Arabs celebrate unofficial announcements of Nasrallah's death -- are they ready for peace with Israel?

And will the obvious joy spontaneously bursting out in Syria and other places change the way the Western media report on Israel?

Will international media, generally biased against Israel (to put it mildly), change their tone when they see the responses of Arab and Muslim citizens of Middle East countries to the killing of Hassan Nasrallah? Does Arab joy at the nearing defeat of Hezbollah mean that regular Arab citizens in our neighbouring countries want peace with Israel? These are two very different questions.

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Who is celebrating?

Israel

Israel, of course, received the news of Nasrallah’s likely death with joy and relief mixed with trepidation. While it is good news that the Hezbollah leader is gone along with his most senior officials, we do not yet know if the next in line will be able to wreak havoc with the hundreds of missiles and drones still operative (when they figure out how to communicate with each other without Israel listening in).

I found it uplifting to see the outbursts of joy among our neighbours in countries at war with us. Here are a few examples.

Syria

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, researcher at the FDD — Foundation for Defence of Democracies, USA writes:

This is how happy Syrians are after reports that Nasrallah is presumably killed. They call him “Hassan Zummeyrah,” Arabic for “Hassan the Trumpet,” poking fun at his long speeches.

A number of “X” accounts posted the announcement at a mosque in Syria, saying:

Thanks to God, the terrorist aggressor, leader of Hezbollah, has been eliminated, O Muslims, rejoice! Allah hu akhbar!

UAE Expert in Middle East Strategic Political Affairs, Amjad Taha, writes:

You don’t get the Middle East. Mosques were the first to celebrate Nasrallah’s Hezbollah terrorists being wiped out, as seen in Syria. The whole Arab world is rejoicing — not just Israel. Meanwhile, activists like you can protest all you want, still trapped by Hezbollah and (Muslim Brotherhood) Hamas’s propaganda. But peace is coming, and it’ll flourish without their terror.

Lebanon

Joumana Gebara, Lebanese Maronite Phoenician journalist and author write:

If Nasrallah is dead, all of this was worth it.
We, Lebanese, have tremendously suffered for decades.
No one cared

And in a separate but related post from July, she uploaded a video of two young Yemini men praising the Israeli bombing of Hodeida. “They despise the Houthis, who hijacked them.” Perhaps we will soon see celebrations in Yemen over Nasrallah’s killing.

Iraq

I have not yet seen anything out of Iraq itself, but Iraqi Hayder Alasadi, ex-Muslem refugee, founder of Iraqi-Israeli Foundation of Peace, writes:

From Iraqi to Israel. THANKYOU! Congratulations to my Jewish brothers & sisters, congratulations to #Israel & the civilized world on the elimination of #hizballah ter*rorists weapons leader #Nasrallah, this major achievement by Israel will bring peace to our region closer & Abraham Accords 2.0 is very close, & today I am celebrating with you, my Jewish cousins, as Iraqi who were the target of these Iranian regime backed ter*rorists before, today, after this amazing achievement, the peace has never been closer before, am Yisrael Chai, the people of Israel lives.

Maybe as more and more celebration videos in the Arab world are uploaded to social media, regular Iraqis will add their own. Unless, of course, regular Iraqis like being under Iran’s thumb.

Iran

Decado, anonymous account that appears to be run by an Iranian posted a blurry video in which the rejoicers cannot be identified and writes:

Zahedan [city in Iran] defies darkness again. They have risen in the night, burning tires on the eve that marks both hassan Nasrolah's death & the Bloody Friday's second anniversary.

In another post, he says they are shouting in the streets, “Death to Khamenei.” And other “X” posters are wondering when he will be taken out by Israel.

Who is missing here?

I have not yet seen posts either celebrating or mourning the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah in: Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, Gaza, the west bank Palestinian Arabs, or allies in Russia, China, North Korea, and others. All those whose representatives got up and left the hall when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up the podium….where are their statements? Are they still in shock? Perhaps they were in a back room watching the bombing of the six Hezbollah headquarters’ buildings at the very time Bibi was telling the UN “Am Yisrael Chai!” (the People of Israel live!)

General statements of impact:

Ariella Kimmel, Vice-President, Strategic Communications and Development at Winston Wilmont, a public relations consultancy firm in Ottawa, Canada

While white saviours here in Canada support Nasrallah and Hezbollah in their terrorist actions, everyday Lebanese civilians celebrate the news that he is potentially dead.

Doesn't that tell you something?

Abdul-Hussain reminds us

By the time #Israel is done with #Hezbollah, I think it’d have enforced UNSC resolutions 1559 and 1701 that demand the disarmament of the Hezbollah militia, and the Lebanese constitution, which has a similar stipulation. Anyone thinks that the UN and the government of Lebanon will send the Jewish state a “thank you letter” for enforcing their laws?

Iranian born lawyer, activist, and artist, Elica Le Bon, points out the hypocrisy and the danger of supporting Hezbollah:

As I’ve said time & again, Hezbollah’s founding intent (outside of destroying Israel) is to create a second Islamic Republic in Lebanon—conjoining with the greater Islamic Republic—under the Supreme Leader in Iran.

On one hand, leftists condemn the crimes of the regime in Iran, its brutal oppression & draconian rule. On the other hand, they wave Hezbollah flags and call them freedom fighters.

If you support Hezbollah, you support the Islamic Republic in Iran and a second Islamic Republic in Lebanon. You cannot halfway support Hezbollah “only against Israel.” There would be no problems with Israel if it wasn’t for persistent terrorism from the southern border, don’t you see that? There has never historically been a time where it did not begin that way.

This isn’t even about Iran, Lebanon, or Israel. It’s about the world’s refusal to recognize belligerent actors and thereby continuing to empower them in their state of moral confusion - to the point that it becomes too late for all of us. [emphasis added]

But does this mean our neighbours want peace with Israel?

When writing about the war against Hamas in Gaza, I found out that Gazans who hate Hamas do not necessarily want peace with Israel. I sought those who openly hated Hamas and did not find any denunciation of their hatred for Israel, such as here, or here (where I wrote that while we are apparently doing the Gazans a favour by ridding them of Sinwar, I doubt it will change their minds about Israel).

Is this true for the Lebanese, Syrians, and others we see celebrating our elimination of Nasrallah even before the news of his death has been officially confirmed?

Christian neighbours do not have religious reasons for wanting Israel wiped from the map. Therefore I believe that were Lebanon to once again become the proud Christian country it once was, we would be able to make peace with her.

Muslim neighbours, on the other hand do have religious reasons to want to eliminate Israel. Because Israel had once been under Muslim rule (the Arab Conquest and the Ottoman Empire), Islamists hold that it has to return to Muslim rule (just like Spain has to, btw). So the question becomes: how many of our neighbouring Muslim populations follow Islamist ideology?

If they follow Islamist ideology, they may be willing to enter a cold peace accord with us to protect their own interests, as has happened in Jordan and Egypt whose populations generally hate Jews. Or would be a warm peace such as we have with the UAE? In other words, would it be a hudna, a longterm truce that is not really a peace treaty, simply an agreement to stop fighting or would it be a true peace agreement?

Saudi Arabia’s readiness to enter a peace treaty with Israel is enhanced by Israel’s actions in Lebanon over the past 10 or so days. They need to be aligned with a strong enemy of their enemy, i.e, Iran, and we are looking more attractive to them right now than we have for some time.

While there can be many mutual benefits in peace treaties with our neighbours, both those directly on our borders and those a bit farther away, the true test of peace would arise if Israel takes out Khamenei and eliminates Iran’s military and nuclear threat. In this case, would Saudi Arabia, for example, still be interested in peace with Israel or would Islamist goals of eliminating the infidel state dominate?

Similarly, with Hezbollah out of the way, and if Syria were able to throw off the Assad regime, would they be open to making peace with us or would their hatred of Jews and Israel prevent any move in that direction?

I am cynical. I am happy that they are happy with what we are doing to Hezbollah. But I don’t believe for a moment that many of them would embrace us. Not unless there is a silent majority that are as brave as Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei, who befriended Israeli judoka Sagi Muki and now lives in the UK, and Iraqi beauty queen Sarah Idan who supports Israel and now lives in the United States.

Therefore, I view the celebrations in Syria and other countries as happiness that Hezbollah will be off their backs and not as happiness that they will soon be free to bring about a New Middle East. I watch from the sidelines as a bemused witness, nothing more.

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