Nuff said?
Posted on 07/24/2006 8:53:24 AM PDT by MikeA
In the public relations battle brewing on-line, there is a new eye to the center of the storm surrounding the war with Hizbullah - a series of photos showing Israeli children writing messages on shells meant for targets in Lebanon.
Questions over the photos' authenticity have been put to rest by authorities that were present during the incident, which occurred on July 17 near the northern border. The mostly local children had been brought to see the shells by their parents. Although it remains unclear who encouraged them to write the messages, their colorful scribbles, including a Star of David, hearts, and "From Israel, with Love," have appeared in dozens of blogs, or on-line journals, and on-line photo hosting sites.
Although the IDF has failed to issue a response to the incident, a spokesman from the IDF said it "appeared as though the situation occurred unofficially." Although an officer was present during the incident, the soldiers, and the IDF as a whole, did not condone or condemn the incident.
An official close to Israel's public relations campaign said that there was "no way" to spin the incident in a positive light. "Some people are simply irresponsible," said the official.
On-line, the photos are being called "horrifying," "disgusting" and "despicable." "I still cannot understand why or how anyone would allow their young children to walk up to missiles or other explosives. The militarization of children is always a crime," said one user by the name of "aviv2b" on the Guardian Web site, which ran a lengthy discussion about the photos.
Another reader, by the name barbicanangel posted that "I still say Israel is right in this war, however, the picture of young Jewish girls signing the shells is quite disturbing."
Although the photos were first taken by professional photographers from AFP, Associated Press, and Haaretz, they were circulated on-line through the popular photo-hosting Web site Flickr.com. That site republished the photos, bringing them to the attention of hundreds who later posted them on their own personal sites.
Many users on both the flickr and Guardian Web sites said that the images proved how difficult it was for a country to control their public relations image on-line. "There is no way to tell how, when, where, or why these photos were taken," said one anonymous poster. "We have to rely on the people hosting the Web sites, who have no official accountability hanging over their heads at all."
Over the years, there have been a number of photos that have been popularized by the on-line community such as photos of young Palestinian babies dressed as suicide bombers, or Israeli children in Purim costumes mocking Palestinian political officials.
People have written stuff on ordnance as long as there has been ordnace to write on..........
Is the point Israel's kids can write and Hezbolla cannot?
If in doubt...blame a whole continent! LOL
Thank you for providing those pictures to underline my point.
Where is the picture of the Islamic kids dancing while American GI's were hung from a bridge.
this is my talkbalk comment (not yet published)
this is absurd. for people under constant rocket assault to use "graffiti" or "art" to ease the tensions and help unify the people, adults or children is understandable and possibly desireable. Hezbollah is these children's enemy too. signing shells doesnt make people into militants or vile arabian killers. it makes them proud to stand on their own feet and do what is natural for people who are not kowtowed to some stupid liberal vision of irreality. decorate all you want and know that it is for a good cause.
Yep.
English schoolchildren wrote on bombs destined for Germany.
This immasculated nonsense infuriates me.
Even during the "Civil" War, people wrote stuff on the bombs.......
Most of the criticism I hear of Israel is coming from Europe. They seem almost more vociferous than the Arab countries. Sorry, but I can't pretend Europeans aren't a bunch of weak, amoral surrender monkeys.
I recall the effort by many immediately following 9/11 as how best to calm and allay the fears of children. Many psychologists and other misplaced intellects were suggesting various limp wristed ideas. Nobody interviewed this father who simply put up a few targets of Bin Laden and let his kids plink away with their air rifles.
Nope, more needs to be said:
The handwringers wouldn't have minded so much if the kids had written "disproportionate" on those shells.
I was looking for photos of the working guns that palestinian children make out of scraps of pipe and springs.
Well anyone who thinks that 30+ nations and 500 million people all believe the same thing can insult me all they want.
The only thing is, there is a lot of "weak, amoral surrender monkeys" who have died in the war on terror, and I am sure you didn't mean to insult the heroic dead and their families, as we both know it was a laughable generalisation.
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