On June 25, members of Hamas, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, illegally invaded sovereign Israeli territory, kidnapped an Israeli soldier, and killed two others. Less than a month later, on July 12, members of Hizballah invaded sovereign Israeli territory and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others.

These unprovoked cross-border attacks killing and kidnapping soldiers came despite Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last summer and its withdrawal in 2000 from Lebanon, a move certified by the United Nations.

Both Hamas and Hizballah, which are backed financially and morally by Iran, would like the world to believe that this war is about land and occupation. However, the facts indicate otherwise. Rather, the conflict is about the desire of Israel’s enemies to drive it into the sea. They oppose not what the Israelis do, but who they are and their very existence.

If the unprovoked attacks on Israeli territory are not enough evidence to demonstrate their true intentions, then the words of Israel’s enemies should prove them definitively.

Hizballah terrorists are trained by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and use Iranian supplied rockets to attack Israel. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has referred to Israel as a “rotten, dried tree” that would collapse in “one storm.” “We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot logically continue to live,” he said in April. And in November 2005, at a conference entitled “The World Without Zionism,” he spoke even more starkly: “Israel must be wiped off the map.”

Long before the current war, Hizballah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah spoke out against peace with Israel and boasted of Hizballah’s ability to fire rockets at Israel. In July 2005, he stated, “Disarming Hizballah will lead to a situation where Lebanon could sign a peace agreement with Israel. This is a very negative thing as far as we are concerned.” In May 2005, he claimed, “I acknowledge that for many years – since 1992, to be precise – the resistance has had a significant and respectable missile capability, both in quantity and quality. Therefore, I can tell you that the north of occupied Palestine is entirely within the range of the missiles of the Lebanese resistance.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has also spoken in favor of violence against Israel. In January 2006, in the wake of Hamas’ landslide electoral victory, he asserted his unwavering commitment to Hamas’ founding principles: “The constants and the strategy of Hamas do not change according to circumstances. Hamas will stay faithful to jihad, to resistance, to guns, to Palestine and to Jerusalem. … Hamas will enter the Palestinian legislative council on the platform of resistance.” He also claimed, “Hamas will be active in the resistance as well as in parliament in the political domain. There is no contradiction.”

The words spoken by these terrorist leaders need to be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, today Israelis in northern Israel and along the border with Gaza are bearing the brunt of these words of hatred. It should be clear that these terrorist groups are not interested in land, but the destruction of Israel. Like any sovereign country, Israel has the right to defend itself against aggressors who threaten to destroy it.

The world should expect nothing less.