“I always believed I would witness peace in the Middle East in my lifetime,” Rawan Osman told The Press Service of Israel. “We need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We have a golden opportunity that we must not waste,” referring to the defeats of Hamas and Hezbollah and the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria.

“We hated the Israelis, we hated the Jews,” the Lebanese-Syrian national recalled of her childhood.

Only after she left Syria at the beginning of the civil war and arrived in Europe did she have the opportunity to meet Jews directly. As her acquaintance with Jewish people and Judaism deepened, she began to understand how mistaken and harmful the beliefs she had been raised with were.

Today, she focuses on bringing others like her — those who grew up with hatred — to a place of understanding, which she believes will lead the Middle East to true peace and prosperity. She urged both Israelis and Arabs to resist extremist narratives and continue building bridges.

Despite facing significant backlash, including accusations of treason, Osman remains undeterred. “People think I have a superpower,” she said. “They think I can walk on water. I’m just someone who believes in what I’m doing.”

Although her beliefs had solidified years ago, she made her first visit to Israel only after the Hamas’s October 7 massacre. Since then, she has already visited Israel seven times.

“The Palestinian cause was liquidated on October 7th,” Osman told TPS-IL. “The Axis of Resistance shot itself in the foot.”

The war, she argued, marks a seismic shift in the region, saying the massacres exposed the true face of Hamas and the Resistance Axis.

Osman added that she also sees changing Arab sentiments on social media, where she is active.

“I was surprised that people in Lebanon and Syria are so tired of the Palestinian cause and the Arab resistance movement,” she said. “All they want is to feed their children.”

To Osman, the fall of Assad’s regime was the most surprising and positive event.

“We kind of gave up because the world doesn’t care about the suffering of civilians unless the Jews are involved,” she told TPS-IL. Regarding the emerging Turkish-backed government emerging in Damascus, Osman said it does not currently pose a threat on the scale of Bashar Assad’s regime, which was closely aligned with Iran and Russia.

“And if [the new government] does attempt to threaten, it should remember how others have fallen over the past year,” Osman stressed.

Still, it might take some time before she visits her homeland.

“I’d love to visit the places I grew up. But I can only go to Lebanon and Syria when they are safe for Israelis. That would mean the mindset there has shifted,” she explained.

“It’s coming, but we have to try our best to help push in the right direction. It’s coming up sooner than I imagined,” she said with a smile.

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