Addressing his followers via video this month, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
delivered a forceful diatribe against months-long negotiations between Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....and Israel over a permanent agreement that would entail the disarmament of his Iran-backed terror group.
The August 14 speech, marking the 20th anniversary of Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel, saw Qassem sharply castigating the Lebanese government for, he said, failing to stand up for the country and caving to Israeli demands.
Even the Israelis think Beirut is rolling over, he said, quoting from one of Israel’s most widely circulated newspapers to drive his point home.
"Listen to this passage by a Jewish thinker named Moshe Yair in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper," Qassem told his tens of thousands of followers. "This passage is from after the second round [of negotiations]... ’Fortunately for us, [the Lebanese] sent a delegation that loves Israel and the United States.’"
There is just one problem: the journalist and thinker Moshe Yair does not appear to exist, neither at Yedioth nor any other Israeli publication.
The speech was far from the first time the phantom Israeli writer has been cited in Arabic or pro-Iranian discourse, though he more often purportedly goes by "Moshe Meir."
Supposed writings of "Moshe Yair/Meir" about Israelis fleeing the country by the millions or talking up the strength of Hezbollah have been cited repeatedly in the past year by anti-Israel commentators and news outlets, according to a report by the anti-Hezbollah Al Jadeed network and subsequent online research by The Times of Israel.
While the false attributions have pinged around certain corners of social media and the internet, Qassem’s speech appeared to be the most high-profile use of the contrivance yet.
His citation of a made-up quote in an official speech may not have been deliberate, but it likely reflects a broader willingness — and not only by Qassem — to use misleading or false information as a propaganda tool to reinforce narratives that serve his and other terrorist organizations.
A TOOL FOR CRITICIZING ISRAEL
Websites and social media accounts sympathetic to the Iran-led "Axis of Resistance®," which includes Hezbollah, have on several occasions attributed purported quotes to the Israeli journalist "Moshe Meir" in an apparent effort to lend Israeli credibility to their denunciations of the Jewish state.
On April 4, a quote from "strategic thinker" Moshe Meir appeared on an X account called al-Machhad al-Alami, which presents itself as an independent news outlet but regularly publishes anti-Israel and anti-American content supportive of Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
and the Axis of Resistance®. (The account appears to have no relation to the Dubai-based al-Mashhad media outlet.)
"People [Israelis] are fleeing by the millions because Netanyahu destroyed us. It was not Iran’s missiles or Hezbollah’s operations that destroyed us — he [Netanyahu] destroyed us," the purported quote read.
The post was used to bolster a narrative depicting Israel as being in a state of severe internal crisis.
Days earlier, al-Raed, an Arabic-language news site that carries content supportive of Iran and Hezbollah, published an article citing the same supposed Israeli figure. It carried a nearly identical message, again depicting Israel as a country whose population was fleeing en masse.
"Settlers are leaving by the millions — including [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] wife and son — to the point that most cities and neighborhoods have become empty," the purported quote read. "Most have left the country never to return, and some have completely liquidated their assets... Some are heading to Argentina
...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita...
so that they can have a ’promised state’ there."