Irony and Hypocrisy

Nasrallah of Hizbollah says: "The most important thing this country
relies on is the army. They say that every country and nation creates for itself
an army, but Israel is an army for which a state has been built. Without a
strong army Israel would not be able to survive in the region."

One of the things that we Israelis have come to expect from our neighbors and from much of the world, is hypocrisy, often tinged with strong irony. Today's news out of Lebanon is no different. Nasrallah says that the most important thing we rely on is our army, and, to some extent, he is correct. If not for the army, surely Israel would have ceased to exist decades ago. From there, however, he loses his credibility fast.

The irony however, is that this man of great violence, this man who launched thousands of rockets against innocent civilians in Israel and sparked a war by sending in guerrillas to attack and kidnap Israeli soldiers, should accuse Israel of being a nation built to serve the purposes of its army.

But Nasrallah returns to truth when he says that without a strong army, Israel cannot survive in the region. For all that he is a man of hatred and violence, Nasrallah is often one who says what others know to be the truth, but are afraid to verbalize. His most accurate and telling quote to date may well be when he said:

"We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The
Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to
win because they love life and we love death."

For more Nasrallah quotes, see In Their Own Words: Nasrallah.