Very interesting what Nasrallah DIDN’T mention or say: no condemnation of the Moqdad abductions as many had expected or were hoping for. No call for the release of the hostages, nothing, only shifting responsibility away from Hizbullah by declaring “it’s outside of our control” while laying blame on the media for the community’s outrage. In fact, Nasrallah launched an unprecedentedly scathing attack on Lebanese media for inciting the families of the 11 hostages in Syria with lies about their deaths which in turn, triggered the recent developments. This will definitely worry Turkey and the FSA who may have been banking on Hizbullah taking a tougher stand on the Moqdadi kidnapping phenomenon. Most likely Hizbullah knows it can contain a sectarian escalation should matters reach that point, hence its seemingly neutral stand vis-a-vis the kidnappings of FSA. There may also be an awareness that the abductions may succeed in securing the release of the Lebanese pilgrims where other efforts have failed (i.e. Hariri’s mediation with the Turks).
Regarding Israel, Nasrallah insinuated that chemical depots would be targets in any future war with Israel when he said :”We cannot destroy Israel but there are some targets I wont name in occupied Palestine, which can be targeted with a small number of missiles. I’d like to tell them we know of a number of targets, not a high number because we do not need a high number. And we have the missiles and they are ready and hidden…..We, Hezbollah, with our capabilities I cannot say that we can destroy Israel, but I can say that we can turn the lives of millions of Israelis in occupied Palestine into a living hell.”
Very important to note how this changes the previous equation of striking Tel Aviv if Israel attacks Beirut and Haifa for Dahyeh, and even the modified equation of Tel Aviv for Dahyeh. The new equation is if you attempt to “destroy Lebanon” [as Israeli officials have recently threatened], we will attack sensitive chemical targets that will cause mass destruction effecting hundreds of thousands of lives and which will cause “tens of thousands” of fatalities rather than the “few hundred” Israeli officials were boasting of.
