Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday his fighters foiled last summer Israel's attempt to "open the western gate" to the U.S. planned New Middle East. Nasrallah, in an interview aired by Hizbullah's al-Manar Television, said Hizbullah's "victory" in that war "forced the Israeli army's chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz to resign his post before facing a committee of investigation that would recommend he be fired."
The war, according to Nasrallah, was staged by Israel upon instructions from the United States to "open the western gate to the New Middle East."
He added that the war was aimed at "forcing a major demographic change in Lebanon, not allowing residents of south Lebanon who fled the area to return to it … and changing Lebanon into mini states." That, according to Nasrallah, was supposed to be followed by "staging a war (by Israel) against Syria with the aim of partitioning it."
"Hizbullah, by defeating Israel in the war, closed the western gate to the new Middle East," he added.
Nasrallah also accused local Lebanese factions of "collaboration" with Israel before, during and after the war. "After the cessation of hostilities, local forces worked to prevent the return of the displaced citizens" to war-shattered villages in south Lebanon, Nasrallah stated.
Nasrallah predicted that Israeli Defense Minister Amir Petetz would also resign his post over the outcome of the summer war. He said it was "the first war that Israel has lost and failed to achieve its objectives."
He said the Israeli community was going through the most serious "crisis of confidence" in its history because of its army's "defeat" in the summer war. "Soldiers don't trust officers, officers don't trust the command, the command doesn't trust the political leadership (government) and the people do not trust the government," Nasrallah said.
