Snapped Shot

Reports are coming across the wires that a "protestor" has been killed, and another handful injured at the Karni crossing in Israel. Details aren't fully clear yet, but the other protesters were carrying around this body, and I saw a couple of others carried across in a traditional Palestinian "rush." What's interesting, though, is this photograph, which purports to hold someone who was injured by the IDF. Here's a close crop of the injury, from three different shots:



The Associated Press plays the middle of the road, stating merely that, "Palestinians run with a boy after he was wounded during a Hamas demonstration." Agence France-Presse, on the other hand, lays the accusation directly at Israel's feet, stating conclusively that, "Palestinians protestors carry a boy who was wounded by Israeli military gunfire during a demonstration."

But to my untrained eye, that sure looks like more of a cut than it does a bullet wound. Is there anyone out there that knows combat medicine who could definitively say either way? Could something like this be caused by a rubber bullet? A tear-gas grenade? A rock?

Considering that the Palestinians were in the middle of their traditional violent pursuit, it's looking more to me like they fired upon their own, and then trotted the injured and dead in front of the cameras for maximum Israel-blaming effect. I mean, it's not like they haven't done that before, right?

As an aside, I won't contend that the man being carried about at the top of the page is pretty conclusively dead, but I do find it interesting that his shirt's bloody, but there's not much sign of injury.

If you want, you can view the full photo feed here. I'd love to hear what you think about the evidence.

Update: Another question—When carrying the seriously wounded, is it customary in the Palestinian territories to grin like the Cheshire cat?

Update 2: While the caption to this photograph reads:

Palestinians protestors carry a youth who was wounded by Israeli military gunfire during a demonstration against the siege on the Gaza Strip on May 22, 2008 at Karni Crossing, between Israel and Gaza. One Palestinian was killed and 17 injured today when Israeli troops fired at protesters in Gaza who demonstrated against the crippling blockade of the territory, some hurling rocks, medics and witnesses said. AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD HAMS (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)

... I think it's far more likely that the injury over his ear was caused by something more like this, frankly.

The AFP is being completely dishonest here, before all of the facts from on the ground have been sorted out. Here's our "IDF-injured" boy in the ambulance.

Update 3: As with most of these events, this protest was carefully coordinated by Hamas. Any chance that Hamas set this up knowing that people would get injured ahead of time? If so, that means that this article's gonna be moving into the "Human Shields" category, and soon.

Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday called on its supporters to join a rally in eastern Gaza City near an Israeli commercial crossing in protest against the embargo imposed by Israel one year ago.

Hamas made the call through mosques, saying the people should gather in Gaza City's mosques at Thursday noon prayer before making their way to the Karni crossing.

The mosque-terrorist axis strikes again? The telling quote:

"The people have run out of patience and they have decided to break the siege with any means, even if the cost was their lives," said Ashraf Abu Dayya, a Hamas spokesman.

Yeah, I'm thinking Hamas set this up to be a sacrificial protest way ahead of time. Which means that it can't be discounted that Hamas bullets and stones were responsible for these photos.

"Human Shields" it is.

Update 4: And thus, the crocodile tears are beginning to flow forth.

This is oddly reminiscent of a previous "disaster," in which civilians were killed after answering Hamas' call to serve as human shields in front of a group of terrorists hiding from the IDF inside of a mosque.

This is certainly an interesting turn of events. Check out the caption to this photo on the newswire this morning. I won't reproduce the whole thing here, for obvious reasons, so allow me to highlight the key phrase:

...Israeli police are holding the body of Abu Dheim until his family agrees to hold a low-key funeral without media coverage...

I've long railed against media-driven funerals, and have repeatedly accused the press of encouraging this type of behaviour (even when said "funeral" is purely for show).

This, however, is the first time I can recall seeing the State of Israel actually try to take pro-active measures to stop these propaganda-driven parades of crocodile tears. It's definitely a positive development, even if Israel is being a bit inept in its approach to the subject.

After all, if Israel were half as "ruthless" as its ever-paranoid detractors think it is, don't you think it would've done something a bit more... well, ruthless? For instance, if I were the "ruthless dictator" type, I would've burned the body, mixed the ashes in with some good, old-fashioned lard, and delivered it back to the family in a can of Crisco.

With a bow on top.

With that alternate in mind, don't you think that the Palestinians should show a little bit of appreciation that someone in the Israeli state still thinks that "playing nice" with people who want to eradicate them will somehow make people like them?

Okay, so for the next little while, I'm going to be going back through this blog's archives and flagging all of the stories that are demonstrably within my legal "fair use" rights for the wire service photos. I'm composing this list mostly for my own reference, so if you're not interested, feel free to pass it on. (I'll be blogging on current news as soon as I'm caught up with what's going on in the world, of course.)

For those of you who don't care about piddly little things like "fair use" and "article lists," I present this offering—The classic Atari game "Pole Position," played with humans. It will hopefully keep you entertained until this blog is able to get back on track with current events:



(With thanks to my buddy Ian for the excellent inspiration.) Continue reading »

It would seem that our body count has been inflated by one since yesterday's retelling of the story.



I also seem to have neglected to comment on the claim that Israel struck a "police station." (Or, as the Associated Press so lovingly puts it, "the sandy courtyard of a Hamas police station.") As I've noted before, such claims are usually fairly misleading, so be sure to take them with a gigantic shaker of salt.

Weeping, gnashing, and standard-issue crocodile tears follow the break. Continue reading »

Our eternal allies in Egypt seem to have a "slight" problem on their hands:



I'm tracking the photos beyond the fold. Continue reading »

Can you spot what's missing from this caption?



Yeah, those dastardly IDF soldiers, firing unprovoked tank shells at the poor, innocent "Palestinian" civilians.

But wait, there's more to the story? Uhh, yeah:

Two Palestinian gunmen fired anti-tank missiles at IDF forces operating to neutralize terror infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip. The force fired at the gunmen and identified hitting the two.

Hmm, one would've thought that the fact that these terrorists were launching rockets right next to a civilian's home would have merited a brief mention in the caption. No doubt, the usual gaggle of "anti-war" groups will line up to condemn Israel for this "meritless" attack, conveniently forgetting to mention the reality of the situation:



More photos from this event following the break—some of which may be slightly graphic (nothing too major yet). Pay close attention to the discrepancies between all of the accounts.

Update: The captions are now reading that eight people have died in the "bombardments." The increased number is presumably intended to enhance the "drama" of the wire reports, but from all appearances, two terrorists were killed outside of the civilian home, and another four to six terrorists were killed in an air strike, which are technically two separate events.

Notice the AFP's use of the loaded term "blitz" to describe the IDF's coördinated anti-terror operation... Continue reading »

Yesterday:



Today:



Gee, what ever happened to all of that business about Israel hitting a "police position?"

And thus, the crocodile tears flowed immediately forth.

Update: Aha, that explains it!

The IDF has been blamed for bombing a Hamas "police station." I don't have any details yet, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the "police station" in question was being used as a shelter by a handful of Hamas terrorists. Either way, the crocodile tears are definitely out in force:



I'll be keeping an eye on this to see if any more information shows up. We'll see if my initial cynicism is on target here or not, pun intended. 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 »

The Palestinians prove their "peaceful" intentions yet again:



The usual crocodile tears follow, of course. After all, it's not like these men's deaths are their own fault or anything... right? Continue reading »

Overnight, two Palestinian children were reported as being killed by "an explosion" in the northern region of the Hamas-occupied Gaza Strip. Generally, when events like this occur, the first reaction reported by the press is that the evil Zionists were responsible, with quotes from "sources on the ground" confirming the dastardly Zionist machinations to an all-to-willing press corps.

That standard storyline is what I expected to hear as soon as I heard about this event, so it goes without saying that I am very surprised to see that the press is reporting things factually for a change:



Even though we get the traditional crocodile tears, I'm definitely pleased at this new honesty, and hope that it continues to find its way into more of the coverage coming from the region!
Continue reading »

According to reports (heck, it's even hit the frontpage of Yahoo! News), Israel has killed 4 militants at the edge of the Gaza Strip today, in an "exchange of gunfire."



I'm also seeing a funeral for 2 jihadis from Fatah killed in an unrelated "exchange" of gunfire in the West Bank. Both events will be catalogued beyond the fold--but first, I highly recommend you check out this article to get a feel for how these kinds of mass funerals actually happen in the "Palestinian" territories. Continue reading »

We've definitely got something interesting going on here.



Theory #1: The simplest (and most likely) explanation is that the IDF is taking active efforts right now to eradicate Al-Aqsa. Considering that, of all of the thugs in the Territories, Al-Aqsa is the most brutal, this is completely understandable, and I congratulate my comrades in the Forces for their gallant efforts!

Theory #2: A less likely explanation (but still plausable, due to the tendency of the locals to Blame Israel First) is that the genuine Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is going around wiping out members who formed a splinter group. I can imagine that the genuine thugs, upon hearing their former associates describe them as being "unethical," would naturally take umbrage and handle things "Mafia style." Any reasoned observer understands full well by now that that's the only way business gets done under the "Palestinian Authority."

Theory #3: The remotest possibility I can think of is that Hamas is making efforts to combat Fatah, by wiping out Fatah's most active "wing," and then planting evidence "suggesting" that Israel was responsible. I don't think this is the case, but I'll present it here anyway, just in case there's some shred of truth to it.

[Update: Upon further reflection, I'd say that Theory #2 is the most plausible. The IDF doesn't generally take any action without at least letting their Public Affairs office know about it first... which in and of itself is a very telling commentary on the handicap placed upon itself and other Western militaries by many of the "Open Government" policies which are so popular today. But I digress...]

So, to wrap up, in the past few days, we have had a new terror group formed. Less than twelve hours later, its leader is "murderated." The very next day, another Al-Aqsa member (by this time the press has completely forgotten about "Abu Ammar") is gunned down in a cafe by "The IDF," which could be true, or could be the locals' traditional Jew-Blaming. I didn't report on that incident, since it didn't seem to be connected at the time. And just now, a group of Al-Aqsa terrorists just happen to "exploderate" whilst "Driving While Jihadi."

This is truly turning out to be a fascinating week for Al-Aqsa. In the best possible sense of the word. To whomever is doing this:—Please keep up the great work! Any efforts to "thin the Thugocrat herd" are commendable, and my hat is certainly off to you for your efforts!

I'll miss the dopey-looking idiots, but the world is definitely better off without them.

Update: The obligatory crocodile tears can now be found beyond the fold. Continue reading »

Our press is still hard at work today, presenting the terrorist point-of-view from the Palestinian human shield "refugee" camps in Lebanon.



I'll be tracking the photos as they come in, so be sure to check back periodically for new updates. Continue reading »