snapped shot

Sometimes, the surroundings of a photograph speak volumes about the "message" that a photojournalist is trying to convey to his readers. For instance, framing a group of people behind a police barrier conveys the message that, somehow, the subjects in the picture are being "oppressed" by a particular police force, even though other photographs in the same series show very clearly that the police barriers are not intended to surround the people pictured.

Here's another interesting case of selective framing, courtesy Kevin Frayer of the-wire-service-that-hates-me. I'll refer you over here for the picture, but allow me to "paint words" with the caption, if I may—and if you have problems with it, Counselor, you know the drill:

Palestinian Muslim women stand under a Christian mural as they look on, during the funeral of four Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Thursday, March 13, 2008. The militant Islamic Jihad group in Gaza fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel early Thursday after Israeli undercover forces killed one of its West Bank leaders in a raid in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The attacks shattered a recent lull in Gaza fighting and highlighted the fragility of efforts to move Israel and Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers toward an informal truce. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

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The funny thing is, I bet that the soldier was just messing around with the photographer. I mean, it's not like this is the first time something like that's happened, is it? (See the second large photograph down.) And don't forget that Kevin Frayer was only standing about 2 feet from the other photographer, so obviously the soldiers aren't that concerned about not having their pictures taken.



It'd be interesting to learn who the blocked photographer is. Either way, I'm sure somebody out there's going to be crying censorship any minute now, whether it is or not.

Dunno about you, but I don't plan on being the one to tell these folks that Israel didn't have anything to do with the execution of Saddam Hussein. Well, unless you consider fanciful conspiracy theories to be real, that is.



I sure hope they remembered to bring the bean dip. More festivities beyond the fold. Continue reading »

Sung to the tune of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," of course.

Sweetness & Light pounced on this story before I had a chance to get this posted, so I'll just introduce the topic with the best picture of the bunch, and then send you over yonder for the rest.

It's good to see the Associated Press acknowledge that the map in this picture encompasses the entire Israeli nation, though I do think that they're still missing the point by a wide margin.

Earlier this year, there were worldwide (and totally orchestrated) protests against Israel's "destruction" of the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam—which does not appear once in the Qu'ran—even though Israeli excavations were being performed to preserve archaeological evidence before official Palestinian construction destroyed it. The press, in its endless exuberance for anything anti-Western, presented these protests as fact, not once attempting to understand the Israeli side of the issue.



Fast-forward to yesterday, where Israeli citizens were protesting their own government's plan to give the Temple Mount—which incidentally is the single-most holiest site in Judaism, mentioned in the Torah and Talmud hundreds of times—are tarred and smeared as "right-wing" extremists.



There's that good old-fashioned fairness and balance for you: "Curse those dastardly right-wingers."

Full coverage of yesterday's Radical Right Wing Israeli Protest can be found beyond the fold.

Update: Wow, here are some genuine words of "wisdom" from Ehud "The Dunce" Olmert:

Israeli PM Olmert slams right-wing extremists over 'flood of hatred'

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched a vitriolic attack on extreme right-wingers on Monday, amid a campaign to release a political assassin and incitement against talks with the Palestinians.

Olmert, who on Sunday said he may be able to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of next year, vowed that such behaviour would not dissuade him from persevering with negotiations.

"We are prepared to make compromises because security is based on peace and peace requires painful compromises," he said in a speech to a managers' conference in Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv.

Okay, here's a "flood of hatred" for you, Eddy Boy:—if you're so set against the Jewish people that you do not wish to hear what the Jewish people have to say about the future of Israel—the ancestral home of said Jewish people—then why in the devil do you allow yourself to remain as President? If genuine Judaism disgusts you so much, why not just pack up and move over to your best buddy's little tinpot regime?

After all, if your "counterparts" at the peace conference deny your right to exist, as the savages have done on every occasion they've been given, why do you suppose that "peace" somehow depends on giving them more land, you traitorous coward?!

Is Israel really so self-destructive now that they allow scum like this to remain in power?

Soccer Dad writes to remind me that Olmert used to be one of we dreaded "right-wingers", back before political expediency necessitated the abandonment of his core beliefs. How times change!

I dream of the day in which spinelessness will no longer be a requirement for public office in the West.

Update: The Elder has more thoughts on extremism.

See-also:

Israel Matzav

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Here's yet another photo of heartless Israeli oppression. Imagine the sheer audacity of this soldier, helpfully pointing an obviously belligerent woman in the direction of the queue—Oh, the outrage!



Someone remind me: Why do we bother employing photojournalists in the Middle East again? The ones already over there are so far in the bag for the "opposition" team that I really must wonder how any editor worth his salt would allow any of their material onto the news wires.

Being "impartial" is one thing, but this is ridiculous. Enough cheerleading for the terrorists already!