{"id":49885,"date":"2024-10-30T08:36:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T16:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=49885"},"modified":"2024-10-30T08:36:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T16:36:35","slug":"not-for-long-says-israeli-defense-minister-after-hezbollah-names-new-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/30\/not-for-long-says-israeli-defense-minister-after-hezbollah-names-new-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Not for Long,&#8217; Says Israeli Defense Minister After Hezbollah Names New Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday on social media that Hezbollah&#8217;s pick of Naim Qassem to lead the Lebanon-based political and paramilitary group would be &#8220;temporary&#8221; \u2013 a remark seen by many as an assassination threat.<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah tapped Qassem, its longtime deputy chief, to lead the group following Israel&#8217;s <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israel-lebanon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">assassination<\/a> of former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last month.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Temporary appointment. Not for long,&#8221; Gallant <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/yoavgallant\/status\/1851245545550946513\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, in response to Hezbollah&#8217;s move.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Temporary appointment. <br \/>Not for long. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ONu0GveApi\">pic.twitter.com\/ONu0GveApi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \u05d9\u05d5\u05d0\u05d1 \u05d2\u05dc\u05e0\u05d8 &#8211; Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yoavgallant\/status\/1851245545550946513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The state of Israel&#8217;s official Arabic X account <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IsraelArabic\/status\/1851192685882683632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> Qassem&#8217;s &#8220;tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,&#8221; the account added.<\/p>\n<p>Since earlier this month, when Israeli forces <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israel-invades-lebanon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">launched a ground invasion<\/a> accompanied by a massive ongoing <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israel-bombing-lebanon-us-weapons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bombing campaign<\/a> against Lebanon, nearly 2,800 Lebanese have been killed and more than 12,700 others injured, the country&#8217;s Ministry of Health <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mophleb\/status\/1851338698434236696\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> Tuesday. The ministry added that 82 Lebanese have been killed and another 180 injured over the past 24 hours alone.<\/p>\n<p>Since shortly after October 7, 2023 \u2013 when Hamas led the deadliest single attack on <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/israel\">Israel<\/a> in its history \u2013 Hezbollah has been launching rockets and other projectiles at Lebanon&#8217;s southern neighbor, killing and wounding scores of Israelis.<\/p>\n<p>The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands is currently <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/icc-arrest-warrant-israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">weighing<\/a> whether to approve Prosecutor Karim Khan&#8217;s application for warrants to arrest Gallant \u2013 who responded to the Hamas-led attack by ordering a &#8220;<a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israel-blockade-gaza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complete siege<\/a>&#8221; of <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/gaza\">Gaza<\/a> that has been blamed for the starvation and sickening of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians \u2013 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Khan also <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/icc-arrest-warrants-israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sought<\/a> ICC arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, at least two of whom have been assassinated by Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Over 388 days, Israeli forces have killed at least 43,020 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. At least 101,100 others have been wounded. More than 10,000 Palestinians are also missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the ruins of Gaza. Almost everyone in the embattled Gaza Strip has been forcibly displaced, often multiple times.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to Gallant&#8217;s threat, Somali-Australian journalist Najat Abdi <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/theafroaussie\/status\/1851251374480314385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> on X that &#8220;the road to your arrest and The Hague won&#8217;t be long either, you genocidal war criminal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gallant&#8217;s remarks came amid <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/article\/ry1100fzagjx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reports<\/a> that Israeli and Hezbollah negotiators are &#8220;in the advanced stages&#8221; of hammering out cease-fire agreement that would lead to Israeli troops withdrawing from Lebanon, where they have been suffering high casualties at the hands of Hezbollah fighters.<\/p>\n<p>One important unanswered question is whether Hezbollah will accept a deal to end hostilities with Israel without a cease-fire in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p><i>Brett Wilkins is is staff writer for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\">Common Dreams<\/a>. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social justice, human rights and war and peace. This originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\">CommonDreams<\/a> and is reprinted with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday on social media that Hezbollah&#8217;s pick of Naim Qassem to lead the Lebanon-based political and paramilitary group would be &#8220;temporary&#8221; \u2013 a remark seen by many as an assassination threat. Hezbollah tapped Qassem, its longtime deputy chief, to lead the group following Israel&#8217;s assassination of former Secretary-General Hassan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-49885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"\"The road to your arrest and The Hague won't be long either, you genocidal war criminal,\" one observer retorted."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49885"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49891,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49885\/revisions\/49891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49885"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}