Hezbollah’s ruling Shura Council on Tuesday announced the terrorists have chosen Naim Qassem to replace longtime dictator Hassan Nasrallah as leader of the jihadist organization and Lebanese political party.
Nasrallah’s three decades of power ended suddenly on September 27, when an Israeli bomb destroyed the bunker he was hiding in. Hezbollah’s first choice to replace Nasrallah, his cousin and lookalike Hashem Safieddine, was killed by an Israeli airstrike soon afterward, although his death was not officially confirmed until October 22.
Qassem became Hezbollah leader largely by the process of elimination, although the 71-year-old joined the terrorist group as a religious scholar soon after its founding and he has been one of its deputy leaders since 1991. He often addresses foreign media as one of Hezbollah’s top spokesmen.
Qassem has a few clear deficiencies as top leader, including a general lack of charisma, fewer advantageous family and political connections than Safieddine possessed, and lower religious status than Nasrallah and Safieddine. Those two wore black turbans, indicating they claimed to be descendants of Islam’s prophet Muhammad. Qassem wears a white turban, indicating he does not have descendant status.
Qassem has delivered three televised speeches since Nasrallah was eliminated. In a speech on October 8, he broached the possibility of negotiating a ceasefire with Israel, although he also claimed Hezbollah was devising a “new calculation” to inflict “pain” on the Israelis.
“The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness. If the Israelis do not want that, we will continue,” he threatened in a speech on October 15.
Despite this defiant rhetoric, observers noted Qassem’s offer of ceasefire negotiations came with no strings attached for the Palestinians and Gaza, a significant softening of the stance Hezbollah took before much of its leadership perished in a string of pager explosions, walkie-talkie explosions, and Israeli airstrikes.
The Israeli government suggested, through its Arabic-language Twitter account, that Qassem should probably focus on beefing up his ceasefire offers.
“His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine. There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,” said the Israeli response to Qassem’s appointment.
Israel’s military operation in Lebanon continued on Monday, including airstrikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley that killed at least sixty people, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The Bekaa Valley is a heavily militarized Hezbollah stronghold.
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IDFIsraeli strikes also hit the coastal city of Tyre on Monday, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned civilians to evacuate the city center. The Lebanese health ministry claimed 7 people were killed and 17 injured in the strikes.
Israel began its operation against Hezbollah on September 30 after almost a year of Hezbollah rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. The IDF has said its goal is to dismantle Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure with “limited, localized, targeted raids.”
