Blogometer PM Extra I

MIDDLE EAST II: A Banner Is Worth A Thousand Blog Posts

Speculation is growing on the right that Hezbollah staged elements of the Qana tragedy to elicit international pressure on Israel. Jonah Goldberg at The Corner asks "Was Qana Staged?" and examines the banner Beirut demonstrators unfurled later that day: "I don't want to get too far out ahead on this, but I know we've got a zillion printer-type folks among our readers. Do you guys think such a banner could be made in 2-4 hours (particularly in a supposedly war-ravaged area)?"

Power Line had similar thoughts: "What seems odd about this is that the banner was unfurled within hours after the Qana attack took place. The building where the civilians died was bombed on Sunday morning, and the demonstration took place during daylight hours, later the same day. I have no idea what kind of facility it takes to produce a 30-foot-high banner like this one. It is obviously professionally done. It would be interesting to know where this banner was produced; who designed and paid for it; and how its production was expedited so that it was ready for use, on the street, within hours after the event being protested. For example, was the image of Rice produced in advance, awaiting a pretext for its use, with only the script added at the last minute? I've often been curious about the logistics of pro-terrorist demonstrations, and this seems like an especially curious example."

Goldberg reported back with answers to his "banner could be made in 2-4 hours" question: " Heck no. A designer could throw it together in probably 15 minutes or so, but the longest part would be the printing. Notice how deep the reds and blacks are - this means they didn't just bust it out. I wouldnt be surprised if that job itself (requiring special equipment, as it looks to be printed on canvas or nylon, not merely paper) took 6 hours simply to print."

Also at The Corner Mona Charen chimed in: "Thanks to Jonah for flagging this. There is much more here and here and here . Many suspicious details about Qana point to possible Hezbollah staging of entire thing. Banner is suspicious, ditto the time lag between building being hit and collapsing, pictures of dead children were clearly exploited and also do not look — there's no pleasant way to say this — newly dead. If this were staged by Hezbollah it would not be the first time the Palestinians have faked footage. Just a few weeks ago they circulated a clearly doctored tape throughout the Arab world that purported to show Israeli gunboats firing at a beach in Gaza. The Qana backstory is something all serious journalists should be on."

Outside the Beltway also picked up on Israel Insider evidence that: "indicates that the collapse of the building in Qana and subsequent deaths of women and children were all staged by Hezbollah." Israel Insider concludes: "Viewers can judge for themselves. But the accumulating evidence suggests another explanation for what happened at Kana. The scenario would be a setup in which the time between the initial Israeli bombing near the building and morning reports of its collapse would have been used to “plant” bodies killed in previous fighting — reports in previous days indicated that nearby Tyre was used as a temporary morgue — place them in the basement, and then engineer a “controlled demolition” to fake another Israeli attack."