Orly Noy writes:

The international media was awash yesterday with clips of people in Lebanon celebrating news of the looming ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which came into force early this morning. As one report explained alongside a video, “The news has brought a moment of hope and relief to those affected by the ongoing conflict.”

The same video was shared by the Hebrew Instagram page “Push – Real-Time Reports,” which has more than 860,000 followers. They captioned it rather differently: “People in Lebanon celebrate the ceasefire agreement: ‘Israel surrenders to Hezbollah.’”

I double-checked with native Arabic-speaking friends, and not a word about “victory” or “defeat” can be heard in the clip. All it shows is people’s joy that the war that has destroyed much of their lives is about to end — as would be expected of most normal human beings suffering from conflict anywhere in the world.

The responses to the Instagram post, needless to say, were not joyous. The only thing they celebrated was the shattering of Lebanese lives. Comments expressed widespread anger over the emerging agreement, making cynical use of the memory of fallen soldiers whose deaths, they said, would be “in vain” if the agreement is signed. In Lebanon as in Gaza, Israelis demand nothing less than “total victory.” [Continue reading…]