The killing of Hezbollah operative Salim Ayyash in an Israeli air strike on the city of Qusayr in Syria's Homs countryside has sparked mixed reactions.
Some welcomed the news of his killing—even though it was at the hands of Israel—because the Special Tribunal for Lebanon at the Hague convicted Ayyash in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. But others—particularly supporters of Iran's so-called 'axis of resistance'—say no one should celebrate the killing of a Muslim at the hands of Israel. Those who fall on this side of the debate could even label those who do not condemn his killing as a Zionist.
The flaw in their argument, however, is that those same people didn't outlaw condemnation over the killing of another 'Muslim'—Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—at the hands of the Americans. Why not apply the same standards across the board?
Reverberating effect
Hariri's assassination was far from a trivial incident—it was the spark that ignited the downward spiral of Lebanon, and its ramifications are still being felt almost two decades later. For its part, Hezbollah repeatedly thwarted efforts to hold the perpetrators of his assassination to account.
At the time, Hassan Nasrallah—Hezbollah's former leader who was assassinated by Israel in September of this year—refused to hand over those accused of Hariri's murder, including Ayyash. Hezbollah supporters even glorified Ayyash after his murder conviction, mocking the victims of the car bomb that killed Hariri, his entourage and 21 Lebanese civilian bystanders. It was a chilling display of callousness and disregard for the anguish of the victims.
