In the annals of IDF lies this, perhaps, isn’t the worst or most insensitive. It doesn’t falsely claim a Palestinian murdered in cold blood actually died from Palestinian fire. But it does expose the banality of the deceit the IDF perpetrates on Israel and the world. The IDF official Twitter account posted this tweet:
#IDF troops left #Lebanon 14yrs ago. Now #Hezbollah terrorists have rearmed, w/ 100,000 missiles pointed at #Israel pic.twitter.com/aglRPujynf
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) May 24, 2014
Original image published at South Korean website
The facts in the text are accurate as far as they go (more on this below). But the deceit lies in the picture. It doesn’t show Hezbollah missiles, nor even missiles in Hezbollah’s arsenal. The IDF spokesperson couldn’t be bothered to find such a picture which would actually match the text. Instead, he found an ominous photo of missiles that conveyed the menace and threat he sought to dramatize. So he used it. Authenticity or accuracy be damned.
The original image pictured North Korean SCUD missiles and South Korean Hawks missiles at the South Korean War Memorial. It was published in this South Korean TV channel website.
Now as to the substance of the tweet itself: the IDF is in the midst of the major budge battle in which it must prove its critical role in protecting Israeli society from the perils that menace it from outside. What better way to do this than to show the world the missiles poised to annihilate Israel?
Nor should we neglect that at least twice in the past decade, Syria and Iran have offered in negotiation to reign in Hezbollah and turn it into a purely political movement, rather than an armed militia. The first offer was from the Khatami government in 2003. The Bush administration scored this offer. In 2009, just before Operation Cast Lead, Turkey was mediating between Syria and Israel and was about to begin face-to-face negotiations aimed at resolving all the outstanding issues between the two, including Hezbollahs future role in Lebanon. Ehud Olmert had an opportunity to end a decades old stalemate. Instead, he chose to go to war on Hamas. Turkey prime minister Erdogan angrily denounced both Israel’s attack on Gaza and Olmert’s perfidy. The result has been five years of profound hostility between Israel and Turkey (culminating in the execution of ten Turkish activists by IDF paratroops at point blank range).
So before we accept Israel as a cowering victim in the shadow of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, let’s acknowledge the times Israel snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I have only so much sympathy for a nation which does its best to provoke the ire of its neighbors and then turns to the world expecting sympathy.
H/t Zeatu Barbarosa’s Israeli blog.
This is something you twitted earlier today, isn’t it ?
What was that in Israeli Declaation of Independence about “freedom of religion?” This Negev mosque demolished by IDF link to t.co
— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) May 25, 2014
You know the picture is of a mosque in Angola, right ?
link to thenewturkey.org
@ Nonsense: You’re full of crap. I’ve searched TinEye and the photo has appeared twice before online and both times it was portrayed as a mosque destroyed by Israel in Gaza. The only thing wrong with my tweet is that the mosque is not the one in the Negev destroyed by Israel, but a different mosque destroyed by Israel in Gaza. If you like, I can find a picture of the Negev mosque’s destruction.
And use what brain power you have. The caption for the image in the article to which you linked doesn’t say the mosque was in Angola.
I dare you to find the original photo.
The picture was taken in angola in November 2013 and surfaced all over the world
from the India times to Turkey.
link to watchmen-news.com
I guess that the India Times fit your nonsense about ” Islamophobic websites that wouldn’t know a mosque from a sacramental wafer.”
Yes, here are the remains of the mosque of Wadi al-Niam: link to alarab.net
As for the other image, I’m afraid you’re dumber than dirt. Here is the caption from Electronic Intifada:
Here is the link to the blog post featuring the image: link to electronicintifada.net
Eat crow, buddy. Eat crow.
Yep, and I zoomed on the photo, and the boy in the front with his arms in the air clearly looks ‘Arab’ to me, but then, there probably are some Arabs in Angola too….
Nonsense,
If you would click on the picture that accompanies the Watchmen-news story on Angola, you will find the location of the jpeg that Watchmen-news used . That location is : http://watchmen-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/gaza-mosque-610×400.jpg
Please note that even the Watchmen-News labels the picture as “Gaza Mosque”. The photo was merely added to a story about Angola, whose truth is now denied by the Angolan authorities.
Here is a picture of the destroyed Al-Tawqa Mosque in Gaza City. The picture is registered with Getty Images and was created on January 9, 2009:
link to gettyimages.co.uk
@ tree: Thanks for the research. I told Nonsense some of what you said & I never heard any acknowledgement of his error from him. He’s already on to a new hasbara objective here.