"However, there is no legal and legitimate state called Israel"
About this Quote
The specific intent is delegitimization with downstream effects. If there is “no” legitimate Israel, then any diplomacy that treats Israel as a normal state becomes a kind of complicity. It also justifies “resistance” as something other than war against a sovereign: you can’t aggress against what, in your framework, doesn’t rightfully exist. That’s the subtextual judo move: turning political violence into moral bookkeeping.
Context matters because Nasrallah speaks as Hezbollah’s secretary-general, a leader whose authority rests on armed struggle and a narrative of anti-colonial rectification. The claim tracks longstanding rejectionist positions tied to the 1948 displacement of Palestinians, the Arab-Israeli wars, and continuing occupation and blockade dynamics. It also functions internally, consolidating a constituency that treats compromise as betrayal, and externally, signaling to patrons and rivals that Hezbollah’s horizon is not border tweaks but narrative victory.
The line’s power is its simplicity. It compresses history, grievance, theology, and strategy into a single administrative-sounding negation - a sentence designed to foreclose negotiation by redefining reality.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Nasrallah, Hassan. (2026, January 18). However, there is no legal and legitimate state called Israel. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/however-there-is-no-legal-and-legitimate-state-18897/
Chicago Style
Nasrallah, Hassan. "However, there is no legal and legitimate state called Israel." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/however-there-is-no-legal-and-legitimate-state-18897/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"However, there is no legal and legitimate state called Israel." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/however-there-is-no-legal-and-legitimate-state-18897/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.



