In a speech in southern Lebanon this evening (Thursday), Iran’s President Ahmadinejad stated that “the world should know that eventually the Zionists will be forced to go and will not last long. They are enemies of humanity and will have no choice but to surrender. Palestine will be liberated through the force of faith,” he added.

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Ahmadinejad chose to make his address at Bint Jbeil, where fierce battles took place between Israeli and Hezbollah forces back in 2006. His visit there followed a mass Shi’ite rally in Beirut last night, which Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, addressed by video link from his secret hide-out.

Nasrallah praised Lebanon for having become “the university of jihad” and stated, with respect to Israel, that “the Iranian and the Palestinian plan is that the entire land from the (Mediterranean) sea to the river (Jordan) will return to its owners.”

Hezbollah’s rivals in the fragile Lebanese unity government accuse Ahmadinejad of trying to transform Lebanon into an Iranian base on the Mediterranean. Given the close ties that already exist between Iran and the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel finds herself facing Iranian backed forces intent upon her destruction on both her northern and southern borders.

Those who call for an ending of Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip would do well to consider what the consequences of such an act would be.