Attitudes about Nasrallah appear more positive in Middle East since his death

Washington: Public perceptions of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader who was assassinated by Israel last week, have grown more positive across the Middle East since his death, according to an analysis of social media and other internet posts.

While Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, is among those countries, opinions of him are more negative there than in the region overall, said Jonathan Teubner, the CEO of FilterLabs AI, a firm that measures public sentiment in places where polling is difficult to conduct.

FilterLabs has been tracking attitudes about the militia leader. Support for Nasrallah, a Shiite Muslim, peaked in Sunni Arab countries in mid-September, when Hamas — a Sunni group — released a letter of support for him from its leader, Yahya Sinwar.

According to the analysis, attitudes toward Nasrallah began returning to their usual levels across the Middle East after the letter but rose again after the Israeli strike that killed him, reflecting anger toward Israel and enthusiasm for Nasrallah’s support for Palestinians in Gaza.

Sentiment about Nasrallah was more positive on news media sites in Lebanon after his death. But FilterLabs found that commentators on Lebanese social media also focused on the damage caused by the Israeli strike.

Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for 32 years, was a towering figure across the Middle East. On Saturday, demonstrators in several countries in the region mourned him and condemned Israel’s strikes. But some communities, including in Lebanon, welcomed his death.

The FilterLabs analysis noted worries among some in Lebanon that Hezbollah had courted a war with Israel, a conflict that has caused civilian casualties and threatens to bring further destruction to Lebanon, including its capital, Beirut.

Teubner said that in the days since Nasrallah’s death, many in Lebanon have hailed him as a martyr.

“But Lebanon is more negative overall on Nasrallah than the Arab world more generally because their focus has been on the devastation that has occurred and, in all likelihood, will increase with a ground invasion,” Teubner said.

On Monday, Israel began what it called a limited incursion into southern Lebanon. US officials said that their Israeli counterparts told them they were not planning a full-scale invasion, but the Biden administration remains worried that the Israeli military might get bogged down and remain in Lebanon longer than it planned.

Iran’s strikes Tuesday, in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah, could further shape attitudes in the days to come.

FilterLabs uses a computer model to analyze huge numbers of online posts, from social media sites, news media publications and other internet discussion forums. The model measures the sentiments expressed in postings to determine how public opinion on various subjects has shifted. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the group has tracked Russian attitudes on a variety of topics.