Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Gaining Sympathy: Hezbollah Lies to Gain International Support


In many ways, as Israel has fought a very real war for its survival, Lebanon has struck back with a propaganda war, using innocent Lebanese people as human shields and parading the victims for the world to show the evil nature of the Israeli military.  The propaganda war came to a head with two incidents this past week: the firing of photographer Adnan Hajj by Reuters, and killing of many individuals in Qana last week.

Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese photographer for Reuters, doctored photos of Lebanon to make the devastation brought on by the Israeli attacks seem worse. One photo was definitively doctored, with Hajj adding in and darkening plumes of smoke from Beirut, a second photo showing F-16 Israeli fighter plans was doctored to show them firing missiles, and 920 photos have been pulled from Reuters news archives.  You can see the pictures definitively doctored above.

In Qana, initial reports showed over 50, maybe as many 60 people dead, but those estimates turned out to be way off base, as 28 people were killed in the attack. Additionally, the building collapsed over 7 hours after the attack, leaving both plenty of time for people to leave the building and serious questions as to the building’s structural integrity. Reports show an explosion just past 6 hours after the attack, leading to the belief that the collapse of the building was pre-arranged.

A piece by fellow blogger EU Referendum shows how many of the photos from Qana were staged or perhaps even doctored, showing various pictures from various sources including the same rescuer at the scene. And Fox News (television) last night reported that, at the time of the attack, it appears that no one was inside the building, but that the people may have gone inside the building after the attack, as shown by new aerial photos.

Is sympathy being drawn for the Lebanese victims of this conflict?  Absolutely!  But as long as Hezbollah is willing to use Lebanese people as shields and lie about the actual events that are taking place in this war, the majority of the world’s ire, and yes, even the anger of other Middle Eastern countries, will fall on Hezbollah as opposed to Israel.

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Posted by Scottage at 11:12 AM / | |