Jerusalem trades barbs with Hezbollah as IAF head tries to convince Moscow that Israel can’t be blamed for loss of plane.
If Hezbollah dares confront Israel it will receive an unimaginable blow, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as Jerusalem’s crisis with Moscow over Syria’s downing of a Russian plane triggered an unusual “war of words” with terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Speaking on Thursday at a Bible study group that he holds a several times a year at his residence, Netanyahu referred to comments Nasrallah made earlier in the day that Hezbollah already has the precision missiles Israel is trying to prevent Iran from transferring via Syria.
“I heard the words that came from the direction of Hezbollah, and they came from the same person who said after [the Second Lebanon War in] 2006 that if he knew what Israel’s response would have been to the kidnapping of our soldiers [Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev], he would have considered twice whether to do so. So today I recommend he think not twice, but 20 times, because if he confronts us, he will get a blow that he cannot even imagine.”
Nasrallah claimed on Thursday that the balance of power between the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group and Israel has “changed,” and that the group has accurate missiles that would be used in the next conflict.
“All your attempts to prevent Hezbollah from possessing accurate missiles are foiled,” Nasrallah said in a speech via video to Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb to mark the Shi’ite holiday of Ashura. “We have accurate missiles that if used in any future war will change the entire equation.
“No matter what you do to cut the route, the matter is over and the resistance possesses precision and non-precision rockets and weapons capabilities,” he said.
While Nasrallah frequently boasts of what he claims is his organization’s potential, it is rare – though not unprecedented – for Netanyahu to respond to his remarks.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post