‘Lebanon equals Hezbollah’ after polls, says Israeli minister

Occupied Jerusalem: Hezbollah’s gains in the Lebanese election on Sunday show that the state is indistinguishable from the Iranian-backed Shiite group and that Israel should not distinguish between them in any future war, an Israeli security cabinet minister said.

“Hezbollah = Lebanon,” Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a rightist in Israel’s conservative coalition government, said on Twitter yesterday.

“The State of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign State of Lebanon and Hezbollah, and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory.”