Shimon Peres, Israeli Vice-Premier
From a speech at a special session of the Knesset
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Hizbullah has been revealed as a body acting against Lebanon. They are there to mock the Lebanese government. They have humiliated their army and have made the Lebanese army useless. They have shaken the stability of Lebanon and now are destroying her economy. Hizbullah serves a foreign army and is financed, trained and armed by Iran. They are subject to their authority – an authority that intends to impose Iranian hegemony on the region instead of Arab unity. Hizbullah has been condemned by a majority of the countries in the world, and publicly for the first time, by the Arab states. They are an embarrassment to the religion in whose name they fight, transforming it from a faith into hatred, a murderous, revengeful hatred that violates human rights. Morally, the Hizbullah has already lost. They will also lose militarily.
