snapped shot

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 »

In the midst of the Lebanese army's continuing battle with Fatah al-Islam in the northern city of Tripoli, a second explosion has rocked the capital city of Beirut, this time hitting the predominantly Sunni suburb of Verdun. Is this Bashir al-Assad's continued attempt to destabilize Lebanon in preparation of a return of the Syrian army? It's looking more and more like that's the case every passing day...

The wires are thankfully reporting that nobody has been killed in this bombing, unlike the previous one.



I'll be tracking the pictures of this latest tragedy beyond the fold. 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 »

Another day, another Hezbullah front "protesting" in Lebanon? I've put in a request for information on this group with our resident expert on Lebanon, so hopefully we'll learn more about them shortly.

Update: Jeha sent the following e-mail, explaining this group in more detail. It doesn't seem to be as bad as the photographers make it look:

Hey Brian,

Those guys are "Offre-Joie", one of the few bright spots in Lebanon, if not the world. Initially, many of its founders were Christians, but they have always been committed to being a very secular/multi-confessional charity. They are truly committed to peace; I think that, when God mentioned the righteous, he had in mind a few people like those. I am partial to them; I volunteered with them for a while, but the Lebanese Red Cross gives more of an adrenaline rush...

Pledge of Allegiance, 1892.

For many in Lebanon, the hand raised is not necessarily a fascist thing, BTW. While it is true that we have more than our share of fascist tendencies, this is far from the case. When a Lebanese raises his hand like that, he has in mind the Roman salute, and it has something we do when we pledge allegiance or make an oath. A grand gesture of commitment, if you will...

In this case, they are making Gebran Tueni's
pledge, which we all made on March 14. The pledge is as follows;

"In the name of God
We, Muslims and Christians,
Pledge that united we shall remain
To the end of time
To better defend our Lebanon"

It was recited by Gebran Tueni, during the famous March 14, 2005, at Martyrs' Square. Gebran Tueni was assassinated by the Syrians by a car bomb, but his legacy lives on in this pledge, and many other good ideas... He is sorely missed at this juncture of our history... Note that all the more than 1.2 million of us who were present that day repeated it, and we all had our hands extended like that. The March 14 demo was really huge; Syria's Quislings were still in charge then, and tried to make it hard for people to go, but still, out of a population of less than 4 Million, more than half the population tried to show up on that day, and traffic jams extended to 30 km on all roads leading downtown...

You make a great point, however, in mentioning that this could be exploited by a few sinister people. And it looks like our politcal leaders either did not take the pledge, or are choosing to ignore it. But I fear the real danger comes from the "realists" in the United States, who appear hell-bent on selling us to the Syrians (again); they forget that Bin Laden, when he planned 9/11, had in mind the Marines' debacle in Beirut, in the 1980's. This is of his own admission, actually, but too many US politicians have the attention span on Homer Simpson. In any case, I hope no war will be visited on us, but we can only react to outside events, with little control of our own...

Many thanks for straightening me out there, Jeha! Continue reading »

Okay, so for weeks we've heard that Hezbullah will be out in the streets en force today, to protest the "pro-Western" Lebanese government and otherwise make life miserable for those opposed to Syria's puppet reign.

Now that photographs are pouring in, we get to see shots like this:


Compare this to previous Hezbullah rallies, and see if you can make out the difference:


As has been noted fairly extensively, Hezbullah is very adept at manipulating the media. The fact that these protesters are so blatantly identifying themselves as "Lebanese"--rather than identifying themselves with the usual Hezbullah, Iranian, and Syrian flags--it is apparent to me that Hezbullah has sent out a little internal memo to its rally organizers, instructing them that it would be most prudent to wrap themselves in the Lebanese flag, to couch the argument in terms that they're somehow "reclaiming" the Lebanese government for themselves.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hezbullah remains a group whose strings are pulled by the Opthamologist and Dr. Spongebob Nuclearpants. To consider them even remotely pro-Lebanese is farsical at best.

One other possibility here, just as an aside: According to the pro-Lebanese website From Beirut to the Beltway, the March 14th (thanks, Austin) group is planning massive demonstrations in Beirut today as well, to counter the Hezbullah invaders (and really, what better word is there for a group of the population that intends to turn control of one's nation over to a neighboring nation?). It's possible, but not likely, that we're actually looking at a group of March 14th'ers here. The reason I would suggest that this is Hezbullah-in-drag, though, is that most of the signs in the crowd are in Arabic, not generally the language employed by March 14.

As always, events in Lebanon are complex. Hopefully, my Lebanese compatriots can continue to update us with their side of what's going on over there. Stay safe, y'all!

For extensive Lebanon coverage: Jeha's Nail, From Beirut to the Beltway, Free Cedar.

I know I've been silent on the latest AP scandal--and I have a good reason for being so! Everyone else has covered it extensively already, and I don't really have anything insightful to add to their brilliant observations! What can I say? Kurt at Flopping Aces has done a spectacular job of tossing some egg at the AP's face -- or rather, pointing out the egg that the AP put there itself!

To make up for it, here's a "Flatima" wannabe sighting, following the break, from today's Hezbullah rally. Enjoy! (If you read Arabic, I'd be delighted to hear a translation for the sign behind our dear Flatima impersonator!)

UPDATE: I'm not the only person who noticed the conspicuous absence of that disgusting yellow flag. Howdy, GatewayPundit! It's good to be in esteemed company such as yours!

Update: Extensive coverage from Abu Kais at From Beirut to the Beltway, cross-posted at Michael Totten's website. Continue reading »

In a rare move, the AP has sent a combination photograph across the wires comparing a before and after scene. (You'd think that someone over there reads these pages!)

Unfortunately, if we go by the information in the photograph alone, we'd be missing quite a bit of information. The caption merely reads, a building is seen standing, top..., and, bottom, is seen destroyed... after 34-days of the Israeli offensive. While information like this is useful, and is certainly more detailed than the wires have tended to be in the past, it would be more helpful if the photographer chose to include ancillary information about why buildings like that are targeted.

In another photograph, we see a man who is salvaging belongings from his bombed-out apartment. What makes this particular photograph so curious, is that he's doing so on a ledge that's at least 15 stories high! Is there any logical reason to do this, other than for the photographer to have a dramatic backdrop of rubble to his shot? We're not provided any contextual information to go with this photograph, other than the fact that his apartment was damaged during the "recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbullah."
Continue reading »

Today's photos are, as usual, straight from the Hezbullah playbook.



And, lest we forget who our enemies are:



In case there was any doubt of how widespread the threat of Islamofascism is, check out this next picture. Raising our children to want to kill other people is perfectly normal in our "diverse, multi-cultural" world, isn't it?



And, in the following shot, notice how the signs are (a) written up for our idiotic left-wing media, (b) suggest that somehow, Hamas is involved in the current Israeli war. Of course, if you've been following the war, you'd probably already be aware that it involves Hezbullah, but I figure this is another good illustration of how interchangable these radical islamic groups are. Alternately, these pictures could be leftovers from another demonstration unrelated to what's going on now. Either theory works for me, at this point. It's clear that there's NO trusting the press to give us an unbiased look at it.



The fist in the air: The universal symbol of radicalism, everywhere! Judging by the sign, it would seem that this crowd supports ALL terrorists, after all.



This next picture is a good illustration of Zombie's Type 4 fraud:



Notice the subtle bias there? "We take Hezbullah at their word, unquestionably, but if IDF says something, we'd best be sure people know it COULD BE FALSE."

Gimme a break!