Not surprisingly, there is growing consternation if not outrage about the devastation brought about by Israel's bombing of targets inside Lebanon. Without a doubt, there will be demands that Israel compensates the Lebanese for this destruction, estimated by Al-Fadl Shalaq, head of the Hizballah Fundraising Committee (Lebanese) Council for Development and Reconstruction at $3.6 billion, a figure Reuters, Aftenposten, eagerly lap up.
Images are flying, of the same Beirut neigborhood, and of internally displaced people sleeping in parking garages.
These image should disturb all of us, but I've learned to be deeply suspicious. When Shalag rhetorically asks what would happen if 25% of all French were displaced in the month of August, he's in fact describing reality - I would estimate at least 25% of all French people displace themselves to go on vacation. And before somebody jumps down my throat, yes, I realize that fleeing a war is different from taking a week with the kids on the beach, or in the mountains. But the mere fact that a large portion of a country moves itself all at once is not as radical as one might first assume - and these people had plenty of notice.
By the same token, as horrible as the rubble is in Haret Hreik and Qana, we simply do not have anything approaching an objective consideration of how widespread the damage is. And I haven't seen a lot of pictures of the area around Kiryat Shemona.
And, of course, nobody is writing up headlines about the economic damage done to Israel - which can be measured not just in terms of destruction, but also the opportunity cost of shutting down Northern Israel and mobilizing several divisions of reserve troops.
Among the Israelis affected is probably Tuvia Grossman. Tuvia, some of us might remember, was once cast by the Associated Press as a "Palestinian" beat up by an Israeli soldier on the "Temple Mount" in 2006. In fact, he was a Jewish student whom an Arab mob tried to lynch in the Wadi Al-Joz, a fair distance from Mount Moriah. The policeman was in fact (and bravely) chasing off the (cowardly) lynch mob.
In all likelihood, Tuvia's story wouldn't even have made a single major newspaper if it weren't for the fact that the Associated Press was caught - by none other than Tuvia's own father - in the news fabrication. As it was, the newspapers came to correct their original caption but didn't change the one-sided narrative the picture was supposed to convey originally. The Associated Press, as far as I know, hasn't explained how this forgery sailed straight through their editorial process.
Meanwhile, Tuvia - having healed from his beatings and stabbings - has moved to Israel for good. We can only hope he has a peaceful life there.
Little Green Footballs has made an obsession about pointing out fake photojournalism, and I hope others catch this bug - the Reuters fiasco being far from a unique example.
Now, let me ask this: where the fuck are Israeli military photographers sent by the IDF's PR arm? Why aren't they publishing photos, facts, numbers, etc., that at least contradict some of the invented stuff? Of course, the Western press won't believe it at first, but a) when it is the only photographic material available on certain subjects, and b) if the IDF actually makes a policy of being painstakingly accurate, their work will gain acceptance. But what's become apparent is that a lot of journalists in the Middle East make up shit if they don't like what they actually see and find.
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