Earlier this week the south Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hizbollah (backed, of course, by Iran and Syria), lost its spiritual leader when Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussain Fadlallah passed away on Sunday at the age of 75. It probably won't come as the greatest surprise that his passing was marked with few if any tears here in Israel or, (I hope) in most of the democratic countries of the world.

Fadlallah was an interesting, complex man admired by the many that followed him as man of charisma and of progressive views in some areas of Islam. He was relatively liberal (as Ayattolah's go), in his views on women, passing down edicts to allow the fairer sex to wear nail polish at prayer, banning female circumcision and granting wives the right to hit their husband back if he hit them first.


Sadly, his progressive views stopped whenever the matter of the State of Israel was raised. He inspired many suicide bombers and had been on the US list of wanted terrorists from as far back as the mid-1980's when he was allegedly involved in aiding and abetting the kidnappers of US citizens in the Middle East. He was passionate about the need for a violent armed struggle against Israel and took delight at any instance of Israeli blood being spilled, regardless of whether or not the victims were soldiers, women, children, the elderly or the infirm. Truly a man of religious conscience and decency, wasn't he?


Fadlallah was noted for his promotion of education in Lebanon and in Shia areas of the Middle East, a commendable quality, save for the fact that in all the institutions he supported, above and beyond the regular daily classes taken by children around the world, he designed the indoctrination of a generation of Muslims and a desire to hate Israel and kill Jews that seems to the impressionable youth attending these classes to be the most natural and correct thing to do. Only last year the Grand Ayatollah issued another fatwa warning of dire consequences for anyone who even suggested the possibility of the normalization of ties with Israel
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Fadlallah was instrumental in inspiring, supporting and planning military conflict on the northern border of Israel, a policy he was doubtless looking forward to testing again in the not too distant future as his militia have undergone extensive re-arming in the four years since the last Lebanon conflict. He is understood to have supported the taking hostage of the staff of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and of the bombing and consequent loss of 300 lives at the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.


As recently as March 2008, Hizbullah's Al Manar TV Channel aired his response to the suicide bombing of a yeshiva in Jerusalem, a terrorist act that killed eight young Jewish students, in which he said, "…the heroic operation in Jerusalem proved that the mujahedeen in Palestine are able to hit the Zionists hard."

  Like so many misguided religious leaders before him, Fadlallah would always find a way to justify his violent beliefs by taking passages of the quoran and tailoring them to fit his own needs. For example, when interviewed by the Beirut newspaper Daily Star in June 2002, he said. "Basically it is haram (prohibited by religion) to kill oneself or others; but during jihad (holy war or struggle for the sake of Islam), it is accepted and allowed, as jihad is considered an exceptional case."

Bearing all the above in mind, the reaction to his death from Octavia Nasr, Middle East editor of CNN was particularly distasteful. On her Twitter page, Nasr, who is meant to be an impartial journalist representing a supposedly impartial major media company, wrote: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."

 
In view of the perceived bias against Israel demonstrated by so many media organizations, it has been somewhat refreshing to learn that CNN moved swiftly to distance itself from Nasr's comments, immediately sacking the veteran journalist on the grounds that "her credibility had been compromised". Good for CNN.


Clearly regretting her faux pas and accepting the lack of thought given to her Twitter from one in a position of such influence in the media, Nasr commented on Tuesday, "Reaction to my tweet was immediate, overwhelming and provides a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East." Indeed. Better to think before you Tweet!


Following the recent removal of the influential veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas for her comments that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine", and Jews should go back to "Poland. Germany.... and America and everywhere else", there does seem to have been the odd ray of hope of late that some fair play might be seeping back into the reporting of the delicate and sensitive issues surrounding Israel and the Middle East.


Britain's Daily Telegraph has long been a source of irritation to Israel and the British Jewish community, being perceived as fervently anti-Israeli and at times, arguably even anti-Semitic. Refreshing then to read their executive Foreign Editor Con Coughlin's reaction to the passing of Fadlallah, stating in his opening paragraph,


Don’t be fooled by all the tributes that are pouring out following the death in Beirut at the weekend of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the so-called spiritual leader of the radical Shi’ite Muslim militia Hizbollah. The U.S. State Department’s classification of Fadlallah as a terrorist was spot on, and when you look back at his track record you can see he was right up there with other infamous terror masterminds, such as Abu Nidal and Carlos the Jackal – Daily Telegraph, Jul 5, 2010.


The Telegraph's reaction is particularly interesting as in 2002 they printed a feature interview with Fadlallah, generally perceived to be sympathetic to his views, which carried a quote from the Ayattolah as the headline of the piece, trumpeting, "We could provide a million suicide bombers in 24 hours" – Daily Telegraph, Sept.4, 2002.


Of course the overwhelming majority of the Arab media has been gushing in its praise for Fadlallah, but I do think there are a few signs of light on the horizon to give some optimism that people are looking a little beyond the headlines in considering the case for both sides in the conflict here.


Let's hope that the light on the horizon doesn't prove to be another false dawn.