Has Anyone Satisfactorily Answered The Question: Why Was The Media Covering A Tree Next To Lebanon?

With Israel's stand on the Lebanese skirmish now proven correct, one of the issues that has to be addressed is what exactly Lebanon was up to and why.

One of the keys is the fact that the media showed up to watch Israel cut a tree.

HonestReporting notes:

How and Why Were the Photographers There?

An AP report on the incident places Ronith Daher, a Lebanese journalist and the photographer of the above image, at the scene. Evidently, someone from Reuters was also there to take the previous image. But why were they there in the first place taking photographs before the incident even occurred?


After all, pruning foliage is hardly headline news on an ordinary day unless something out of the ordinary was expected. UNIFIL and through it, the Lebanese Army, had been notified of the IDF's routine maintenance and even UNIFIL now admits that the Lebanese fire was unwarranted.

Also according to AP, a Lebanese journalist with the daily Al-Akhbar newspaper, Assaf Abu Rahhal, was killed when an Israeli shell landed next to him in the border village of Adeisseh. Al-Akhbar is reportedly associated with Hezbollah and has been denounced by Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt as being funded by Syria and Iran. So what was Abu Rahhal doing in the area exposing himself to IDF counter-fire?

A Reuters photographer was also on the scene in Adeisseh capturing the moments in the immediate aftermath of the IDF retaliation that led to the deaths of Abu Rahhal and three Lebanese soldiers. [emphasis in original]

This, combined with the infiltration of Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers into the Lebanese army leads HonestReporting to the question:

Was this incident a staged and pre-planned ambush as evidenced by the presence of photographers and journalists even before the exchange of fire? Were these journalists there precisely because they had advance notice of a potential flashpoint?

Read the whole thing.

And as you read what comes out of the media, see if they are bothered by the odd coincidences and address what really happened.

Technorati Tag: Lebanon.