JERUSALEM: A member of Israel's security cabinet warned Hezbollah yesterday not to "test" Israel, after the leader of the Lebanese Shia movement hailed the resignation of Israel's military chief of staff.
"Israel will know how to draw its conclusions about this war, and I advise (Hassan) Nasrallah not try to put Israel to the test again," Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told army radio.
Lieutenant General Dan Halutz stepped down on Tuesday, shouldering the blame for Israel's failure to achieve its objectives in a 34-day war against Hezbollah last year that devastated southern Lebanon.
"When I heard the news, I was happy," Nasrallah said.
"We were expecting this moment. Since the end of the war we had been expecting Halutz to resign and (Defence Minister Amir) Peretz and (Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert to follow him," he added.
"Any of them that don't resign will be forced out." Nasrallah also said: "It's the first war that Israel has lost and in which it's failed to achieve its objectives."
Halutz, Peretz and Olmert have been under political attack for failing to prosecute the mid-summer war successfully.
Israel achieved neither of its two main goals in the conflict – the recovery of two soldiers whose July capture by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid touched off the war and destroying Hezbollah's ability to fire rockets on the Jewish state.
Responding to Nasrallah, Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said Halutz had "succeeded in restoring calm on our northern border (with Lebanon) and of allowing a international force to be deployed in southern Lebanon." - AFP |
