Snapped Shot

You know the saying: "We don't make deals with terrorists."

Even Israel in its early years utterly refused to cave in to terrorists even to the point of conducting massive military raids against terrorists holding hostages. They just would not give the terrorists the inkling of an idea that they could get away taking Israeli hostages.

But, these days are different. These days, Political Correctness runs amok. These days, liberal idealism and pocketbook diplomacy rule. Take the recent action in Israel.

From Yahoo News:

The Israeli government agreed Sunday to free a Lebanese gunman convicted in one of the grisliest attacks in the country's history in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah guerrillas.

The German-mediated deal was a rare political victory for embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and closed a chapter from Israel's inconclusive war against the Lebanese militant group two years ago.

These were the two Israeli soldiers that whose capture led to the Lebanon War (ummm, skirmish\incident) of 2006.

According to cr(AP), this is a victory for Olmert. Releasing a vile, despicable, reprehensible, violent, deadly, (any more descriptors Cletus?) Hezbollah terrorist in exchange for two dead soldiers, soldier body parts and a report on another airman killed in the crash of his plane in 1986. And, explain to me how this closes a chapter when they are releasing a known, convicted, and admitted terrorist?

Now, to give you an idea what this animal did, read this: Continue reading »

Far be it from the press to suggest that there's any controversy surrounding Qana, but it would seem that the Associated Press is absolutely delighted to provide us with pictures of people who hate Israel. Unquestionably, of course:



Aussie Dave has more, as usual.

Ugh. This is exactly the type of "propaganda victory" I said the Israeli government needed to avoid a few days ago:



Of course, neither Mohammed Zaatari nor the Associated Press have presented any evidence on either side, to confirm or deny whether this man is telling the truth. They merely report his Hezbullah propaganda verbatim, without a moment's thought.

How's that for in-depth journalism?

To the dopes in the Israeli government that cooked up this harebrained scheme: If you're going to release a Hezbullah fighter in hopes of getting back a citizen or soldier you care about, make sure it's the meanest, baddest, absolute most terrifying-looking thug that you can find. That way, the press can't pull crap like this atrocity on you later.

(Plus, if you release a total thug, you have two advantages: Namely that he is (a) most likely not the smartest one of the bunch, and (b), he'll be downright trivial to identify should you ever run into him again.)

Paging all clue-enabled Israelis: Please report to the Government immediately. They've been going it without you for far too long now. Continue reading »

Israel has handed yet another photo-op to the enemy. While I think their intentions were honourable—Who, after all, can fault the Israeli government for recovering an Israeli citizen who died in the water, and whose body ended up in Hezbullah's possession. Or for trying once more to save Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev from their captivity?

I certainly won't, but I will point out that, as predictably as the tides in the sea, the Israelis allowed Hezbullah to win yet another battle in the propaganda front, trotting out supposed "relatives" of the dead to receive their bodies on the border—all in the convenient sights of the international photographer corps.



That guy on the left is a Hezbullah "handler" if I've ever seen one, and he sure seems intent on making sure that everyone sees that this woman is in an obvious state of mourning. I'll have the rest of the pictures from this event following the break, as usual.

To my handful of Israeli readers:—You've got to get it through your Government's thick head that situations like this are golden opportunities for Hezbullah to trot out their puppets in front of the cameras for a quick media victory. It is the Israeli government's job to ensure that opportunities like this are denied your enemies! They offer you no quarter, so why should you offer any to them? (Other than drawing-and-quartering, that is...)

Oh, and as a "funny" aside, it's interesting to note that there was zero international outcry over Hezbullah's desecration of a civilian corpse. Or at least, so little of an outcry that I can't even recall this unfortunate event in the least! Once again, the United Nations falls silent when atrocities are perpetrated against the Jews. Continue reading »

Lo and behold, it's interesting to note that most of the area "damaged" by the IDF during last year's war with Hezbullah are still not rebuilt. Of course, those of you have been paying attention would already have known this.



Perish the thought that Hezbullah keeps its areas of Lebanon in disrepair permanently for the sake of easily-manipulated wire agency photographers...

Update: Ah, it's good to see that Hezbullah has their priorities in order. And that their Divine Marketing Agency is preparing for war yet again:

Continue reading »

It would seem that the wire services are mourning the death of Hezbullah fighters in last year's war. No word on if and when any coverage will be given to the Israeli soldiers who died during the conflict.



What a nice, down-to-earth guy, huh? It should be noted that, while it's factually true that he was "killed" during the conflict, you'll note that none of our news agencies elect to identify him dying as a Hezbullah fighter. Don't you think knowing that would change the readers' perspective of this "sympathetic" propaganda push?

By the way, if you're sharp, you might notice in the third picture down in our extended series (following the break), that Reuters has annotated the caption with: "To match feature:LEBANON WAR/HEZBOLLAH." What's interesting about this? It's entirely possible that this is an acknowledgement that the scenario was orchestrated and provided to Reuters by Hezbullah's media office. How much better would this news coverage have been if this fact were acknowledged up front, rather than as a sidebar?) Continue reading »

So, here's a nice, shining, real-life example of "irony" for you:

Chutzpah: Your band of thugs comes to town, sets up shop around the local populace, and antagonizes the large military presence in the next country over.

Inevitable: When said next country over finally gets annoyed enough, they come and bomb you into the stone age.

Irony: After the country which your band of thugs has infested has been bombed to smithereens, you complain that it isn't paying you fast enough to rebuild it.

Hezbullah really is a funny bunch.