Part of the ongoing work of the MEMRI TV Project is to monitor statements by leading terrorist organizations such as Al-Qa'ida and Hizbullah. This includes the recent appearance of Ayman Al-Zawahiri on Al-Jazeera on February 20, 2005. To view this clip, visit http://memritv.org/clip/en/565.htm.
The following are excerpts from two speeches by Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Al-Manar TV aired these speeches on February 18 and 19, 2005. [1] For more clips from MEMRI TV visit www.memritv.org
Speech One
Hassan Nasrallah:"Israel is our enemy. This is an aggressive, illegal, and illegitimate entity, which has no future in our land. Its destiny is manifested in our motto: 'Death to Israel.'"
- Crowd:" Death to Israel"
- "Death to Israel"
- "Death to Israel"
- "Death to Israel"
- "Death to Israel"
Hassan Nasrallah: "The American administration is behind Israel. I must clarify that when I say 'America' I do not mean the American people, most of whom are distant and ignorant of what is going on in the world, and of what its government and army are doing in the world. Nevertheless, we consider the current administration an enemy of our [Islamic] nation and of the peoples of our nation, because it has always taken a position of aggression, of occupation, and of supporting Israel with weapons, airplanes, tanks, money, as well as political support, and unlimited protection.
"We consider it to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate our governments, our regimes, and our peoples. Because it is the greatest plunderer our treasures, our oil, and our resources, while millions in our nation suffer unemployment, poverty, hunger, unmarriagability, ignorance, darkness, and so on. America… This American administration is an enemy. Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: 'Death to America.'"
- Crowd: "Death to America"
- "Death to America"
- "Death to America"
- "Death to America"
- "Death to America"
- "Death to America"
Hassan Nasrallah: "Some people may wonder and say: 'Is there no end to this hostility?' Yes, there is an an end. If the Zionists leave our lands and holy places and give them back to their owners, this conflict will come to an end. If America stops interfering in our countries' and nation's affairs, stops its aggression, stops its occupation, stops it's plundering of our resources and treasures, we will have no problem with it. We don't want to go to Washington to fight America. We are defending our countries and our existence.
"Any rift, civil strife, disintegration, or dispersion in any Arab or Islamic country, or in the entire nation, serves our Zionist enemy and its plan of hegemony, and serves the Great Satan – the American administration, whose main concern is to control our oil, our treasures, our resources, and our markets. [They want us] to become millions of slaves who eat and drink but are living dead, devoid of honor, respect, and existence."
Speech Two
Hassan Nasrallah:"How can death become joyous? How can death become happiness? When Al-Hussein asked his nephew Al-Qassem, when he had not yet reached puberty: 'How do you like the taste of death, son?' He answered that it was sweeter than honey. How can the foul taste of death become sweeter than honey? Only through conviction, ideology, and faith, through belief, and devotion.
"We do not want to live merely in order to eat, drink, and enjoy life's pleasures, and leave our homeland to Israel so it will slaughter it upon the altar of its aspirations, desires, hate, and historic vendettas. Therefore, we are not interested in our own personal security. On the contrary, each of us lives his days and nights hoping more than anything to be killed for the sake of Allah.
"The most honorable death is to be killed, as the Leader Imam Al-Khamenei said when 'Abbas [Musawi] was martyred. He said: 'Congratulations to 'Abbas, congratulations to 'Abbas.' The most honorable death is death by killing, and the most honorable killing and the most glorious martyrdom is when a man is killed for the sake of Allah, by the enemies of Allah, the murderers of the prophets [i.e. the Jews]."
[1] Al-Manar TV (Lebanon), February 18-19, 2005. See MEMRI TV Clip No. 566, http://memritv.org/clip/en/566.htm.
