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I escaped Hezbollah — and found the truth about Israel.

JL;DR SUMMARY Rawan Osman recounts his transformation from growing up in a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon, where he was taught to perceive Israel as the enemy, to discovering the truth about the Jewish state and what it represents. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

DemocracyMiddle EastHezbollahLebanonJewish Self DeterminationPalestinian CauseLiberal ValuesAnti Israel Narrative

Places mentioned

Germany
"Author Rawan Osman speaks at an event in Germany."
Beirut, Lebanon
"I grew up in a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanons Bekaa Valley, a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region, located about 30 kilometers east of Beirut."
Beirut, Lebanon
"I grew up in a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanons Bekaa Valley, a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region, located about 30 kilometers east of Beirut."
France
"Then I moved to France, and I met Jews  not the abstraction, not the enemy, but real people, neighbors, and colleagues."
Israel
"Israel is a democracy in a neighborhood of autocracies."
Iran
"Look at the 1997 Organization of the Islamic Conference summit held in Tehran, where the language of apartheid was first systematically attached to Israel, not by Palestinians, but by the Iranian regime, for export."
Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
"Look at Durban, the infamous 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa the moment when the geopolitical strategy conceived by Iran was successfully mainstreamed on the world stage, to shift the international framework of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a territorial dispute to a human rights struggle against a racist regime."
Damascus, Syria
"I am Syrian-Lebanese. I was born in Damascus."

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Cairo Item ID 85395
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Retrieved 2026-06-19 05:31:22 UTC
Curated 2026-06-19 08:31:31 UTC