Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Extrajudicial Killing of PRC leader

Early this morning, Ra'ed Mohammad El-Nahhal was killed. El-Nahhal was a leader in the "Naser Salah El-Deen Brigades," which is the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.

While he was driving his car at the time, it was not a Zionist helicopter or drone that sent a missile down his throat, but some other PalArab pumped several bullets into his head.

Which means that the unfortunate El-Nahhal will not get a huge funeral with people waving terror flags; Reuters will not be sending any cameramen to photograph his remains; there will be no car swarm; his family will not get thousands of dollars from Iran or Saudi Arabia; no posters of El-Nahhal will be printed up and plastered all over "refugee camps"; he will have no streets or stadiums named after him; no international human rights organizations will scream about "extrajudicial killings" in their self-congratulatory press releases, no one will protest his killers. People who want to Google him will only find mention at the PCHR site and a Zionist blog.

Poor guy had the misfortune to be murdered by a Palestinian Arab. And no one cares when that happens - it is a dog-bites-man story.

We are now at 64 PalArabs killed by their own people (that I know of) in the two months since the Israeli incursion began.

UPDATE: The PRC is blaming the death on hitmen hired by Israel. So if any PalArab is stupid enough to believe that (is it even a question?) he still has a shot at fame and martyrdom!

Allah be praised!

Kofi's latest idiotic statement

From recent UN press releases:

Regarding the situation in South Lebanon, the Secreatry-General [sic] said that "both parties have to respect the ceasefire...Parties with complaints on the ground, they should come to General Pellegrini, not take matters into their own hands...It’s a bit like having a football match where one of the teams also attempts to play the referee. You cannot be a team in a football match and the referee at the same time."

Kofi Annan is a complete idiot, and his analogy is not only false but offensive.

When one is dealing with issues of life and death, you do not rely on a third party - you rely on yourself. To say that a war is like a football match is breathtaking in its naivete.

When the "referee" has a history of favoring one side over the other, he is no longer a referee - at best he is an ineffectual bystander, at worst he is an enemy.

Which is proven by the next day's press release:

On 30 August the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) withdrew from the general area of Bastra and the area south of the Kafr Shuba and Shaba villages along the Blue Line in the Eastern part of South Lebanon. UNIFIL has established checkpoints and will carry out intensive patrolling to confirm that the IDF are no longer present in this area. UNIFIL plans to handover the area to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Notice how UNIFIL defines its role - not to catch weapons smuggling from Syria, not to ensure that Hezbollah does not re-establish itself in the vacuum - but only to see if Israel is really gone. Which will require "intensive patrolling," as if the IDF is trying to hide.

After all of the sound and fury about 1701 and the Israeli hostages and the need to disarm Hezbollah and how important it is to stop illegal arms imports into Lebanon, in the end the UN is only concerned with one thing - getting Israel out of the way so that Hezbollah can be safely re-armed with no interference from the "referee."

Hezbollah apologist wins LA human relations award

From TNR:

In October 2000, Maher Hathout attended a rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House. His speech was captured on video for posterity by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. He told the assembled crowd that he was not surprised by what he called the "atrocities committed by the apartheid brutal state of Israel." After all, he reasoned, "butchers do what butchers do, and ... what is expected from a racist apartheid [state] is what is happening now."
Fast forward six years. The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations announced last Tuesday that Hathout, president of the Islamic Center of Southern California and a senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council (mpac), would receive its prestigious John Allen Buggs Award in luncheon ceremonies on October 5. The award is given annually for what the commission describes as "outstanding human relations work."

A man who called Israel a nation of butchers (he didn't stop there; he has also accused the United States of committing state terrorism) is about to be honored with a major award for effective practices in human relations work. Is this any different than giving, say, David Duke an award for healing racial relations?

Read the whole thing.

UN hypocrisy shines through

The UN has no problem loudly condemning Israel over their use of cluster bombs as being "completely immoral."

I can't claim to know when or where Israel used those munitions, nor in what context. I am troubled that there are apparently some unexploded bombs still dotting Lebanon that can injure or kill innocents.

But the use of such bombs do have a place in war, and without the UN knowing the exact circumstances, their self-righteous posturing about morality comes off as more than hypocritical.

Especially since UNIFIL consistently supported Hezbollah during the war. Especially since the UN press releases would reveal Israeli troop movements and never discuss Hezbollah's. Especially since the UN would ignore some Hezbollah violations while highlighting Israel's.

But most hypocritical of all is that the UN is silent on the thousands of anti-personnel rockets that were built in Syria and shot by Hezbollah; built to maximize damage and aimed at the general population of Israel. To use the words "completely immoral" to describe Israel's activities aimed at Hezbollah when the UN itself turns a blind eye to what can only be described as attempted genocide against Jewish men, women and children shows once again that morality is not something that Kofi Annan is qualified in the least to speak about.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs just came out with a preliminary report on the Hezbollah rocket war against Israeli civilians. A simple fact that the UN does not seem to be interested in is:

From July 13 to August 13, the Israel Police reported 4,228 rocket impacts inside Israel from rockets fired by Hizballah. No geographical area in the world has sustained such a large quantity of rocket strikes since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980s.

Here is a small amount of the damage done by just one of those 4,228 rockets (other pictures in the report):

When the UN finds in itself the ability to describe Hezbollah as "completely immoral," it will go a tiny way towards being able to be taken seriously when it condemns a nation that agonizes over every action that may kill an innocent human being.

Until then, at least in the context of Israel, it is simply a terrorist tool.

New template

I use Firefox, and I had not noticed that IE seems to get thoroughly hosed when viewing my page. I had been playing around a little with a three-column template that seems to be somewhat better behaved under IE so I am changing the blog to use that one. There are still some tweaks I wanted to do to this template but at least it seems to work for all users again.

Please let me know when and if you have problems viewing my blog so I can crank up IE and see if I can figure it out.

Hezbollah "charity box"

In Lebanon, the IDF found Hezbollah pamphlets aimed at children, as well as leaflets showing this lovely image:

[Hezbollah] raises large sums of money in private homes and public places in Lebanon: Businesses, mosques, education institution, petrol stations, shopping centers, roadblocks and more. It uses thousands of "charity boxes" spread among populations, as well as national fund raising campaigns.

Part of the activity is carried out in cooperation with other Hizbullah social-economic institutions.
For example, IDF soldiers captured in Hizbullah members' houses at the village of Aita al-Shaab leaflets distributed in homes, schools and stores, encouraging people to raise funds for the organization.
The leaflets feature a drawing with the message that the donations are aimed at purchasing weapons for the destruction of the State of Israel. The leaflets read: "In order for all of our houses to become part of the resistance (Hizbullah) – this is the resistance box – place it in your home."

The picture shows a charity box designed as the Dome of the Rock with a photo of the former Hizbullah secretary-general. Coins inserted into the box turn into bullets when they emerge from the box and smash a Star of David symbolizing Israel.

Islamic passion

The Times of London mentions:

MARTYRDOM videos found by police investigating the alleged airline terrorist plot contain chilling statements made by young men who are apparently willing to die as suicide bombers.

In one of the films, recorded shortly before a spate of arrests on August 10, a man is seen talking to the camera and stating: “As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed.”
The would-be martyr said he hoped that Allah would be “pleased with us and accept our deed”. He continued, reading from a script, citing verses from the Koran and listing his reasons for “action that I am going to undertake”.
In another search, police found a last will and testament that concluded: “What should I worry when I die a Muslim in the manner in which I am to die? I go to my death for the sake of my maker, whom if wishes can bless limbs torn away.”

I've seen people argue that Islam is inherently evil, and I've seen people argue that we shouldn't blame an entire group based on their fanatics and that Islam is a religion of peace. I've read opinions and articles from the gamut of opinion from the pro-jihadists to the most right-wingers. As a pure religion (as opposed to a political ideology), I admire Islam in many ways. I try very hard to give all people the benefit of the doubt, even as I read about polls where a large percentage of ordinary Muslims condone terror.

But the quotes above crystallized for me what has been bothering me since 9/11.

We have not yet seen a visceral, passionate outrage from the Muslim world against terror.

We have seen many examples of Islamic passion over the past five years. We've seen deadly riots and peaceful demonstrations over cartoons they deem blasphemous. Muslims pour into the streets over any perceived slight to their faith.

Their faith itself inspires passion, and in general this is an admirable thing. I wish that Jews would become much more passionate in the defense of their people and religion.

But, if Islam is truly as it represents itself to the Western world, how come there are not spontaneous demonstrations happening right now as a reaction to the quotes above? If Islam is a peaceful religion, Muslims should be far more insulted at the perversity shown above than Westerners.

Why is a cartoon comparing Mohammed to terrorists more objectionable than terrorists invoking Mohammed and Allah to justify mass murder?

By any reasonable standard, assuming that the peaceful definition of Islam is accurate, the terrorists are treating Islam far more insultingly than any non-Muslim could. They are quoting the Koran to justify what can only be termed a gross perversion of the faith. How can a people who are so keenly attuned to any slight be suddenly so deaf?

Since 9/11, every condemnation of terror that I've seen from the Muslim world has been devoid of passion. The words might be there but the feeling of true outrage at the hijacking of their very faith has been absent.

It just doesn't jive that a people so emotional in their defense of their faith from blasphemy can become so rational when condemning those who are supposedly hijacking that same faith to justify murder. Where is the visceral condemnation of terror?

I can think of two possible reasons:

Muslims are so paranoid and perceive themselves as so embattled that they will close ranks around their own against the outside world, no matter how disgusting the terrorists are.
The Islamic faith itself is not really nearly as peaceful as it pretends to be. (In this case, I mean the reality of Islam today, not the theoretical academic version. I am not qualified to critique Islam purely as a religion.)

I am reluctant to believe the latter one, but either option does not bode well for a true solution to Islamic terror. Daniel Pipes likes to say that "Radical Islam is the problem; moderate Islam is the solution." I would like to believe that, but if moderate Islam truly exists - and if it is truly Islam - its adherents need to show at least the same passion for life that the Islamists do regularly for death.

The lack of the visceral disgust of terror in the name of Islam, the failure of the "Muslim street" to rise up against those who are supposedly perverting their faith, means that these moderates do not exist in any meaningful way.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday that he refused to have any direct contact with Israel, and that Lebanon would be the last Arab country to ever sign a peace deal with it.

Today's staged Hezbollah photos 8/30

Many of the photographs from Beirut prominently show the results of a graphic artist:

Beirut, LEBANON: A Lebanese woman sits on the wreckage of her apartment in a flattened building in devastated Beirut's southern suburb, 28 August 2006. AFP PHOTO/ANWAR AMRO (Photo credit should read ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images)

This is a bit more subtle than the egregious photo manipulations and stagings that were shown in Lebanon, but think about this:

Who is the intended audience for these posters?

The professional layout and especially the use of English all point to the obvious fact - that when Lebanon is no longer a war zone and Hezbollah can no longer control reporters directly, they can still create photo-ops that will be irresistable to some photographers. And the photographers are more than happy to take the bait.

That gigantic poster, with the picture of devastation followed by "Made in USA", was not cheap. It was not made in a garage. It was planned carefully and paid for with the entire purpose of not increasing Hezbollah's influence in Lebanon, but in manipulating world public opinion.

In fact, I imagine the Lebanese people would be quite insulted at a picture of their town in ruins followed by the words "The Divine Victory."

Don't foozle with homemade rockets!

From the always invaluable "Palestinian Centre for Human Rights:"

A Child Killed and His Brother Wounded When They Foozled with a Rocket in Beit Hanoun

On Monday noon, 28 August 2006, a child was killed and his brother was wounded as they foozled with a locally made rocket near their house in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. In another incident, unknown gunmen fired at an officer of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Beit Lahia, but no casualties were reported.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 13:15 on Monday, 28 August 2006, a heavy explosion occurred in a room near a house belonging to Khaled Mohammed al-Za’anin in al-Qaraman Street in Beit Hanoun. As a result, the owner’s son, 17-year-old Mohammed, was instantly killed, and his other son, 14-year-old Bilal, was injured by shrapnel throughout the body. The explosion occurred when the two brothers were foozling with a locally made rocket apparently stored in the room by Palestinian resistance activists.

Alas, no virgins for poor Mohammed. But it had been a couple of days since the last deadly "misuse of weapons" incident so I suppose that Mohammed's number was just up.

For the Palestinian Arabs, they can take solace in the fact that while Mohammed is not a martyr, they will make his death appear to be the result of Israeli actions when they issue press releases.

We now know of at least 63 dead Palestinian Arabs who were violently killed due to other PalArabs since the Israeli offensive began.

And, indeed, "foozle" is a real word!

foo·zle (fū'zəl)
tr.v., -zled, -zling, -zles.
To manage clumsily; bungle.
n.
The act of bungling, especially a poor stroke in golf.
[Perhaps from German dialectal fuseln, to work poorly or slowly.]
foozler foo'zler n.

Jesse doesn't need Hezbollah for his photos

Unlike other visitors taking the Hezbollah Guided Tour of Southern Beirut, Jesse Jackson does not seem to require the Party of God's assistance in looking for photogenic rubble to pose with. And this morning's featured AP Beirut photographer is a more than willing participant.

Veteran US civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, third right, and his son Jonathan, right, speak to an unidentified local Lebanese woman as they stand on the rubble of her apartment building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, which was destroyed during an attack by Israeli forces in the 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

And here he is shortly afterwards, as his son and the Lebanese woman (and the Hezbollah handler) disappear so Jesse can get his close-up in front of the same building.

One can almost imagine the AP photographer and Jesse Jackson conferring over the lighting and composition.

Walt's prejudices

Others have shown that Walt and Mearsheimer have gone way beyond anything approaching objectivity when the subject is Israel. Here is just one tiny point I noticed in the transcript of yesterday's C-SPAN CAIR/Walt/Mearsheimer Israel hatefest:

Today, Israel is said to be a key ally in the war on terror and in our efforts to combat rogue states like Syria and Iran. But there are several big problems with this line of argument.

First, it has the causal logic backwards. We don't back Israel because we have a common threat from terrorism; rather, we have a common threat from terrorism because we have been so closely tied to Israel. That's not -- again, let me be very clear here: That's not the only reason. I am not saying that our unconditional support for Israel is the only source of anti-American terrorism, but it is a very important one. This was clearly stated in the 9/11 commission report.

Walt's denial notwithstanding, that is exactly what he says when he says that the causal logic os backwards - if America's support of Israel wasn't the major cause of terror in his twisted world, he couldn't say that the causal logic was backwards.

Beyond that, the 9/11 Commission report is online, so it is easy to see exactly how "clearly" they state this. Here is the Report's listing of the reasons why Bin Laden hates the US:

As we mentioned in chapter 2, Usama Bin Ladin and other Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam (a minority tradition), from at least Ibn Taimiyyah, through the founders of Wahhabism, through the Muslim Brotherhood, to Sayyid Qutb. That stream is motivated by religion and does not distinguish politics from religion, thus distorting both. It is further fed by grievances stressed by Bin Ladin and widely felt throughout the Muslim world—against the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, policies perceived as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, and support of Israel. Bin Ladin and Islamist terrorists mean exactly what they say: to them America is the font of all evil, the “head of the snake,” and it must be converted or destroyed.

It is not a position with which Americans can bargain or negotiate.With it there is no common ground—not even respect for life—on which to begin a dialogue. It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated.

What is clear from here is that Bin Laden's blaming US support for Israel was tertiary at best.

Here's what the report says about Saudi resentment of the US:

Saudis are angry too. Many educated Saudis who were sympathetic to
America now perceive the United States as an unfriendly state. One Saudi
reformer noted to us that the demonization of Saudi Arabia in the U.S. media
gives ammunition to radicals, who accuse reformers of being U.S. lackeys.Tens
of thousands of Saudis who once regularly traveled to (and often had homes
in) the United States now go elsewhere.17

Among Saudis, the United States is seen as aligned with Israel in its conflict
with the Palestinians,with whom Saudis ardently sympathize.Although Saudi
Arabia’s cooperation against terrorism improved to some extent after the September
11 attacks, significant problems remained. Many in the Kingdom initially
reacted with disbelief and denial. In the following months, as the truth
became clear, some leading Saudis quietly acknowledged the problem but still
did not see their own regime as threatened, and thus often did not respond
promptly to U.S. requests for help. Though Saddam Hussein was widely
detested, many Saudis are sympathetic to the anti-U.S. insurgents in Iraq,
although majorities also condemn jihadist attacks in the Kingdom.18

Again, the US/Israeli seems to be far from the major or even a major factor in Saudi resentment for the US, contrary to Walt's pronouncement.

Finally, buried on page 376 of the Report we see this:

American foreign policy is part of the message. America’s policy choices have consequences. Right or wrong, it is simply a fact that American policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American actions in Iraq are dominant staples of popular commentary across the Arab and Muslim world.That does not mean U.S. choices have been wrong. It means those choices must be integrated with America’s message of opportunity to the Arab and Muslim world. Neither Israel nor the new Iraq will be safer if worldwide Islamist terrorism grows stronger.

In the context of the Report, this is almost a footnote. Nowhere does the report imply that this is a "very important source" of anti-American terrorism. Even for what it does say, Walt is misinterpreting it - the report is not saying that it is American policy towards Israel that is the problem, but the fact that Arab opinion is fixated on that policy and not on the many times the US helps out the Muslim world. This section is talking about the US getting a message of freedom and hope to the entire Muslim world and how that message gets lost in the Muslim world's Jew-hating media glare.

For Walt to blame US policy on Israel for terror is equivalent to blaming a Danish newspaper for deadly Muslim cartoon riots. It is a typical liberal viewpoint where the perceived "victims" have no responsibilities whatsoever, and where any excuse they use for their terroristic behavior is taken at face value.

And for Walt to use the 9/11 Commission Report as evidence of his bizarre thesis shows that his own academic methods leave much to be desired. The best you can say is that he is taking words out of context in the report; more likely he is purposefully cherry-picking what he wants to see in a single line out of a 500 page report and ignoring the rest that actually does address the exact same issue in a far more accurate and academically responsible manner.

A Lebanese boy holds a picture of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah given to him to hold by adults before U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited the area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which was repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces during the 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Monday, Aug. 28, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Who could those mysterious "adults" have been? Any possibility that they were members of, say, a terror group?

Lebanese children hold pictures of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah given to them to hold by adults before U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited the area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which was repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces during the 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Monday, Aug. 28, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

A Lebanese man holds a flip-flop shoe beside a Hezbollah protest banner depicting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holding two dead children with the words 'the terrorist' written in Arabic, immediately after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited the area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which was repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces during the 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Monday, Aug. 28, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

These guys really look angry, don't they? Just another spontaneous, angry protest in Lebanon.

Wow, they got the Nasrallah posters up behind Annan just in time for the photo. Talk about luck!

Or perhaps not....

Hezbollah's staged mini-demonstration in the southern suburb of Beirut has been exposed by unauthorized media footage. During a visit to the Hezbollah former "security square," destroyed during the war with Israel, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was greeted by a prepared crowd of Hezbollah militants. Accompanied by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora, Dr. Annan was escorted by Lebanese Army security, apparently very friendly with Hezbollah Department of Security. The Lebanese Army officers and Hezbollah were seen smiling at each other and coordinating the staged demonstration. A camera linked to an international media agency was broadcasting live from behind the Hezbollah's security lines. It captured the details of the "show." A group of women and girls, in traditional Muslim dresses and scarves were gathered by Hezbollah bearded security some 15 minutes before the motorcade arrives. The gathering was at about 30 feet away from where Annan's car was supposed to stop. This indicates that the motorcade security and the Hezbollah operatives knew ahead of time where the spot would be and had the women standing and waiting. Posters of Hassan Nasrallah were then distributed to the women. The camera showed a group of bearded men standing few meters behind the first line of women as a "second brigade." Then the camera showed the group of women tightening their positioning while few men with hats and "talkies" positioned themselves behind the women and started shouting orders: "Clap when Annan gets out of the car," they screamed to the women. The latter complied with "passion," raising the posters of Nasrallah. "Boo when Seniora appears," the Hezbollah's operators shouted. A huge boo was produced, not only by the women, but also by the men standing behind them.

As the UN delegation approached the group walking, the women screamed the name of Nasrallah and behind them couple men screamed "down, down, USA" (especially when the international media appeared). As soon as the officials walked farther, and as in a choreographed play, the women dispersed themselves opening the path for the militiamen looking males to rush behind the delegation walking through the ruins. Responding to orders barked form inside the group, the mens' "demo" got loud and slogans were shouted with greater energy and menace. Interestingly, and since the camera was filming live from behind and feeding it to satellite around the world, observers were able to "see" the whole operation to its most detailed developments. The last security men of the UN delegation facing the following crowd were smiling at the security cadres of Hezbollah and keeping the exact distance needed for the shouting to be heard and for the international cameras to film the delegation surrounded by angry people, hoping the sympathizing translators and editors would make the right comments on BBC, CNN, and of course on al Jazeera, and by the next morning, the right articles will be printed in the New York Times, the Guardian and Le Monde. The show got even more detailed, as the camera was feeding the footage live and raw, when a Hezbollah militiaman screamed at a media cameraman who had climbed onto rubbles to have a bigger view of the crowd and the whole picture. The Hezbollah operatives, along with a security man from the Lebanese Army rushed to remove the cameraman from where he was, which was logical, as he could have filmed the staging machine and more importantly the "size" of the demonstration. Back to the demonstration: the Lebanese state-security elements were telling the Hezbollah fellows, "tameem, azeem," (very good, excellent). The "commissaries" behind the lines of the males were changing the slogans from "Long live Nasrallah" to "Down with the US." In a few minutes, the delegation headed back to the cars, Kofi Annan apparently impressed with the "people's voice." When the convoy left, the men and women of Hezbollah's demonstration vanished leaving regular bystanders to themselves. Interestingly as well, whenever the camera showed a journalist, especially with cameras, a Hizbollah militiaman was just few feet away.

Today's staged Hezbollah photos 8/28

Sidiqin, LEBANON: Displaced Lebanese women drink tea 26 August 2006 amid the rubble of their homes destroyed by Israeli strikes in the southern Lebanese town of Sidiqin. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images)

It is perfectly normal to get a pitcher of hot water, walk a few blocks with it and spoons and a table and a tray and a baby carriage and glasses, and enjoy some tea while feeding the baby in the most photogenic rubble in Lebanon.

Doesn't seem contrived at all!

But then again, this photographer seems to have a knack at finding people at just the most poignant time. It's clearly a talent:

A Lebanese boy sits 26 August 2006 amid the rubble of his home in the heavily damaged southern Lebanese town of Sidiqin.

Khiam, LEBANON: A Shiite Muslim Lebanese woman looks, 27 August 2006, at the rubble of the former Israeli-run prison of Khiam on the Lebanese-Israeli border. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Now, exactly why a woman would be hanging around the site of a prison remains a mystery.

But I'm sure Patrick Baz knows the answer.

Maybe this will turn into a series!

Today's staged Hezbollah photo

At least, for once, Reuters sort of admits that it is staged, or at least that the weddimg was orchestrated by Hezbollah. One must conclude that the overwhelming evidence of staged photos shown by the blogosphere is slightly affecting the way wire services are reporting the news.

I wonder what the captions in print media will say, though.

Abdallah Amhaz (L) and his bride Mona stand in the rubble of a destroyed building before their wedding, organized by Hizbollah, in a district that was damaged during the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs, August 27,2006. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON)

Now, why would Hezbollah stage a wedding in a bombed out neighborhood if not so the press can take this very picture anf show it worldwide?

UPDATE: Here's a somewhat more accurate picture of the happy bride and groom: