Hisham Haddad, one of Lebanon's top media figures, described Lebanon's complete defeat in the war against Israel in a video posted on social media: "If thousands of fighters and civilians have been killed and are we not defeated?"
"If the south was destroyed, the Bekaa Valley and the Dahiya were hit, and for the first time in history, cities like Tyre and Baalbek were also hit, and we are still not defeated – then when are we defeated?" Haddad reiterated that "if a million and a half people have been displaced from their homes, equivalent to a third of Lebanese citizens, and we still do not see this as a defeat, then when will we know that we are really defeated?"
Yoni Ben-Benachem, an orientalist and senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, argued that the video is of high importance to Israeli public diplomacy, and that the more Israel increases its assassinations and military pressure, the more similar statements will be heard.
* Channel 14 contributed to this article.
