Israel Matzav

Asma al-Assad helping Syrian refugees?

Err... Not really....

ProAssad media photoshopped Asma Assad's head onto Angelina Jolie's body and said she's helping Syrian refugees. LOL! pic.twitter.com/NzWV6IEsUl
— كريم بيجيتا (@SaiyanSyrian) March 5, 2014

Labels: Angelina Jolie, Asma al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad, photoshop, Syria, Syrian refugees, Syrian uprising

Hamas lies to its people again

Below are two pictures taken by a Japanese journalist from the newspaper Asahi Shimbun at the Hamas rally in Gaza on Saturday. The pictures are of a huge wall poster which purports to show the damage from Hamas rockets shot at Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense. If you look at the burnt area above the church steeple, that's where they apparently suggest that the rockets hit.

Two problems with the photos. First, they're a lousy photoshop job. Second, Asahi Shimbun's offices are right above the area (where there are two towers that are really supposed to be one), and they know they weren't hit.

Gee, you think Hamas would lie to its own people?

Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, fake photos, Gaza, Hamas, Jerusalem, Operation Pillar of Defense, photoshop

Iran caught photoshopping missile test image

Iran has been caught (again) photoshopping an image in a missile launch.

According to a Google search, that image first appeared on the Internet on July 9, 2008 on a Word Press site called "What the Crap?" That time stamp would've been just after Iran was originally busted for Photoshopping an image of its missile test. During that time, a number of clever news watchers produced a series of prank versions of the Iran missile launch like this one and this one, which transformed the embarrassing episode into a funny Internet meme. Humorously, it appears Iran is now using images from the meme it created to depict its own missile program. Even more humorously, it appears the Photoshopped image MNA picked includes a photo of loathed Star Wars prequel character Jar Jar Binks. Take a closer look:

Heh.

Labels: Iranian missiles, photoshop

Maan: Making up the news

In the spirit of Suha Arafat's blood libel that Israel was poisoning the waters of Gaza, Maan published the image at top left along with claims that Israel is using some sort of horrific new weapon in the latest fighting in Gaza.

The head of an emergency ward in a Gaza City hospital said Monday that Israeli forces were using new, more brutal weapons against residents of the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Israeli forces began a four-day bombarded the coastal enclave killing 14 Palestinians and wounding dozens more in a series of airstrikes and drone attacks.

Dr Ayman As-Sahbani said patients were admitted with horrific injuries and that some bodies delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital were so badly burned they were unrecognizable.

He said Israeli weapons made no distinction between women, children and the elderly, pointing out that a two-year-old toddler and a 13-year-old boy were among those killed in the latest escalation.

Do any weapons distinguish between men, women, children and the elderly? No. As it happens, the two-year old was killed because he was being used as a human shield. The boy's father was the owner of the home where the Popular Resistance Committees leadership was meeting on Thursday evening, and he kept the child home as a human shield. The 13-year old was also a ~~passenger~~ human shield in a terrorist's car.

But it was the picture that really got me. I spent a long time trying to figure out if it was a photoshop (I am not an expert). In the end, I decided that it looks like napalm - an image I grew up with in the Vietnam era. But so far, I cannot find a similar image to this one online. I'm still working on it if anyone has any ideas. I am convinced that the image did not come from Gaza and was not shot in the last week.

UPDATE 2:24 PM

If you look in the comments, you will see that reader Rungholt has found the same image in a 2009 blog post - probably from Operation Cast Lead. White phosphorus (which is legal when used properly - as it was used by Israel during Operation Cast Lead) perhaps?

UPDATE 10:07 PM

The picture is picture number 9 here. It was taken on January 3, 2009 (Hat Tip: Tamzen L).

Labels: chemical weapons, Maan News, napalm, photoshop, Vietnam