from time to time, but he’s not ready to go to the big war in which … southern Beirut and other important places for the Shia community [will be destroyed],” noted Amidror.

Hizbullah is a more powerful and sophisticated military force than Hamas, with tens of thousands of highly trained fighters, an arsenal of more than 100,000 rockets, and a stock of precision-guided missiles that can strike sensitive targets deep inside Israel.

During his address, Nasrallah lashed out at the United States for its staunch support for Israel, accusing President Biden of dishonesty in telling Israel that it had the right to defend itself while respecting human rights.

“Empty talk! Hypocrisy!” Mr. Nasrallah boomed.

But despite its formidable military power, Sarfandi said that “Hizbullah is also political and has its responsibilities toward Lebanon first.”

He also said that the group was not intimidated by the two aircraft carriers that the United States had dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean, which could strike Hizbullah targets.

“Hizbullah is an organization that Israel knows how to destroy. The deterrence of the Americans is the Iranians and up until now, it works. They are ready to sacrifice Hizbullah and Hamas and the Houthi, but they are not ready to sacrifice Teheran,” said Amidror.

He acknowledged that the possibility of a regional war still existed. “In this region, you cannot exclude anything totally,” concluded Amidror.