Thanks for all the emails about yesterday's posting.
Several of you wrote to say that the man about to stand up at the back was in fact dead, and that rigor mortis had set in, freezing him in position. Some wrote that if this was rigor mortis, then there were lots of other questions as to why it set in so soon after the building crashed, how he was pulled out of the rubble in that position, whether he was killed on the spot , why the building collapsed hours after IDF bombing in the area had stopped, why civilians did not leave the area after being warned by the IDF several days earlier, whether these really were civilians or Hezbollah men in casual clothes, if IDF bombing caused the building to collapse, how did people die in their sleep as some reported - and many other unanswered questions about the whole Qana incident. Some cite speculation that the body count discrepancy is due to dead bodies being shipped in from outside the area. How macabre!
Certainly the claim that civilians could not leave because the roads had been destroyed by Israel does not stand up to scrutiny. After all, the journalists and rescue workers they photographed were brought in easily enough.
The fact that there is a significant propaganda war being waged against Israel has been an open secret for a long time. The way stories have been stage managed and even fabricated has been the subject of exposes that don't seem to reach the mainstream media, although the blogospghere has had some real influence. The Second Draft produced some short downloadable documentaries showing how Pallywood manufactures the news carried by the mainstream media. (If you haven't seen them, they are eye openers.)
Hezbollah learned its lessons well, and respected news agencies very early in the fighting depicted Beirut as under intense attack. It was only when the IDF issued a map showing just how limited their bombing had been that the media bias was questioned. Nic Robertson, CNN's man in Beirut, admitted on camera that previous reporting which had purportedly shown Israel targeting civilians had been stage managed by his Hezbollah handlers.
And now, Reuters has been forced to suspend photographer Adnan Hajj,who was exposed by Charles Johnson of littlegreenfootballs as using his computer to add smoke and buildings to his "enhance" his photos of Beirut. The excuse? He was just brushing up the image to remove dust-spots. This same fraudster took photos of a rescue worker parading bodies in Qana - pictures that were widely questioned in the blogosphere. Bloggers around the world are beginning to find signs of photo doctoring in other reports from the Middle East - especially by this talented and creative photojournalist. No doubt we will shortly hear that his freedom of expression and artistic talents are being hampered by the Zionist lobby.
What is most concerning is that the West's foreign policy is being driven by this Hezbollah controlled propaganda war. We all grieve for losses on both sides. The bloodshed is unnecessary. The propaganda game, however, has successfully moved attention from the thousands of deadly rockets deliberately aimed at Israeli civilians, and somehow twisted world opinion into blaming Israel for defending her citizens.
It seems to escape the attention of many that the war can be stopped very simply by the application of international law. If Lebanon implemented UN resolutions, Hezbollah would not have the ability to indulge in its war crimes.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dfrankfurter's journal