The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group on Sunday warned Jews living in Israel to leave the country as soon as possible before a destructive war between the Jewish state and his organization takes place.
Hassan Nasrallah, speaking to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashura, said that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was leading the region toward a devastating war.
Addressing “non-Zionist Jews,” Nasrallah said, “I call on anyone who came to occupied Palestine to leave it and return the lands you came from, so you will not be the fuel for any war waged by your foolish government.”
He said Hezbollah’s conflict is not with the Jewish people but with the Zionist government of Israel, seemingly offering those who do not support the political ideology of Israel as a Jewish homeland the opportunity to flee before armed conflict begins.
Nasrallah warned that “Netanyahu’s government is leading your people to devastation and destruction,” and added that the Israeli prime minister was “trying to lead the region into war in Syria and Lebanon.”
The leader of the terror group, who frequently boasts that his forces are ready for another round of conflict with Israel, said Israel’s military has not correctly assessed Hezbollah’s military might.
“Netanyahu and his government do not know how the war will end if they start one, and they do not have an accurate picture of what to expect should they embark on the folly of war,” Nasrallah said.
Israeli officials have warned Hezbollah that it would be devastated if it tests Israel in a war, as tensions have risen over the group establishing a foothold in southern Lebanon and southern Syria along with Iran.
Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of between 100,000 and 150,000 short-, medium- and long-range missiles and a fighting force of some 50,000 soldiers, including reservists.
A Hezbollah commander said last month that the group has more than 10,000 fighters in southern Syria ready to confront Israel.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Sunday of pushing the region to war in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and said nowhere in Israel would be safe if such a conflict were to erupt.
Tensions have risen this year between Iran-backed Hezbollah and its arch enemy Israel, which last fought a major conflict in 2006. Israel has said it would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah.
In a speech to followers, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli government did not have “a correct assessment of where this war will lead if they ignite it”, and did not know how it would end.
“They do not have a correct picture about what is awaiting them if they go to the idiocy of this war,” Nasrallah said.
Israel does not know where such a conflict would be fought, or who would take part, he added.
In June, Nasrallah said a future Israeli war against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan.
Israel is concerned by Tehran’s steadily increasing influence in the region during the six-year-old Syrian conflict, whether via its own Revolutionary Guard forces or the groups it backs, especially Hezbollah.
Nasrallah was speaking on Sunday on the occasion of Ashura, when Shi‘ites commemorate the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, the Imam Hussein, at Kerbala in 680.
He called on Jews who emigrated to Israel to “leave and return to the countries from which they came so they are not fuel for any war that the idiotic Netanyahu government takes them to”.
Were war to erupt, he added, they might not have long to leave. “They will have no secure place in occupied Palestine,” he said.
Police said at least 50 people were detained Saturday during a right-wing demonstration in Sweden’s second-largest city that left one police officer and several others injured.
The rally by the Nordic Resistance Movement in Gothenburg, 400 kilometers (248 miles) southwest of Stockholm, featured an estimated 600 people marching in formation in all-black outfits. Some wore helmets and held shields, while others hoisted the movement’s green-and-white flags.
Police had posted flyers before the event warning people not to act in a way reminiscent of German Nazis demonstrations in the 1930s and 1940s.
NMR, which promotes an openly anti-Semitic doctrine, originally sought to pass near a downtown synagogue during the march, which coincided with Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day of the year. But Swedish courts intervened and shortened the route to less than one kilometer (0.6 mile.) The rally’s ending time also was shortened to avoid clashing with a nearby soccer game.
People affiliated with the Nordic Resistance Movement were responsible for anti-Semitic threats that led to the shuttering in April of the Jewish community center in Umea, a city in northeastern Sweden, according to Stutzinsky.
“The threat against us is always large, and it becomes even larger when they are marching,” Stutzinsky told JTA, adding that left-wing counter protesters may also be a threat to Jews.
Swedish Jews face anti-Semitism both from the nationalist far right as well as the far left, whose strong criticism of Israel sometimes veers into anti-Semitism.
Stutzinsky said the planned march did not represent an isolated incident.
“One would have thought that World War II was an effective vaccination against anti-Semitism. But it didn’t last that long, now it’s back again,” he said.
“We have anti-Semitism here again like in the 1930s. We thought Europe had learned its lesson, but that’s apparently not the case.”
The United Nations has sent letters to 150 companies that operate in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights, threatening to add them to the their “blacklist” of firms that enable or benefit from the growth of Israeli settlements. The blacklist relies on intimidation tactics, as the UN would not be able to enforce a boycott of the Israeli companies listed on their blacklist. However, the UN “stamp of approval” is already influencing international companies to avoid direct or indirect transactions with Israeli companies.
In March, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) voted in favor (32 nations in favor and 15 abstentions) of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Act of 2017, which entails creating a “blacklist” of companies, the full list of which will be published this December. The blacklist includes major American corporations like Airbnb, Caterpillar, Priceline.com, and TripAdvisor as well as Israeli companies such as Coca-Cola Israel, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bezeq, and Egged.
Out of the 150 companies that received letters, half are Israeli, 30 American, and the rest include countries such as Germany, South Korea, and Norway.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein began sending the letters in early September. According to senior Israeli officials and Western diplomats, as reported byHaaretz, the letters requested responses from the companies detailing their business activities in Israeli settlements.
An anonymous Israeli official noted that the letters stated the companies were doing business in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and are thus violating “internal law and UN decisions.”
But the blacklist, even if published, would not be enforceable. The UN Human Rights Council, unlike the UN Security Council, does not have the authority to impose sanctions on companies doing business in Judea Samaria, to limit settlement activity, or to enforce disciplinary measures. Unless the UN Security Council adopts a similar measure, the blacklist is merely intimidation tactics.
Utilizing fear tactics against Israel is not new for the United Nations, as the international body has slapped Israel with over 45 resolutions since 2013, and since its creation, has condemned Israel almost more than rest of the world combined.
Senior Israeli officials report that Israeli companies are concerned of “divestment or scaled down business due to the blacklist.” A number of companies have, since receiving the letter, capitulated to its demands and responded to the human rights commissioner by saying that they will not renew contracts or sign new ones in Israel as a whole.
The officials said, “These companies just can’t make the distinction between Israel and the settlements and are ending their operations altogether. Foreign companies will not invest in something that reeks of political problems – this could snowball.”
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