| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
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In the featured article at FrontPage today I summarize the principal evidence that the Qana massacre was an elaborate piece of Hizballah fakery (news links in the original).
“The Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana early Sunday morning did more than kill 57 civilians,” says Jefferson Morley in the Washington Post. “According to a wide range of commentary in the international media, it inflamed already boiling public opinion in the Arab world against Israel, undermined what little support the United States has among the Lebanese people, and illuminated the continuing inability of Israel and the United States to achieve their goal of decisively weakening Hezbollah.” The Hindustan Times editorialized that “with Qana, one senses that the Israelis’ definition of ‘collateral damage’ has started to bear a striking resemblance to that of the very terrorist organisation that they are keen to destroy.” At a rally outside the State Department building protesting the Qana “massacre” on Monday, Leftist protestors chanted, “Hey, Rice! What do you say? How many kids have you killed today?”; “Israel Out of Lebanon! Ceasefire, Now”; and “Shame! Shame! Shame, on you!” An Australian Muslim in Qana told Australia’s Herald Sun: “I would say a few hundred have died. This isn’t war, it’s genocide.”Except for one little detail: it is increasingly clear that the Qana “massacre” was a stage-managed Hizballah production, designed precisely to enflame international sentiment against Israel and compel the Israelis to accept a ceasefire that would enable the jihad terrorist group to gain some time to recover from the Israeli attacks. Some of the principal evidence for this:
* The Israeli bombardment took place about midnight, but the house where the civilians were gathered reportedly did not collapse until 8AM. Said Brigadier General Amir Eshel of the Israeli Air Force, “It is difficult for me to believe that they waited eight hours to evacuate it.” Indeed, it strains credulity that not only did these Lebanese civilians remain in a house that had been bombed for eight hours, but peacefully went to sleep in it after the bombing – since the victims were all apparently sleeping, despite continuing Israeli air bombardment in the area, when the building collapsed. Eshel suggested that “it could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there” – in other words, Hizballah bombs and/or weapons.* Photos of the rescue operation, which were transmitted all over the world and appeared on the front page of the New York Times and other major newspapers, are extremely suspicious. The blog EU Referendum has done important work scrutinizing the photos, finding numerous anomalies. Most notably, the dating of the various photos suggests that the same bodies were paraded before reporters on different occasions, each time as if they had just been pulled from the rubble. In a rebuttal to this charge, AP’s David Bauder rather lamely asserts: “web sites can use such stamps to show when pictures are posted, not taken.” Responds Richard North of EU Referendum: “Note, however, the use of the word ‘can’. He does not say that the ‘date stamps’ are wrong.” EU Referendum has also uncovered strange anomalies in the photos themselves: some workers are wearing different gear in different photos, yet clearly carrying the same corpse. Richard North comments about one of these workers: “It stretches belief to breaking point to argue that, on his way to the ambulance, he took off his helmet, his fluorescent waistcoat and his flack jacket just in order to pose for the cameras putting the body in the wagon – especially as we have the body being placed on the ‘guerney’ – which means the scenes are totally inconsistent.”
* The very existence of these pictures raises more questions. As Israel Insider puts it: “While Hezbollah and its apologists have been claiming that civilians could not freely flee the scene due to Israeli destruction of bridges and roads, the journalists and rescue teams from nearby Tyre had no problem getting there.”
* The Christian Lebanese website LIBANOSCOPIE has charged that Hizballah staged the entire incident in order to stimulate calls for a ceasefire, thereby staving off its destruction by Israel and Lebanese plans to rid themselves of this terrorist plague: “We have it from a credible source that Hizbullah, alarmed by Siniora’s plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations. Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets, Hizbullah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the negotiation initiative.”
* According to the German scholar Matthias Küntzel, “the Berlin daily the Tagesspiegel published a letter-to-the-editor from Dr. Mounir Herzallah, a Shiite from the South of Lebanon. Dr. Herzallah reports on how Hezbollah-terrorists came to his town, dug a munitions depot and then built a school and a residence directly over it. He writes: ‘Laughing, a local sheikh explained to me that the Jews lose either way: either because the rockets are fired at them or because, if they attack munitions depot, they are condemned by world public opinion on account of the dead civilians.’ Hezbollah, he says, uses the civilian population ‘as a human shield and then when they are dead as propaganda.’”
Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, declared that “War is deceit.” Specifically, he taught that lying was permissible in battle.[1] While the doctrines of religious deception (taqiyya and kitman) are most often identified with Shi’ite Islam, and ostensibly rejected by Sunnis, because they were sanctioned by the Prophet, they can still be found in traditions that Sunni Muslims consider reliable, and are practiced among Salafis. Jihadists today have spoken of the usefulness of deceptive practices.
Americans and Westerners are not used to dealing with carefully orchestrated and large-scale deception of this kind. It is time that it be recognized as a weapon of warfare, and an extremely potent one at that. Qana has already largely accomplished what it was supposed to. It will now take its place beside the Danish cartoons, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and all the rest as a useful focal point for Muslim outrage and a magnet for jihad recruitment. The dhimmi Leftist Western press is happy, for it can again show America and Israel as guilty in the world’s site. The mujahedin are happy, for jihad and Sharia will advance still more. The only people who couldn’t possibly be happy with this are the Israelis and others on the front lines of the jihad worldwide.
But who cares about them?
Notes:
[1] Bukhari, vol. 4, book 56, no. 3030; Muslim, vol. 4, book 32, no. 6303.
Posted by Robert at August 2, 2006 5:47 AM
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An Australian Muslim in Qana told Australia’s Herald Sun: “I would say a few hundred have died. This isn’t war, it’s genocide.”
Strange. A Muslim I onced talked to on the net asserted that Israel is conducting genocide againts Palestinians.
Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 2, 2006 6:10 AM
Nice summary - but this story is going to run and run. If enough people can start to ask questions about the manipulation by MSM of news stories then the following should happen:
(i) People will lose trust in MSM reporting at all levels because they have been repeatedly shown to bias news to a particular agenda.
(ii) Either MSM will be forced to change and represent news fairly (because loss of trust == loss of advertising revenue) or they go under and fold.
If everyone questions MSM and threatens boycotts of untrustworthy MSM sources then profits will sink and either the publisher will go under or change their lying ways ...
The choice is in our hands ...
Tip o'the hat: Strangely enough - Chomsky - without whom I would never have posted this ...
Posted by: drk at August 2, 2006 6:14 AM
I summarize the principal evidence that the Qana massacre was an elaborate piece of Hizballah fakery ...
Yet Mr. Spencer, you would encourage Hizballah to take their fake evidence to a fake court in the EU in the hope that in would expose exactly what? Fakery?
I hope your not putting stock in the legitamacy of the ICC in the first place as I infer you do from yesterday's post let alone any thing handed down by this so-called "court" that presumes it has a right to rule upon the world.
Let them hang (signed with a pen; now it's law; kinda cool) Clinton since that traitor is the one who sought to bind all American citizens to the ICC -- other than that, I don't car what the fakers do!
Nevertheless, I commend you for exposing Hizballah theater for what it is!
Posted by: witness at August 2, 2006 6:26 AM
"Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, declared that “War is deceit.” Specifically, he taught that lying was permissible in battle.[1] While the doctrines of religious deception (taqiyya and kitman) are most often identified with Shi’ite Islam, and ostensibly rejected by Sunnis, because they were sanctioned by the Prophet, they can still be found in traditions that Sunni Muslims consider reliable, and are practiced among Salafis. Jihadists today have spoken of the usefulness of deceptive practices."-Robert Spencer
But there is a terrible price to be paid for such systemic deceit: it warps the mind, causes it to distort and deny reality, and to make very bad judgements. Such minds begin to believe their own lies. A good example of this process occurred with Hitler (a born deceiver), whose self-deception and denial of reality led him to make catastrophic decisions at Stalingrad and elsewhere during World War II. He could not deal with facts that did not confirm his beliefs.
The Qana massacre will prove to be a a monumental lie and monumental bad judgement on the part of Israel's enemies. When the truth of Qana is exposed it will be a great victory for Israel. The Islamic mind will have trouble dealing with that reality.
at August 2, 2006 6:30 AM
At the very least, there is from Muslims a history of faked "atrocities," a word that needs to be put in quotation marks because in all such cases, even were those presented as victims, actually were killed in the course of battle, it would hardly constitute an "atrocity." The hysteria over the non-existent "massacre of Jenin" (the only "massacre" was that of 32 Israeli reservists, many of whose lives were lost unnecessarily because they went house-to-house, taking scrupulous care (and a wall was blown up on them), while the American army, or any Western army, would have simply in such conditions flattened the neighborhood, and have been right to do so. The Israelis have been prodigal with the lives of their own soldiers, preferring to risk their lives, and be far too solicitous of the enemy, and one hopes that this kind of thing will end for them, and for all those trying to deal with an enemy that is Nazi-like in its ferocity and its goals.
Another "atrocity" was the staged spectacle of Mohammed al-Dura. That has been written about in such detail, the conceivable trajectory of the bullets coming from the Israelis from several hundred years away, that one need not go over it here.
And there have been others.
Which brings us to all the "atrocities" of which the Americans and the British and no doubt in Afghanistan other NATO forces will be accused. How many of these will consist of howls of protest about a building hit, claimed to be "civilian," when the evidence on the ground, or the evidence that was removed in the night, shows it was a Taliban center, or a center for the followers of al-Zarqawi (or for that matter, of Moqtada al-Sadr's local Shi'a in Iraq). This does not mean that everyone and everything done by the American or British or Dutch or Canadian army will be faultless, but that a much keener awareness of Muhammad's "war is deceit" -- a statement taken to heart -- by the Western press, in discussing not only the Jihad promoted by "qital" or combat, but the Jihad that is promoted in other ways, by Muslims in the Western world pressing every advantage, exploiting in every way the widespread gullibility and innocence of unwary Infidels.
A new attitude of mind is required. Suspicion always, based on a knowledge of how Muslims have behaved historically in pressing their claims, in fulfilling their insensate duty to promote Islam until all barriers to it in the Lands of the Infidels are removed, until Islam dominates, and Muslims rule -- everywhere. Not the story made up by crazed Infidels, but the narrative believed by Muslims, "uncrazed" by their lights (just look at Naseem, who fears every kind of Muslim except those of her own persecuted sect, the Ahmadiyas, and at the same time insists that we Infidels could do no better than become members of that sect ourselves, in order, it appears, to rescue the Naseems of this world, for whom jettisoning this cult is simply inconceivable).
Posted by: Hugh at August 2, 2006 6:52 AM
Cooly dealing with waking reality, especially with facts that conflict with our belief systems is a powerful asset to a person. A good example of such a person was Abe Lincoln. Several people who knew Lincoln well (including Billy Herndon, Stanton and several others) noted that Lincoln had an ability to speak of his beliefs and himself with great self-critical objectivity. Herndon (Lincoln's law partner) said it was eerie how he could get outside himself and see himself. Consequently Lincoln was not prone to blame others, was able to coolly deal with reality, and make very sound judgements.
God made our minds for reality. We learn and grow as we see that. We become distorted as we refuse to be self-critical with regard to our beliefs. We need to look at the facts and not treat beliefs as facts.
Posted by: Frank at August 2, 2006 6:59 AM
Hugh-
The obvious truth is that it makes no sense for Israel to engage in such atrocities for reasons of her own survival. It is in her interests to avoid that. People who don't see that desire to believe otherwise.
Posted by: Frank at August 2, 2006 7:16 AM
Hugh-
You are a skeptic-and no doubt, a skeptic even about God. Thank God for that.
Posted by: Frank at August 2, 2006 7:28 AM
You can't really blame Israel for being overly cautious, because every time a civilian or a "civilian" dies (whether by accident, intentionally or because the local Muslims needed fresh propaganda), the antisemites of the world will be howling for blood. Even if Israel hasn't killed anyone, they may still be accused of doing so.
Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at August 2, 2006 7:31 AM
And verifiable facts should be openly and immediately disseminated throughtout the various media outlets.
I am sometimes frustrated at listening to the moonbats who seem to believe the word of terrorist and then refute the word of others who discover inconsistencies or falsehoods.
It appears (to me), that people are so terrified that the Jews could actually win or that ole GW may actually have some correctness in addressing terrorism as a legitimate battlefront that they just blindly beg for ceasation of hostilities, appeasement at any cost, or even worst--actually support the various terrorist groups.
It is good to broadcast the lies and deceit when uncovered. The mainstream media seems to be very uncomfortable when reporting allied victory. I have noticed the mainstream media reporters often seem to be injecting political policy inuendos. The mainstream media always asks leading questions trying to get the interviewee to say something that sounds provacative or racist. I have noticed the pained look on the faces of the reporters when they ask the questions to the various Israeli official and past politicians. The Israelis are truthful and cleary state their belief, goal and situations. The mainstream media hates it. Contrast that to the gleeful look on their faces when they interview the Lebanese "victims" or politicians or when they show the videos of goose stepping Hezbollah parades. I have noticed the Islamic terrorists even use the Nazi style salute (Heil Hitler). Do you recall the old films of Nazis marching thru the Arc d'triomphe? Well, we could see Islamic Terrorists doing the exact same thing. They are indeed similiar to the Nazis. France could not save itself then and it cannot save itself now.With fearless leaders like DeGaulle and Chirac what do you expect.
I vote we do a better job of exposing the myth that everything bad happening is because of the Jews.
God Bless America--God Bless Israel.
at August 2, 2006 7:33 AM
Today, I watched an episode of a Finnish program called A-Studio (I suppose it's a bit like 60 Minutes), where they talk about Israel's business relations with Finland.
They begin the segment by saying that Israel's recent attacks againts Lebanon and their killing of civilians are a difficult subject for many in the West, which would like to denounce Israel's cruelty, but is afraid to oppose the influential country (I thought we've been denouncing Israel all this time). Of course, they don't say a word about the fact that Lebanon triggered this latest conflict by breaching Israel's borders and killing and kidnapping its soldiers, not to mention all those rocket attacks specifically aimed at the civilian population, and their habit of hiding amongst civilians and using their deaths as propaganda.
It is then "revealed" that Israel has many business ties with Finland, Israeli companies own property in Finland, the Finnish Defence Forces use Israeli equipment, the Finnish and Israeli governments cooperate with each other and so on. The whole thing is laid out like they're unconvering a vast Zionist conspiracy, and even the anti-Israel activist they're "interviewing" (they're not interviewing him, they're just feeding his paranoia and confirming his opinions) is shocked to hear the truth.
Finland has, as far as I can tell, an almost non-existent Jewish population. Where's all this antisemitism coming from? What's the reason?
Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at August 2, 2006 8:31 AM
The Canadian media was part of this scam, the very first report from the scene of the Massacre was only after Hezbollah PR staff allowed civilian journalists into this "Dangerous" area to cover this atrocity , plus , just after the scripted rant about 64 civilians buried in the rubble the reporter sounded monitored and censored but did end with a comment that "So far, I only saw 4 bodies " .
I will restate my observation from the photos that several males had Battle Fatigues for pants and they have the Tiger-stripe pattern, these are hardly pajama's and the green colour also changes any blood from deep red to near black.
This was why many torture rooms had that 4 foot green paint on the walls , blood would splatter and turn dark to hide the abuse, this was the basis for the "Green-room" in show business becuase waiting to go on was a torture .
Posted by: ala-sux
at August 2, 2006 9:58 AM
Knowing what we know about muslims, their "family values", their bravery (hiding behind women and children, attacking little girls on the street and in schools), their child abuse ( teaching children to hate, use weapons, kill, FGM, sexual abuse) I say, Israel, take your gloves off and stop being so nice. War is Hell. Peace is great.
Israel is going to be the "bad" guy no matter what it does or doesn't do. Don't stop to let organizations in to restock, feed or fix anything. Bomb them into submission and make them surrender. They will think twice about attacking you next time.
Posted by: freewoman at August 2, 2006 10:31 AM
-Lebanon dominated by syria.
-hesbolla "liberates" Lebanon from syrian domination.
-Lebanese people accept hesbolla's assumption of rule in thier government.
-hesbolla, with Lebanese and iranian resources begin arming and builting terror rockets.
-hesbolla, now an arm of the Lebanese government attacks Israel and bombs civilian targets via its rockets.
-hesbolla is attacked as Israel attempts to defend itsself
-hesbolla agents caught dressing in civilian clothes, launching rockets from on top of tenaments/hospitals/schools, then the MSM throws in with them.
Tom Clancy style proxy war? We need to use this to our advantage as well. The Lebanese will need to be strong enough not only to throw off hesbulla, but also protect themselves from syrian domination afterward.
Posted by: squire at August 2, 2006 11:27 AM
Nice summary - but this story is going to run and run. If enough people can start to ask questions about the manipulation by MSM of news stories then the following should happen:(i) People will lose trust in MSM reporting at all levels because they have been repeatedly shown to bias news to a particular agenda. Posted by drk
You better include Faux News in that categorization, I haven't listened or watched Faux News in years, but since the commencement of these events initiated by Hizballah, I haven't heard any pundit or commentator on Faux news dissect or take apart the Qana story.. not Oreilly, not Cavuto, not anyone, what I have heard is apologia on their part, an assumption that the event actually happened as exploited by the Islamophilic and dependent media and governments (including the RNC, it's corporations and Bandar Bush).
Posted by: Nariz at August 2, 2006 2:02 PM
Frank: A favorite quotation of "antiZionists" is the MOSSAD motto, "By way of Deception do War", I have been viciously assaulted and denigrated for quoting Muhammad "War is Deception", and google Sun Tzu War Deception OR Deceit.. Fact of the matter is that War can only be waged and won by deceit and deception, that is common sense, and that is a fact from an old warrior who has actually engaged in and planned war and battles.
Intelligence services by their very nature engage in deception, if they didn't then they would not be earning their pay or performing a service to their country.
The problem isn't deception, it comes with the turf, but ineptness on the part of governments and agencies who are responsible for protecting their populations.
Apparently Hizballah and the Muslims in general are doing a better job of propaganda, and I fault Israel and the U.S. for taking the (self defeating) high road.
Play their game, use their tactics, fight fire with fire.
Posted by: Nariz at August 2, 2006 2:13 PM
if this attack on Quana was indeed staged then why isnt it all over the news wires and Larry King Live, etc.??
Posted by: shakedashieks at August 2, 2006 3:59 PM
Robert I saw those "leftist" interviewed on Fox, they are members of and led by A.N.S.W.E.R. If you knew anything about A.N.S.W.E.R. you would know that it was a group with a small cadre of Marxist Jews, and were at the forefront supporting the Bosnians and demanding that Clinton interceded in Yugoslavia, an act strongly supported by Zionist Sen. Joseph Lieberman. So go figure.
Watching BBC America, I heard Daniel Lak state that the U.S. is on the verge of an agreement for Lebanon which included a military role for Hizballah as perhaps a national guard sans rockets.
Quite a victory for Hizballah and Iran..looks like they won, looks like Muslims will win, and I know why. They have no conscience, no concern are experts at whining, propaganda, staging events, they don't fear death and that alone is perhaps their most effective weapon.
Islamists can be defeated, but it takes cajones to do it..level the country, deprive them of a place to hide and deprive them of the nutrition on which they live..support of the people.
A guerilla swims in the sea of the people..Mao Tse Tung.
I just heard Lou Dobbs, CNN say, that we need the moral courage to inflict massive damage on the enemy....which of course means taking the fight to the source of support for the enemy..and that source is the people.
If people get killed then it is their fault for allowing themselves to be used for food, financing, shelter and shields.
And after watching those little kids marching with Islamic headbands and cammies, and chanting to be Shahids I am of the conclusion that there are no such thing as innocent civilians anymore.
We should put that notion to rest.
Posted by: Nariz at August 2, 2006 7:02 PM
A guerilla swims in the sea of the people..Mao Tse Tung...nariz
________________________________________________
In the case of hisbollah they not only swin in the sea of the people...they also swim in their blood.
Posted by: jimmy at August 3, 2006 7:15 AM
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