Snapped Shot

I'm guessing that Patrick Baz/AFP would readily identify this guy as a "civilian", judging by the caption:

A members of the Palestinian National Guard affiliated with Hamas, walks on the rubble of the bombed National Guard headquarters in Gaza City on January 21, 2009. The last Israeli soldier withdrew from the Gaza Strip today, the fourth day of a ceasefire that ended a 22-day blitz on the Islamist Hamas movement in which 1,300 Palestinians were killed. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Question: How does one determine the difference between a civilian holding guns who is "affiliated" with Hamas, and one who is Hamas?

The wonders of guerilla warfare—in which a quasi-military force refuses to wear a uniform, in order to blend in with the population from which they spring—will endlessly escape the idealists in Gay Paree, it seems.

Sometimes, I get the feeling that AFP is trying to get Greenpeace into this war:

A Lebanese man walks on a public beach polluted with heavy fuel oil in Beirut, July 2006... could rival the Exxon Valdez disaster... if not urgently addressed, the United Nations has said. (AFP/File/Patrick Baz)

A crab covered in oil struggles towards the sea polluted with oil in Beirut, July 2006. (AFP/File/Patrick Baz)

(The redundancy must be there to more fully express the urgency in stopping the "violent polluters" from Israel, no doubt...)

Of course, we all know what happened the LAST time Greenpeace tried anything drastic:



Sunk by the French, no less!

My advice to AFP: Perhaps editorializing on the environmental aspects of this conflict can wait until it's actually over?

Also, from the looks of the first picture, that spill doesn't seem to be so big. Maybe it's time to study some maps of Alaska and compare them to Lebanon for size...? Nah, I think AFP would much rather we just stop thinking, and start feeeeeling the pain of that poor crab!