Sheikh Naim Qassem cited Jewish intellectual Moshe Ya'ir to criticize the Lebanese state and its negotiating delegation, claiming that an article he supposedly published in Yediot Ahronoth said that the Lebanese "are helping Israel, in their stupidity, to rid itself of the resistance and occupy their country."
We found no trace of Ya'ir's article in Yediot Ahronoth, nor any Hebrew source matching what Qassem read. However, the same Arabic text was published on a Lebanese website on June 10, about 16 days before the signing of the framework agreement. It is most likely that the Israeli intellectual Qassem summoned to serve as evidence of the Lebanese state's alleged betrayal in its own quarters is simply a local creation.
Originally, Moshe Ya'ir is not an incidental figure in the history of Hezbollah: he is the legitimate child of the pleasure of fabricating illusions, then the pleasure of consuming them, and finally the pleasure of believing them.
It began with mobilizing slogans that turned into a "theory for ruling a country": the eye resisting the needle; blood conquering the sword; as fragile as a spider's web; we know Israel better than it knows itself; if the Lebanese disagree with us, they do not know their own interests.
It is the same theory that transformed Israel's withdrawal in 2000 from a national station into a Cartesian political property deed: "We expelled Israel, therefore we are the resistance; we are the resistance, therefore we control the decision of war and peace; we control the decision of war and peace, therefore the state is merely a detail."
By the same theory, Hezbollah emerged from July 2006 declaring a "divine victory." From then on, the balance of profit and loss was no longer necessary: as long as Hezbollah remained ensconced on our chests, it was victorious. Thus, massacres became victories, the apparatus of destruction became steadfastness, and May 8 became a glorious day.
Qassem in a televised appearance. (Annahar Archive)
"The problem is always with others, and the solution is always more resistance".., This is Hezbollah's doctrine, which did not waver when weapons entered inside, when they were directed at Syrians, and when the party became part of a ruling system that impoverished the Lebanese.
The inflation of power reached figures deserving of a special stock exchange: in 2021, the late Hassan Nasrallah announced 100,000 fighters on his right and 150,000 missiles on his left, promising surprises unknown to the enemy and heralding equations that would change the region.
The illusion swelled, and Hezbollah's opponents lived for years in fear of its strength, while its allies lived off investing in that fear. Hezbollah watched the circle close: "We invented absolute strength, they feared it, their fear is proof that absolute strength exists."
Today, the paradox is even more blatant. The Lebanese state, with all its weakness and mistakes, is trying to reclaim land, return hundreds of thousands of Southerners to their homes, and secure an Israeli withdrawal through politics and negotiations. What does the party offer in return? Bluster and accusations of treason.
Qassem knows that the Lebanese do not believe him, so when he needed an argument to condemn the state, he found nothing but an Israeli fabrication. Ya'ir was exposed, and the last layers of illusion appeared: armies of electronic accounts ready to justify anything.
Even if "Professor Shlomo Netanyahuich" appears tomorrow in Maariv, writing that handing over Hezbollah's weapons would cause Saturn to appear at high noon, you will find those who confirm that a witness testified from among his own people, or that this man is a prominent strategic expert feared by Mossad.
Thank you, Moshe Ya'ir, for summing up in your name the story of a party that spent decades telling us, "Do not believe what you see, but believe what we tell you," only to end with its secretary-general seeking your assistance. It is resistance in its surreal era.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Annahar.
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