"Hezbollah hasn't even mobilized all its active fighters, and the Israelis are calling their reserve units," he said. "When we defeated them in 2000 we did that with [Katyusha] rockets. We had six years to prepare for this day - the Americans are sending laser-guided missiles to the Israelis, what's wrong if the Iranians help us? When the Syrians were here we would get stuff through their supply lines, now it's more difficult."
The TV is blaring patriotic songs and pictures of destroyed bridges, houses, and buildings. The men are feeling confident - only a day earlier the Israelis suffered heavy casualties in the village of Bint Jbeil.
"Our strategy is to hit the commandos and the Golani units like we did in Bint Jbeil," Ali says. "Those are their best units. If they can't do anything, the morale of the reserve units will sink."
For Ali and his comrades, the latest conflict is a war of survival not only for Hezbollah but for the whole Shia community. It is not only as a war with Israel, their enemy for decades, but also with the Sunni community. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt have all expressed fears of Iranian domination over the Middle East.
"If Israel comes out victorious from this conflict, this will be a victory for the Sunnis and they will take the Shia community back in history dozens of years to the time when we were only allowed to work as garbage collectors in this country. The Shia will all die before letting this happen again."
He says that even if the international community calls on Hezbollah to disarm as part of a peace deal, he and his men will not lay down their arms. "This war is episode two in disarming Hezbollah. First they tried to do it through the Lebanese government and the UN. When they failed, the Americans asked the Israelis to do the job."
Despite Israel's claims to have inflicted heavy losses on Hezbollah, Ali insists his side is in a strong position. "Things are going very well now, whatever happens we are winning. If they keep bombing us we will stay in the shelters, and with each bomb more people support the resistance. If they invade they will repeat the miserable fate they had in 1982, and if they hold one square foot they will give the Islamic resistance all the legitimacy. If they want to kill Hezbollah they have to kill every Shia in the south of Lebanon."
And even when the battle with the Israelis is over, he adds menacingly, Hezbollah will have other battles to fight. "The real battle is after the end of this war. We will have to settle score with the Lebanese politicians. We also have the best security and intelligence apparatus in this country, and we can reach any of those people who are speaking against us now. Let's finish with the Israelis and then we will settle scores later."
Israel losing the war??
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Sad but true.
