Articles Roundup: "DEAD MAN WALKING!!"

-James Taranto from Opinion Journal takes us through journalistic history to show that using "fauxtography" to manipulate the news is nothing new.

Monday, June 3, 2002 2:40 p.m. EDT

Family Ties--I
Remember Suhaib Salem? He's the Reuters photographer whom Israel arrested in Gaza on May 22 on suspicion of terrorism--the Israelis claimed, and he denied, that he had a grenade in his possession--then released last week. The Associated Press reports that Salem's brother Salah was "one of the men involved in the kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldier Cpl. Nachson Waxman in 1994. Both Salah Salem and Waxman were killed when the Israelis attempted to rescue Waxman." Reuters doesn't seem to have mentioned Salah Salem in its coverage of his brother's arrest.
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-Ari Shavit of Haaretz opines that the bribery scandal facing Prime Minister Olmert and his wife is just another signal in the end of the PM's primiereship.

Here is the news: Aliza and Ehud Olmert will be summoned to an investigation in the State Comptroller's office within a few days.

The prime minister and his wife will be presented with these findings: The price they paid for their new house on 8 Cremieux Street in Jerusalem is lower than its market price by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The difference between the sum they paid - some $1.2 million - and the house's value - $1.6-1.8 million - is hard to explain. It raises suspicion that the prime minister and his wife illicitly received about half a million dollars.

There is another suspicion: The house the Olmerts bought had been earmarked for preservation. Converting a house marked for preservation into a house that can be torn down, rebuilt or expanded requires special and irregular permits from the Jerusalem municipality. There is evidence to support the suspicion that Olmert's confidants helped the contractor who sold Olmert the house obtain those irregular permits. If this is the case, the real estate deal was probably a bribery deal. The prime minister and his wife will be questioned about that.
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One may hazard a guess that by the Knesset's winter session, Olmert will no longer be prime minister.[...] Therefore the good of the state requires accelerating the inquiry process, not suspending it. The Olmert issue must be sorted out swiftly and thoroughly. It cannot continue to hover like a shadow over a country in an emergency. A country committed to embark on a new era without delay cannot accept at its helm a man embodying the affliction of the old era.

-Memri has a special dispatch in which the Grand Mufti of Egypt states that the fight against Hezbollah have shown that "The true face of the blood-sucking Hebrew entity has been exposed".

In an article in the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, Egyptian Mufti Sheikh Dr. 'Ali Gum'a expressed his support of the resistance in Lebanon and stated that the lies of the "Hebrew entity" expose "the true and hideous face of the blood-suckers... who prepare [Passover] matzos from human blood." [1]

The following are excerpts from the article:

"Greetings to the Lebanese people, to the Lebanese government, and to the Lebanese resistance - to the small and beautiful country that has proved to the world that the ideals of determination, bravery and self-dignity still exist in this era that has been taken over by the blood-sucking murderers.

"Anyone who follows the news will discover that the Hebrew entity has turned into a [source] of [empty] talk, while the Arab discourse, which was characterized in the sixties [as empty talk], has developed significantly. [The Arabs] have learned a lesson and have moved from talk to action, and from the fostering of illusions to honesty, transparency, realistic goal-setting and ability to change. The Israeli discourse, [on the other hand], has turned to false declarations based on illusions, with wishful thinking taking precedence over facts.

"These lies have exposed the true and hideous face of the blood-suckers who were described by Filmange in his book The Treasure Hidden in the Talmudic Laws [sic], which tells how [the Jews] planned [to prepare] a matzo [unleavened Passover bread] using human blood. [2] If we follow events, the most important thing [that we discover], in my opinion, is that the war going on [today] plants hatred in the next generations, as though one of its goals is to perpetuate the conflict for many years to come.
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