Now why didn't they bomb this? Wouldn't that take care of the majority of hizbullah idiots? I mean... can you think of any "innocent" people that would attend this rally?
Nasrallah appears in public for first time since Julywww.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1157913679699&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullHizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made his first public appearance since his group's war with Israel began July 12, taking the stage Friday before a gigantic rally in Beirut's bombed-out suburbs.
Hundreds of thousands of people packed a lot where guerrilla leader Nasrallah was expected to deliver a historic speech about his group's weapons.
The crowd roared with cheers as Nasrallah appeared waving to the crowd, flanked by his bodyguards, as an announcer said, "The leader has arrived."
Roads toward Lebanon's capital were jammed with cars and buses waving Hizbullah flags Friday, ahead of what was billed as the country's largest rally to showcase the group's insistence that it won't disarm. Hundreds of Hizbullah supporters from across south Lebanon began marching toward Beirut a day earlier.
Nasrallah will deliver a "landmark historic speech" about his group's weapons, Hizbullah spokesman Hussein Rahhal said. Nasrallah will outline "prospects for the next stage in Lebanon" and address international calls for his group's disarmament, as well as the deployment of UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon, which for years has been controlled by the militant group,
Rahhal told The Associated Press.
The UN-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between the guerrillas and Israel on August 14 calls for Hizbullah to eventually be stripped of its weapons, but Nasrallah has so far been defiant.
Meanwhile, Deputy-General Guy of the Givati Brigades currently patrolling southern Lebanon said Friday morning that even if Nasrallah attended the Hizbullah victory rally later that day, the IDF would not attempt to assassinate him.
"I don't think it is the correct thing to do, certainly not to the masses of people attending the rally who, although support Hizbullah, do not deserve to die," he said, adding that the IDF was unmoved by the victory march.
Hizbullah sources indicated that Nasrallah intended to attend the rally planned to showcase the group's insistence it won't disarm, Army Radio reported.
Nasrallah went into hiding on July 12, the start of the war, and has not been seen publicly since, though he has given interviews.
The defiant stance comes even as thousands of UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops fan out to shore up a five-week-old cease-fire between the militant group and Israel and is a worrying signal for the weak central government, which is trying to recover its authority.
The rally in the bombed-out southern suburbs of Beirut could attract hundreds of thousands, Hizbullah said.
Nasrallah announced Friday's rally to celebrate the "divine and historic victory" over Israel.
Nicolas Nassif, a political analyst at the daily Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is sympathetic to Hizbullah, wrote Thursday that Nasrallah was expected to speak and issue several important messages, most important of which was that the group would not disarm.
Butros Harb, a lawmaker who supports Prime Minister Faud Saniora's Western-backed government, said Hizbullah's refusal to disarm was unacceptable and expressed concern about the provocative nature of the rally.
"We can't have an illegal army at the heart of our state, all weapons must be held by the Lebanese government," he said.
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