Israeli PR on Kuntar
July 17, 2008
Western media, including the Guardian and the Independent have bought the story hook, line and sinker, yet there is nothing beyond the account of the Israeli military to corroborate it. The official story is all PR.
‘PR campaign will make clear: Samir Kuntar is a murderer’, reports Ha’aretz.
Israel yesterday launched an international media campaign against Hezbollah. The Prime Minister’s Office’s public relations unit is handling the information, which includes an Internet film for YouTube about Samir Kuntar, portraying him as a murderer who crushed a four-year-old girl’s skull.
Israeli envoys abroad and the Foreign Ministry are telling international and Arab media that Kuntar is “no freedom fighter but an abominable murderer.” The campaign, which emphasizes Israel’s moral values compared with its enemies, is also intended to prevent the possibility of international recognition and legitimization of Hezbollah.
Another message is that the soldiers were abducted on a mission on Israeli territory while Kuntar came from Lebanon to attack civilians.
Here is a picture quiz to see if you can see whether a child is a Jew or a Palestinian.
http://morris108.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/picture-quiz-6-jews-6-palestinians-choose-which-is-which-answers-provided/
There was a lot of hue and cry over a pall of smoke added to Beirut sky line by a Reuters’ a freelance photographer (as if just he and not the bombers should be condemned for any wrongdoing). But not much on how a prisoner released by Israel is pictured and dubbed by media that is ever boastful of it being objective.
If you look at “One side celebrates as the other mourns” in the print edition of The Times, London
You find 2 photos placed side by side of a released prisoner and an Israeli soldier’s wife.
Some how the facial features of the person appear grim to match with the caption referring to the person as “the notorious Samir Qantar”.