Nasrallah uses hate for Israel to gain support while Khamenei tramples Israeli flag

From Now Lebanon last Friday:

Hezbollah’s leader directly linked his party’s military campaign in Syria on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime to the Palestinian cause, further claiming that all opponents of Iran oppose Palestine as well.

“The road to Jerusalem passes through Qalamoun, Daraa, Hasakeh and other [Syrian battlefields],” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday in a speech delivered on the occasion of Quds Day, an event created by Iran in 1979 to celebrate opposition to Israel.

The line echoed then Palestine Liberation Organization deputy chief Salah Khalaf's famous statement during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War that “the road to Jerusalem passes through Jounieh,” in reference to the organization’s fight at the time with Christian militias.

Nasrallah’s comments come as his party’s fighters are engaged in fierce fighting in the Syrian border town of Zabadani, where Hezbollah and Syrian regime troops have suffered mounting losses.

The Hezbollah chief also trumpeted Iran’s role in the region, saying that the Islamic Republic was the only state that posed an existential threat to Israel.

“After God, Iran is the only remaining hope to free Palestine,” he said, admitting that while his party poses a strategic threat to Israel, it could not destroy their archrivals.

“If you are an enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, then you are an enemy of Palestine.”

Other excerpts from the speech show that Nasrallah is really trying hard to use hate for Israel as a rallying cry for Arab support of Iran in Syria. "If Syria was lost, Palestine would be lost too," he stated.

Nasrallah tried also to conflate Saudi Arabia with Jews, saying "the road to Jerusalem also goes through Yemen; Saudi Arabia must stop its aggression."

Arabs on social media were scathing. One tweeted back, "You and your masters in Tehran have killed more Syrian children and women in five years than Zionists have killed in 60 years."

Another commenter said, "Iran is looking for Jerusalem in Iraq, and Hezbollah are looking for it in Zabadani, Houthis are looking for it in Aden. Brilliant geographers."

Meanwhile, Nasrallah's leader Ayatollah Khamenei displayed this photo of him trampling an Israeli flag on his website: