Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech showed that the terrorist leader will tell his followers whatever they want to hear, said Avi Issacharoff, Arab affairs correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth, in an interview with Udi Segal and Anat Davidov on Radio 103FM on Monday.
“Nasrallah claims the operation is over,” Issacharoff said. “He says that when they realize the damage was not significant, they will reconsider their next steps.”
Issacharoff added: “We don’t have to be geniuses to realize that when Hezbollah needs to meet the expectations of its supporters, it makes a victory speech claiming that they have defeated the enemy, but that is not the reality.”
“He cannot say, ‘We have failed.’ In a speech like this, he is not addressing Israel. He has given speeches where he has spoken directly to Israel. You could see the mockery on social media. This situation is not something Hezbollah can be proud of.”
Instead, Issacharoff said, Nasrallah “spoke to his supporters, his base. If he says, ‘We won,’ they will accept it without question. They will take it word for word.”
Prospects for a hostage deal
Regarding the negotiations on a hostage deal, Issacharoff noted: “The chances of progress are slim. Sinwar (the Hamas leader) is not thinking rationally. It is not as if he sees the serious damage in Gaza.”
“At the moment, Sinwar is behaving irrationally. His organization is suffering one military blow after another and the destruction in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic, but he does not care. His main concern is his personal survival,” he added.
Issacharoff also noted: “I do not think that the Prime Minister, on our part, is keen to achieve a ceasefire, mainly for political reasons.”
The Philadelphia Corridor
Regarding the Philadelphia Corridor, Issacharoff said: “If Israel withdraws from the Corridor for five or six weeks, nothing major will happen. You can always go back. The real question is whether anyone is willing to make a deal. There is a security risk here – nobody is naive – but what is the alternative? Is the prime minister willing to keep 109 hostages in order to stay in the Corridor?”
