Lebanese Political Leader Unapologetic for Celebrating October 7 Massacre

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt stated to Lebanese media that he refused efforts by some ambassadors to get him to take down a tweet on X/Twitter celebrating the October 7 Massacre. Indeed, Jumblatt has only doubled down on his stridently anti-Israel stance on the current war ever since.

On October 7, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt tweeted in Arabic: "Salute to the Hamas movement. Salute to the Palestinian fighter. Salute to the Arab fighter who destroyed the myth of Israeli superiority yesterday, today, at every hour, in every arena, and at every time."

According to Lebanese news portal Naharnet, Jumblatt tole Lebanese media that he faced "lame condemnations" for this tweet but refused to take it down. He also called kibbutzim "military outposts" and that South Lebanon has the right to self-defense, even though it was Hezbollah which turned a previously quiet border into a combat zone once the war in Gaza started.

Jumblatt, once praised in 2006 by Shimon Peres for criticizing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for endangering the country in the name of prestige, has since changed tack and now stridently attacks Israel, regularly calling them the "barbarians at the gate."

Perhaps the most evocative image of his view of the current war comes in a caricature he retweeted, showing the hand of the US Ambassador to the UN vetoing the call for a ceasefire at the Security Council, his hand drenched in (ostensibly Palestinian) blood: