Snapped Shot

It looks like somebody did not get the memo.

And to think I put so much effort into trying to keep the wire services from being overly repetitive with my wonderfully sardonic commentary.

Nasser Shiyoukhi, of the wire-service-that-shall-remain-nameless, has taken yet another picture of Israeli soldiers, ruthlessly pointing their guns at some poooooor, innocent Palestinian children.

I'd love to show you the picture, but as you know, I can't. So I'll just have to send you over to Honest Reporting, who has it directly from a glorious half-page spread on the front page of the Globe and Mail.

For the record, Shiyoukhi has previously managed to align an Israeli soldier's gun with a Palestinian child's head here. 'Course, Nasser's not the first to do this—our own buddy Muhammed Muheissen did it too, though I don't think he appreciated my commentary on the matter at the time. (Not that I had put things in the most diplomatic of terms, of course... )

Update: Here's another tiresome alignment I'd love to show you, courtesy AP photographer Tara Todras-Whitehill. Of course, since it's an AP asset, I won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. (Yet.)

I covered a photo almost identical to this one way back during this protest, from Reuters photographer Ammar Awad. I think my commentary on the obviously propagandistic composure of this type of photograph is as accurate today as it was then, so forgive me for letting my previous quote stand:

Yeah, we get it, the EVIL ZIONIST ENTITY is a HORRIFIC ZIONIST POLICE STATE. Blah blah blah. But seriously, are obviously framed photographs like [this] really necessary?

Update again—I may not be able to show you the pictures, but I sure as heck can tag them. Rawwwwrrr!

It's amazing how the number of the "martyred" in any given Israeli "attack" tends to swell upon each retelling. For example, here's what the Associated Press reported earlier today:



Not to be left out of the latest Jihadi du jour, Reuters was on the scene as well. Their report, however, is slightly different than the AP's telling of the story:



All this aside, it is pretty clear (WARNING: Morgue shots) exactly how many Hamas militants were killed in this strike, which makes Reuters' exaggeration of the story somewhat befuddling.

Aha, that's what it is—Reuters is grouping two additional jihadis in their body count, but attaching it to an irrelevant photograph. The people in the picture above (notice that the same man is present in the two main photos presented here) weren't necessarily being "told" that "up to eight" Hamasiacs had been killed, but rather had just gotten out from seeing the six present.

Reuters is still wrong, by the way. Only six were killed in an airstrike. The other two, as the AP correctly points out, were killed in "clashes with troops."

Two huzzahs for that vaunted fact-checking.