Yesterday we learned that the leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, would be giving a major speech today to address the conflict in Gaza. This would be his first public speech on the topic and it was generally considered to be a potential turning point. If Nasrallah announced a full scale attack on Israel, that would be a significant second front in the war. Nasrallah spoke this morning and while he did a lot of shouting and made some threats, he stopped short of expanding the war.

Although Mr. Nasrallah did not discount the possibility of a wider war that could draw in Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias across the region, his general message was that Hezbollah was already doing enough…

Early in the speech, Mr. Nasrallah said of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that no battle was more justified from a religious and moral perspective “than the battle with these Zionists.” He suggested that a “great event” had been needed to restore the Palestinian cause as “the number one issue in the world.”

Mr. Nasrallah lashed out at the United States for its staunch support for Israel, accusing President Biden of dishonesty in telling Israel that it had the right to defend itself but had to respect human rights. “Empty talk! Hypocrisy!” Mr. Nasrallah boomed.

Nasrallah claimed Hezbollah had been involved in the battle since Oct. 8 but also claimed that Hezbollah had not been aware of the attack by Hamas in advance. It went on like this. Lots of anti-US posturing but not much else.

Nasrallah also said that Hezbollah, an ally of Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, is not deterred by U.S. warnings to stay out of the latest war. Referring to U.S. military deployment in the region, he said American warships in the Mediterranean Sea “will not scare us.”

Hamas leaders have been pushing — sometimes publicly — for Hezbollah to widen its involvement in the Mideast war. Nasrallah met last week in Beirut with senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri and with Ziad Nakhaleh of the allied group Islamic Jihad.

However, Hezbollah officials have avoided publicly setting a specific red line, saying vaguely that they would join the war if they see that Hamas is on the verge of defeat. So far, Hezbollah has taken calculated steps to keep Israel’s military busy on its border with Lebanon, but not to the extent of igniting an all-out war.

One of the main threats he made in the speech was essentially defensive, i.e. if the US dares to assault Lebanon, then Hezbollah would engage in an all out war. Here’s a brief clip to give you an idea how much shouting was involved.

We assure you, to the enemy we say, if you think to assault Lebanon, or take a preemptive strike against Lebanon, it will be the biggest act of foolishness in the history of your existence pic.twitter.com/LImKqkLTLN

— حسن نصر الله (@SH_NasrallahEng) November 3, 2023

But the bottom line here is that Hezbollah isn’t eager to make themselves Israel’s enemy at the moment. Ben Shapiro labeled the speech “lip service.”

Nasrallah's speech seems to be Iranian lip service to Hamas. Which makes sense, since at the end of all of this, Hamas will be gone, and Iran does not wish Hezbollah to join them.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 3, 2023

A pretty clever way to sum up the speech:

OK, turning this off now. Top line is: Nasrallah has disappointed at least half of Columbia's student directory.

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) November 3, 2023

Yashar Ali had a similar reaction:

I’m not kidding when I say that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech today was less inflammatory than some of those made on US college campuses in the past few weeks.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 3, 2023

Here’s the full speech with an English translation via Al Jazeera. It lasted about 30 minutes and this clip also features the reaction of the large crowd watching this in Beirut.

⭕ LIVE: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers his first public speech since the start of Israel's war on Gaza. https://t.co/FJrtaayneM https://t.co/cWeU3Ol4T1

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 3, 2023

Finally, here’s a bit of Israel’s response to the speech.

Israeli government spokesman @EylonALevy responds to Nasrallah's recent speech with an epic takedown. It's important that you listen to this. pic.twitter.com/IGeubK271l

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) November 3, 2023