As ISIS consolidates its control of Palmyra, its latest prize, and extends its control to capture as much as half of Syria, Hezbollah is growing increasingly concerned – to the point that the terror group's chief Hassan Nasrallah over the weekend proclaimed the Sunni terror organization “as great an enemy as Israel.”

The rulers of the the Islamic State, Nasarallah said in a speech ahead of Monday's anniversary of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000., “are murderers and rapists, and destroy everything in their path. They kill hundreds of people at a time, as they just did in Tadmor (Palmyra), Their terror is unprecedented. This is a danger to everyone. No one should bury their heads in the sand. We invite everyone in Lebanon and the region to take responsibility and confront this danger and end their silence and hesitation and neutrality.

ISIS, in fact, is as “evil” as the Israelis, said Nasrallah, but the “forces of good” will be able to win the battle against ISIS, as they have against Israel, he said. “The nations of the region have already beat Israel and the United States. ISIS is not stronger than they are.”

The U.S. efforts against ISIS are useless, he said. “They have attacked ISIS far less over the past few months than Israel did in wars in Lebanon and Gaza.”

The only ones who can “defend” Lebanon, Nasrallah added, is Hezbollah. "We are fighting alongside our Syrian brothers, alongside the army and the people and the popular resistance in Damascus and Aleppo and Deir Ezzor and Qusayr and Hasakeh and Idlib," he said. "We are present today in many places and we will be present in all the places in Syria that this battle requires.

“We will remain here in south Lebanon. Our eyes are always directed at our main enemy, Israel, and we will not abandon that battle, but we must also conduct a second battle against ISIS. We will continue fighting Israel – the other issues will not divert our attention.”