Many in the Middle East had a different reaction.
By Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon
Following Hassan Nasrallah’s death at the hands of an Israeli airstrike, mainstream media outlets portrayed the now-former Hezbollah leader as an erudite “father figure,” a “moral compass,” a “savior,” and a “roly-poly figure” who “empowered” Lebanon’s “downtrodden.”
The vast majority failed to mention that he was a brutal terrorist leader who killed scores of Americans, Israelis, and innocent civilians across the Middle East.
Nasrallah rose to the top of the terror organization in February 1992. A month later, Hezbollah operatives killed 29 people in a suicide bombing attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
The terror group’s subsequent 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires killed 85.
The aftermath of the 1994 Jewish center bombing in Buenos Aires. (Ali Burafi/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images)
In 1983, one year after Nasrallah helped found Hezbollah, the terror organization murdered 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors in its bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
The attack’s planners became commanders under Nasrallah, who died a rich man, carrying a net worth of $250 million thanks mostly to illicit drug smuggling.
The aftermath of the U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut. (State Department)
Most of those details were left out of lengthy obituaries published in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Associated Press.
The Post lauded Nasrallah’s “folksy yet articulate manner” and described the terrorist as a “savior” among his followers.
The Times billed Nasrallah as a “charismatic religious and political leader and military strategist who had dedicated his life to ‘resistance,’ or the fight against Israel.”
The AP lamented the Jewish state’s dangerous “escalation” in killing Nasrallah and called him a “charismatic and shrewd strategist.”
The Washington Free Beacon compiled a roundup of passages from the three obituaries:
Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader and force in Middle East, is killed (Washington Post)
“Hasan Nasrallah, a Shiite cleric who oversaw the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for decades and became one of the most powerful and divisive leaders in the Middle East, revered by his followers as a savior and condemned by his foes as a terrorist, died Sept. 27 in Beirut.”
“Among his followers, Mr. Nasrallah was seen as a father figure, a moral compass and a political guide. He was lauded as the man who empowered Lebanon’s once downtrodden and impoverished Shiite community and protected it from Israeli incursions by turning Hezbollah into a formidable deterrent force.”
“Wearing the black turban that signifies descent from the prophet Muhammad, he delivered advice on topics ranging from complicated regional events to personal hygiene during the covid pandemic, sometimes speaking for hours without notes, always in the folksy yet articulate manner that established him as a skilled orator.”
“The death of his 18-year-old son, Hadi, in a battle with Israel in 1997 burnished Mr. Nasrallah’s leadership credentials, establishing him as a man who had shared in the suffering of those battling the Israeli occupation.”
“He and his wife, Fatima Yassin, are believed to have had four other children. A list of survivors was not immediately available.”
Hassan Nasrallah, Who Led Hezbollah for Decades, Killed at 64 (New York Times)
“In Lebanon, Mr. Nasrallah enjoyed tremendous devotion from Hezbollah’s Shiite Muslim base, who saw in him a charismatic religious and political leader and military strategist who had dedicated his life to ‘resistance,’ or the fight against Israel and American influence in the Middle East.”
“He came across as less dour than most Shiite clerics, partly because of his roly-poly figure, a slight lisp and a propensity to crack jokes. He never pushed hard-line Islamic rules, like veils for women in the neighborhoods that Hezbollah controls.”
“He could be by turns avuncular and menacing.”
“In his broadcasts, Mr. Nasrallah always appeared tranquil, assured, sincere and well informed, in command of both the facts and the situation, utterly dedicated to his cause and to his men. He was aloof yet tried to lend his secretive, heavily armed organization an air of transparency by sharing battlefield details.” (This passage, which can be viewed here, appears to have been removed.)
“He was known to have read the autobiographies of Israel’s prime ministers. He had long called for the liberation of Jerusalem and referred to Israel as ‘the Zionist entity,’ maintaining that all Jewish immigrants should return to their countries of origin and that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah transformed the militant group into a potent regional force (Associated Press)
“Seen by his supporters as a charismatic and shrewd strategist, Nasrallah had reshaped Hezbollah into an archenemy of Israel, cementing alliances with the ayatollahs in Tehran and Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas.”
“A fiery orator viewed as an extremist in the U.S. and much of the West, as well as in some oil-rich Gulf Arab countries, he was also considered a pragmatist compared with the firebrand militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982, during Lebanon’s civil war.”
“Idolized by his Lebanese Shiite followers and respected by millions of others across the Arab and Islamic world, Nasrallah held the title of sayyid, an honorific meant to signify the Shiite cleric’s lineage dating back to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.”
“Wearing spectacles and sporting a bushy gray beard like many religious Shiite men, Nasrallah’s image was far from that of a militant who commanded thousands of heavily armed, well-trained and battle-hardened followers.”
“He often paused in his speeches to make jokes or break into local dialect and once, responding to a reporter asking about his monthly salary during a television interview, Nasrallah said it was about $1,300.”
Some Democratic officials expressed their dismay at the Israeli strike that killed Nasrallah. Anti-Semitic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (R., Mich) condemned the attack as a “bloodbath,” saying “the U.S. government are conspirators to the war criminal Netanyahu’s genocidal plan.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for a “diplomatic solution,” saying during a CNN interview that an “all-out war between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel would be devastating for both Lebanon and Israel. And again, we anticipate that we’d see a number of people displaced, casualties that, you know, equal or exceed what we’ve seen in Gaza.”
Many in the Middle East had a different reaction. Syrians in the country’s northwestern area, for example, were seen celebrating in the streets and handing out candy following early reports of Nasrallah’s death.
Nasrallah was crucial in defeating the Syrian revolution, backing the country’s dictator, Bashar al Assad, as he massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians.