An "Inconvenient" Truth

Throughout the Lebanon war, the MSM relentlessly presented misleading and erroneous information that claimed Israel was bombing innocent civilian targets. Left-leaning “human rights” groups went so far as to accuse the Israeli’s of “war crimes.” None of these entities considered waiting for all the facts to be collected. Most, if not all, used Hezballah’s story line (and lies) with little, if any skepticism. Most, if not all, tempered their harsh words for Hezballah, preferring to characterize the terrorist group as "militants," "activists," or innocent civilians. The bias of the MSM and groups such as Human Rights Watch and even the Red Cross was palpable. It was also pathetic and maddening.

Today, none other than The New York Times reports:

In a new report, an Israeli research group says Hezbollah stored weapons in mosques, battled Israelis from inside empty schools, flew white flags while transporting missiles and launched rockets near United Nations monitoring posts.

The detailed report on the war was produced by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, a private research group headed by Reuven Erlich, a retired colonel in military intelligence, who worked closely with the Israeli military.”

Of course, Hezballah officials are quoted with denials and as we all know, Hezballah never lies or fabricates news reports. After all, they're simply oppressed activists, aren’t they?

The NYT continues:

The report includes Israeli Air Force video that it says shows several instances of Hezbollah personnel firing rockets next to residential buildings in southern Lebanon and then being bombed by Israel. The adjacent buildings were presumably damaged, but there is no information on whether civilians were inside.

“This study explains the dilemma facing the Israeli military as it fights an enemy that intentionally operates from civilian areas,” Mr. Erlich said. “This is the kind of asymmetric warfare we are seeing today. It’s not only relevant to Lebanon, but is also what we are seeing in the Gaza Strip and in Iraq.”

The report says: “The construction of a broad military infrastructure, positioned and hidden in populated areas, was intended to minimize Hezbollah’s vulnerability. Hezbollah would also gain a propaganda advantage if it could represent Israel as attacking innocent civilians.”

In video from July 23, a truck with a multi-barreled missile launcher, presumably from Hezbollah, is parked in a street, sandwiched between residential buildings. The video was transmitted from an Israeli missile approaching the truck. The screen goes fuzzy as the missile slams into the target.

In another video, from a Lebanese village, rockets are seen being fired from a launcher on the back of a truck. The truck then drives a short distance and disappears inside a building. Seconds later, the building itself disappears under a cloud of smoke from an Israeli bomb.

The report says that there were many such examples, and that Hezbollah has been preparing for such an engagement for years, embedding its fighters and their weapons in the Shiite villages of southern Lebanon. When Hezbollah fired its rockets from those areas, Israel faced a choice of attacking, and possibly causing civilian casualties, or refraining from shooting because of the risk, the report said.

Of course, none of this comes as any surprise to anyone with half a brain.

The problem, of course, is that the truth now appears many months after the lies have been planted. For many on the left, the lies are reality, and the truth, well, that’s just (to quote Al Gore) “inconvenient.”

Addendum (12/6/06):

Wretchard of The Belmont Club comments on the travesty that resulted in the presentation of lies as truth throughout the Lebanese war and the current attempt by Israel to set the record straight:

It's a story of too little and too late. The Left had no difficulty in painting a portrait of a New Guernica with digitally altered pictures, fake sources, unsupported accusations, racist charges and whatever else they could think up even as the bombs were falling. Now Israel produces the grainy, real pictures to show that it was the Hezbollah which committed the war crimes. That's a serious accusation supported by serious proof. But how can these low-resolution UAV images compete with the full color, staged photographs of New York Times cameraman Tyler Hicks? No, the IDF has been beaten in the propaganda war and it will be beaten again in the next few months if Lebanon turns hot. Beaten because it did not have the infrastructure -- the "concerned" committees, speakers bureaus, media houses, legal aid shops, international organizations and an army of writers -- to compete with the lie.