Hizbullah Cheers Olmert's Speech

Following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet speech on Sunday, in which he said that “the notion of a Greater Israel no longer exists” and exhorted the nation to forget its dreams for the entirety of its ancient heartland, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, chief of the Lebanon-based Hizbullah terrorist group, celebrated the news that <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel’s prime minister had conceded defeat.

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Olmert said in the speech that he “used to believe that everything from the Jordan River bank to the Mediterranean Sea was ours.” Now, however, "the notion of a Greater no longer exists, and anyone who still believes in it is deluding himself."

While calling for Israel to withdraw to the west of the Judea-Samaria security fence, a move that faces stiff opposition from a large portion of Jews in Israel, Olmert said, “A day will come, probably sooner than some are willing to admit, that all of us will be willing to embrace the same solutions that some of us are rejecting right now.”

Nasrallah, meanwhile, took Olmert’s abandonment of a chunk of the 2,000-year-old Zionist dream as a clear sign of victory for Hizbullah and Islamic terror groups worldwide. "The Lebanese resistance pounded the last nail in the coffin of 'Greater Israel' after the defeat [Israel] suffered in 2000," proclaimed Nasrallah Tuesday.

Speaking following the nightly break of the Ramadan fast days, the terror chief said, “The victories of 2000 and 2006 destroyed the dream of a vast Israeli power. The mighty Israel fell in the last war, and it has now become as the Arabs once were – making speeches and threats.

Mediocre Israel

Nasrallah described a defeated and diminished Jewish state, forced to give up its land piece by piece. “Today we face 'Mediocre Israel.'

"The first Israel is the vast one stretching from the Nile and to the Euphrates,” said the Hizbullah head, referring to the promise given by G-d to Abraham in the Torah. He then described a “strong Israel, which does not include Lebanon and Jordan but settles for historic Palestine, but it is a strong country that forces its decisions on the region.”

Finally, referring to the current direction of the State of Israel, he said that “there is 'regular Palestine,' the borders of which are unknown.

"The Palestinians sought autonomy in Gaza and the West Bank, however the events that transpired after the Intifada and opposition in Israel forced it to withdraw from Gaza,” said Nasrallah, suggesting that the staggering loss of Jewish life in the latest wave of terror attacks led to “opposition” in Israel that pressured the government to abandon its claim on Jewish land.

“This is a withdrawal from the borders of 'natural Palestine," said the terror chief, hinting that in withdrawing from lands that he believes belong to Arabs, Israel is acknowledging the “natural” right to a Palestinian Authority state, a state that will ultimately comprise everything between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.