Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem says the group will continue its resistance and reject disarmament as long as Israel’s occupation and attacks persist.
Naim Qassem said Hezbollah does not concern itself with who governs Israel. (AFP pic)
BEIRUIT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Wednesday the Iran-backed Lebanese movement was not concerned with the results of Israel’s election, vowing to continue its “resistance” against the neighbouring country no matter who wins.
With 85% of ballots counted, the right-wing bloc of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a slight lead over the main opposition bloc, but was still short of a majority after Tuesday’s election.
“We do not concern ourselves with who governs Israel, but let it be perfectly clear that it cannot continue its occupation and must leave our land,” Qassem said in a written statement.
“The resistance will continue… and will stand up to the aggression directed against it and against Lebanon, and there is no room to discuss the disarmament” of Hezbollah “as long as the occupation persists and its aggression continues”, he added.
The group, which once dominated political life in Lebanon, has been weakened by two wars it waged against Israel since 2023.
In June, Lebanese and Israeli authorities signed a framework agreement which involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory, and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the area.
But Israel continues to carry out sporadic strikes and demolitions in and around the territory it occupies, while Hezbollah refuses to submit to government plans to disarm it.
Michigan could elect the first Muslim senator in US history after a campaign shaped by extraordinary outside spending, attacks on Islam and a fierce argument over Gaza.
The Michigan Senate race between the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, and his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, is this year’s most important election.
It’s significant on a number of levels, not the least of which is that El-Sayed is an Arab American Muslim of Egyptian descent. Prior to this, there have been four Arab Americans elected to the US Senate – former Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME), James Abourezk (D-SD), James Abdnor (R-SD), and John Sununu (R-NH) – none of them Muslim.
If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim in the Senate. This is a breakthrough that hasn’t been lost on Republicans and President Trump, who have made a determined effort to exploit it at every turn. They’ve done TV ads alleging that El-Sayed’s mother was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s. The problem with this charge is that El-Sayed’s parents separated when he was three; she moved back to Egypt and he grew up with his father in Michigan. But when using slanderous attacks to tarnish a candidate is the goal, facts don’t matter. And so, the GOP has persisted in spreading the Muslim Brotherhood lie on social media and by sending paid hecklers to El-Sayed’s campaign events pestering him with questions and comments like: “Will you denounce the Muslim Brotherhood?” A recent exchange of this sort backfired on the Republican instigators.
At a town hall when a young man asked whether El-Sayed would denounce the group, El-Sayed shot back, “Yes, absolutely,” and then pivoted by asking the questioner, “Why are you asking me this?” wanting to know whether it was because of his name and how he prayed. He then made clear that the document to which he would take an oath was the US Constitution and smartly compared the attacks against his religion with those levelled against President Kennedy – that Kennedy would be more loyal to the Catholic pope than to the Constitution. El-Sayed concluded by noting that he wasn’t running to be a Muslim senator, but a senator who happened to be a Muslim.
That exchange went viral on social media, drawing more than 50 million viewers the first night. The next day it was revealed that the heckler was a former staffer for a very conservative anti-Muslim senator. He had been hired by a group that had received a very substantial contract to hire hecklers to disrupt El-Sayed events.
This brings into focus another reason why this election is so important: the role of dark money in American politics. Dark money refers to money raised by ‘super PACs’ and independent expenditure funds that are not required to report donors before elections. This has allowed billionaires and special interest groups to amass large sums and spend them to defame candidates who oppose their agendas. Increasingly, these dark money sources are raising and spending more on campaigns than the candidates raise for themselves.
In the primary, El-Sayed was confronted by dark money expenditures of $70 million ($31 million from pro-Israel groups), much of it on negative attacks against him. Despite being outspent by a margin of 11 to 1, El-Sayed won. In the general election, it is estimated that another $100 million in dark money will be spent against him. If he wins, it will demonstrate the limits of dark money and help advance the argument that dark money should be banned because of its corrosive role in our democracy.
From the beginning of his campaign, El-Sayed has been a clear and consistent critic of US support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. This was the main reason why so much pro-Israel super PAC money was spent to defeat him. His Democratic primary opponent made support for Israel central to her campaign, at one point emotionally noting how much she loved and would always stand by Israel. Pro-Israel Jewish organisations denounced El-Sayed and did their best to tarnish him, labelling him antisemitic. This succeeded in costing El-Sayed some support from Jewish American Democratic voters. In spite of this attrition, he won the primary, with one pre-election survey saying he had nevertheless retained the support of a bloc of progressive Jewish voters.
Now in the general, El-Sayed is still being confronted by the same attacks and an organised effort among these same pro-Israel groups who are pledging to vote for his opponent. El-Sayed has made it clear that instead of spending billions to buy bombs to kill Palestinians, America’s wealth ought to go to build better schools, provide health care, and provide for people’s needs here at home. While this was once a taboo topic, it has resonated with Democrats and independent voters. This, in itself, is a breakthrough.
Finally, an El-Sayed victory will succeed in advancing a progressive agenda. Despite being attacked as a socialist, he maintains that he is a supporter of capitalism who wants to see it work to meet the needs of people. He makes this point with a mantra he uses to begin his rallies: “Money out of politics, money in your pockets, Medicare for all.”
His arguments are simple: it shouldn’t be easier for a billionaire to make another billion than it is for a family to be lifted out of poverty. Health care should be seen as a human right for all, not a privilege that can only be afforded by some. And instead of spending billions on wars, we need to invest in schools and the quality of life here at home.
These are the challenges El-Sayed presents to our politics. If he wins, he will have succeeded in shattering taboos and raising issues that will have a lasting impact. And even if, God forbid, he loses, our politics will never be the same. On so many levels, this is a historic, transformative campaign.
The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.
James Zogby
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organisation which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S. Through voter registration, education and mobilisation, AAI has moved Arab Americans into the political mainstream.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has 54 seats and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s camp has 49, with neither reaching the 61-seat majority threshold as 77% of ballots are counted.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc was slightly ahead but still short of a majority in Tuesday’s election, with more than three-quarters of the vote counted. (EPA Images pic)
JERUSALEM: Results from Israel’s hard-fought election pointed Wednesday to no clear winner as a leader of the Arab minority appealed to a hesitant opposition to join forces to end the divisive reign of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With more than three-quarters of the vote counted, Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc was slightly ahead but still short of a majority in Tuesday’s election, the first since the Oct 7, 2023 attack, which has led Israel to wage war in Gaza and across the region.
Both Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who is allied with far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, and Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief leading a broad opposition bloc, vowed that they would seek to form the next government.
However, neither looks set to reach the 61-seat threshold for a majority. With 77% of ballots counted, Netanyahu’s bloc had 54 of the 120 seats in parliament and Eisenkot’s opposition had 49.
The final results could still change but one place of clear gains was among Israeli Arab lists which were set to jump to 17 seats.
Voters from the community, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after Israel’s creation and who make up around 20% of the population, have been enraged by the Netanyahu government’s ultra-nationalist Jewish vision for the country and the Palestinian territories.
Yousef Jabareen, head of the leftist Arab-majority Joint List, said the Israeli public had voted for new leadership, and “anyone who wants to offer a substantive and genuine alternative to Netanyahu’s blood-soaked government will have to talk to us”.
“It’s either the continuation of racism, the continuation of exclusion and the continuation of supremacy, or a genuine Jewish-Arab partnership,” he said.
Eisenkot has resisted allying with Arab parties. Netanyahu during the campaign relentlessly attacked the opposition by saying it would put Arabs in power, running on the slogan: “Either the Right or Palestine”.
Yair Golan, the head of Israel’s main left-wing party and a member of Eisenkot’s camp, became the first member of the opposition camp to call for an alliance with Arab parties.
“Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120,” Golan said in a social media post.
“We must no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes,” Golan added.
However, Eisenkot’s camp also includes right-wingers who share many of Netanyahu’s hawkish views and have adamantly rejected working with Arab lawmakers.
Arab lawmakers could also give Eisenkot support in parliamentary votes on an ad hoc basis, enabling him to maintain a minority government without joining a coalition, although few observers believe such an arrangement would survive for long.
Iran conflict
A lack of a clear majority for either camp could mean weeks spent trying to cobble together coalitions, with possible new elections on the horizon if negotiations fail.
“Maybe everybody lost in these elections but the Arab parties. And for the Arab parties, it’s unclear that they can make use of their huge success,” Hebrew University of Jerusalem political scientist Gideon Rahat said.
A stalemate could in the immediate term benefit Netanyahu, who would remain caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed.
Both Netanyahu and Eisenkot appeared to indicate another factor was on the horizon – a Israeli attack alongside the US on Iran.
Netanyahu ordered bombing campaigns against Iran both last year and earlier this year, reluctantly stopping only after President Donald Trump reached a now-moribund ceasefire.
In the days leading up to the election, Netanyahu repeatedly called for the overthrow of Iran’s government. News reports, which Netanyahu denied, said military top brass pushed back on his plans for pre-election action.
Trump has said that the US is no longer negotiating with Iran but will not attack until after next Tuesday’s US midterm elections, in which his Republican Party is forecast to lose ground.
Speaking to supporters at a rally, Netanyahu said that Israel had a “unique opportunity” with Trump to “forever eliminate the existential threat of Iran”.
Eisenkot in his own post-election appearance warned Israel’s security chiefs that they must serve the national interests and not the political needs of Netanyahu, who is a caretaker prime minister “without a mandate”.
“Netanyahu, don’t you dare use Israel’s security for your political needs,” Eisenkot said.
President’s role
All eyes will be on president Isaac Herzog, who usually keeps a low-key ceremonial role but who must decide whom to task with the first chance to form a government.
Herzog has reportedly supported a unity government, which could take on more urgency if Netanyahu attacks Iran, although Eisenkot has publicly ruled out serving with him.
Netanyahu, who has served as prime minister on and off for more than 19 years, has divided Israeli society.
Facing criminal charges over corruption that he denies, Netanyahu has sought to revamp the judiciary.
He has also allied with far-right champions of extremist settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank with virtual impunity.
Netanyahu is also wanted by the International Criminal Court over Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, where residents expressed uncertainty Wednesday as to what the outcome might mean for them.
“Our fear is that these elections might result in the emergence of an even worse leader and those who are more violent and bloodthirsty,” displaced Gazan Huda al-Houli told AFP.
