Attitudes About Nasrallah Appear More Positive in Middle East Since His Death

Attitudes About Nasrallah Appear More Positive in Middle East Since His Death

Sentiment about the Hezbollah leader shifted after the Israeli strike that killed him, partly reflecting anger toward Israel, according to an analysis.

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By Julian E. Barnes

Reporting from 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 chief executive 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 Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Nasrallah’s support for Palestinians in Gaza.

Sentiment about Mr. 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.

Mr. 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.

Mr. Teubner said that in the days since Mr. 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,” Mr. Teubner said.

On Monday, Israel began what it called a limited incursion into southern Lebanon. U.S. 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 on Tuesday, in retaliation for the killing of Mr. 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.

Our Coverage of the Middle East Crisis

• Iran Attacks Israel: Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, an attack that sharply escalated the conflict between Israel and Iran and threatened to engulf the Middle East in all-out war.
• Israel Weighs Retaliation: Security analysts and former officials said the damage Israel had inflicted on Hezbollah in Lebanon had stripped Iran of much of its deterrence against a wider Israeli attack.
• Tel Aviv Shooting: Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a light rail train in Tel Aviv, killing at least seven people and injuring several others. The Israeli police called the attack an act of terrorism.
• Israel Invades Lebanon: The Israeli military began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, targeting what it said was Hezbollah military infrastructure in villages close to the Israel-Lebanon border.
• Lebanese Government’s Absence: Already crippled by years of economic decline, political paralysis and other crises, Lebanon has little but its own citizens’ grit to survive the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.