P/I Spew #  [001]  --   Israel caught photoshopping evidence from the attack on the Mavi Marmara  

It goes almost without saying that the Israelis will do anything it takes to spin the May31.2010 Israeli Defense Forces attack on the Mavi Marmara in order to dampen the growing backlash of negative world opinion.  Violence followed by deceit and lying is Israeli's modus operandi and it's one of the reasons the world is beginning to detest them. Here is an example.

Within hours of the IDF attack, a moderate Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, published the following photo.

The photo looked odd to me and so I took a screenshot.  Unfortunately, I cut off some of the legend not knowing it would become as interesting as the photo.  Obviously, it says something about somebody holding a knife and the Israel Navy.  And it's a pretty scary photo.  I don't think you could find a scarier or more inflammatory photo, given the circumstances.  The implication is clearly that this is what those brave, heroic IDF commandos faced when they stormed the Mavi Marmara -- blood thirsty terrorists with daggers in the striking position.  Who could blame them from shooting?  Even from the air.

Mind you, the article was published the same day as the attack -- within hours, well before the Mavi Marmara reached shore.  How and from where, I asked myself, was Ha'aretz able to get such a dramatic photo so fast?  Were the IDF commando dorks shooting pictures between shooting unarmed Turks during the attack and Emailing them to the media?  Surely the commandos didn't have time to confiscate all the cameras from the passengers and wade through all the shots to find this dramatic and damning photo and get it to the newspapers within hours of the raid.  Besides there is no attribution..  This is bullshit, said I.

On Jun09.10 I checked the Ha'aretz article again.  The photo was still there, but the legend had been altered and expanded as shown here.

Now we have an attribution: the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, which is, I believe, the Israeli military version of George Orwell's Ministry of the Truth.  

Now my suspicions were really piqued.  The photo just doesn't look right.  Look at the expressions on the four or five faces in the background.  They do not look like the sort of guys watching one of their own in the middle of a blood-curdling attack on Israeli soldiers who have just attacked their ship from a helicopter.  They look like a bunch of guys standing around watching one of their buddies change a flat tire.

Here is a link to the Ha'aretz article so you can see for yourself. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-commandos-gaza-flotilla-crew-tried-to-lynch-us-1.293089

If you blow this photo up just a tad, you can easily see that it has been photoshopped to add the dagger.  

It's a sloppy job, too.  The shoulder of the guy in the black shirt in the lower left can actually be seen through upper portion of the dagger blade.  You can also see that the blade doesn't connect properly to the hilt. It looks like it comes out of the side of the hilt instead of the middle.  The bottom part of the blade looks like it extends below the edge of the hilt.  Also, if you follow the upper edge of the blade from the hilt forward, you'll find a disconnect before you get to the part where the guy's shoulder is -- that edge is not continuous.  

It's embarrassing for the Israelis to cock-up an attack by armed commandos on a bunch of unarmed peaceniks.  It shows the world what morons the Israeli command guys are and what incompetents the commandos are.  But now the incompetence extends even to the Ministry of Truth. 

You look at this photo and you have to be convinced that the Israelis are liars.  And as their spin keeps on spewing forth like foul crude from a busted pipe in the Gulf of Mexico, just keep in mind what they're capable of.  It's not honesty, and it's not honor.