Who knows Moshe Yair? The journalist invented by the Hezbollah Secretary-General - and the mockery in Lebanon

On Friday evening, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered a speech marking 20 years since the Second Lebanon War. 22 minutes into his remarks, while criticizing the Lebanese government for its direct negotiations with Israel, he began to quote a person he defined as a thinker named Moshe Yair, who he claimed works for the Yedioth Ahronoth group. According to Qassem, this author reinforces Hezbollah's narrative that Israel is exploiting the naivety of the leadership in Beirut.

Naim Qassem commented on the quote:

"This text that I am reading to you was written after the framework agreement. I am ashamed of some of the expressions, but I will read the text as it is. I have no connection to the content or these expressions."

According to the secretary-general, this Moshe Yair wrote in a newspaper article: "To our good fortune, they (the Lebanese government) sent a delegation that loves Israel and America more than their own country. The Lebanese ambassador is an American citizen and her husband is also a Lebanese with American citizenship, and he is the owner of a company in America. In general, what stupidity. I don't want to say that he collaborated with us, but it is something amazing, the stupidity of these Lebanese politicians who are working to end the resistance. They are helping us occupy their country, whether they are aware of it or not."

However, this Jewish thinker does not exist, nor does he work for Yedioth Ahronoth. It is unclear if the Al-Manar channel, affiliated with Hezbollah, realized this and attempted to hide Qassem's invention, but the remarks were omitted from the official transcript published on their website (though they remain in the video attached to the news).

In response, Arab and Lebanese networks opposed to Hezbollah began investigating the figure invented by the secretary-general. The Lebanese channel Al-Jadeed confirmed that a search was conducted to identify Moshe Yair, but without success. It was emphasized that Qassem used this quote to validate his claims, despite there being no writer by that name at Yedioth Ahronoth. The report noted that this is not a new invention; accounts supporting Hezbollah and Iran have been distributing articles attributed to "Moshe Yair" for some time to lend credibility to their agenda by using a fake Israeli source.

A check revealed that Qassem read a text that had already appeared online last summer on a Lebanese site called "Al-Haqa'iq," where it was attributed to "the Jewish thinker Moshe Meir (and not 'Yair') from Yedioth Ahronoth."

On the Lebanese MTV channel, which opposes Hezbollah, it was written:

"The article does not exist, and the Jewish thinker by that name does not exist either. This is an invention of the axis's mouthpieces, who rely on fabrications and AI videos to create imaginary victories or harm the image of their rivals. The senior man in the most important Iranian arm in the region becomes a laughingstock when he quotes an article that was never written."

Network users also did not spare criticism and mockery. Lebanese journalist Sawsan Mahanna wrote on X: "If I were not afraid of being accused of normalization, I would personally contact Yedioth Ahronoth to ask them: Where are you hiding Moshe Yair? If Naim does not have a smartphone to look for him, he should assign this task to the brothers in Hezbollah. Maybe they can find Yair before he quotes him in his next speech."