As we sit down for our Friday Night Dinner,reflect for a few minutes on the conversation at this dinner table last night.
Syrian President Bashar Assad hosted Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah as well as Iranian leader Ahmadinajad for dinner in Damascus on Thursday night. The trio of terror-supporting leaders denounced Israel and America and discussed ways to aid “resistance groups.”
Prior to the three-way meeting, Nasrallah met with Ahmadinajad to discuss “the Israel threat to Lebanon and Syria,” according to the Hizbullah news service Al-Nahar. Hizbullah, the Shi'ite Muslim terrorist group based in southern Lebanon, who launched rockets into Israel and kidnapped Israeli soldiers Regev and Goldasser that resulted in the July 2006 Second Lebanon War, receives much of its financial and military support from Iran. This continues despite UN resolution 1701 calling for the disarmament of Hizbullah that ended the war in August 2006. Iran has been making up for arms used by Hizbullah during that war and Hizbullah's military might, according to Lt. Col. David Benjamin, who spoke at the Begin Center this week, is now stronger than that of most small nations.
Assad sat down with Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah just one day after United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Syria to distance itself from Iran. Ahmedinejad accused the U.S. of attempting to sever Iran-Syria ties in order to “dominate the region,” and said American diplomats should “pack their things and leave.”
Iran and Syria “have the same goals, same interests, and same enemies,” the Iranian president declared.
Ahmadinajad and Assad agreed to cancel visa restrictions between their countries. Assad told journalists that the trio discussed “Israeli crimes and how to deal with them, and how to assist the resistance forces.” “Resistance” is often used by Arab leaders as a euphemism for terrorism.
Still think "negotiation" with these people is the way forward?
Shabbat Shalom