snapped shot

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 »

American pop stars aren't the only ones getting in on the fun. Here is Lebanese pop star Julia Boutros, hanging around with a handful of Hezbullah supporters. Pay particular note to the Reuters caption.



Not to worry—I'm sure Madonna will figure out a way to out-do this pose as only she can. 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 »

Update: Aussie Dave has more on Big Bicep Guy... who seems to definitely be getting along splendidly with the local wire photographers.

... and while I'm on the topic, who do you suppose the residents of Ein el-Hilweh -- the terror base refugee camp which is currently protecting the Fatah al-Islam thugs -- are protesting?



Yep, you guessed it. It's obviously the Lebanese Army's fault that the locals are protecting the terrorists. Nice to see that Mohammed Zaatari managed to make it past the Lebanese road block, in order to fully capture and share the terrorist's point of view...

Oh, I just noticed, keep in mind that this "artillery and machine gun fire" is echoing through the refugee camp... after the cease-fire "went into" effect. Did I call that right, or what?



UPDATE: Yep, just as I suspected: Mohammed Zaatari has embedded himself with the enemy. For the first time in this current conflict, we get to see the TERRORIST'S point-of-view, thanks to our SEDITIOUS Associated Press:



I'll be tracking Mohammed's updates beyond the fold, and will eagerly await more sedition from our photographic corps.

Updated:

I am tracking Day 2 of this "cease-fire" in a new thread. Be sure to check out the latest series of Lebanese "atrocities" against these "innocent" civilians terror-supporters.

Continue reading »

I bring good tidings from the "Palestinian" territories: The citizens of "Occupied" Palestine are marking the Naqba, commemorating and mourning the day in which Israel was founded in 1948. This would be Snapped Shot's first chance to cover this annual event, so if you already know the background of Naqba, please be sure to skip ahead and celebrate the "mourning."

For those of you who are new to Naqba, let me start by presenting the Palestinian party line, as dutifully parroted by our mindless "guardians" of truth in the press:



Notice two things: The "Palestinians" are mourning the establishment of Israel, and shortly after this establishment occurred, an Arab-Israeli war brought the "displacement" of hundreds of thousands of "Palestinians." Continue reading »