On Friday, Charles Johnson and I will be interviewed together by French Channel 2. Normally this wouldn’t be such a big deal (except to us, maybe), but an article has appeared in the New York Times this morning that adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the event.
Inexplicably buried in the Business Section, it is the first Times report that I know of (after four years) about the strange Mohammed al-Dura case. For those who don’t recall, Mohammed was the twelve-year old boy whose terrified face went round the world as his father hid him from Israeli bullets at the beginning of Intifada II. The image was in many ways the symbol of the Palestinian “resistance” and even became the subject of stamps in Egypt and Tunisia.
But the problem is, for a long time now, many people have been insisting that the image is a fake, a “Pallywood” propaganda production, and that the boy was hiding from bullets fired by the Palestinians themselves. These charges have been accompanied by considerable evidence detailed in this article and elsewhere. But a cordon of silence (oddly not dissimilar to the Eason Jordan Affair) was formed by the French press surrounding the event. It was not broken until quite recently and rather tentatively in Le Figaro.
Now here’s where Charles and my interview fits in. The primary promulgator and source of the Mohammed al-Dura tape was France 2. Perhaps we will be able to get answer to the following question posed in the Times:
“That image has had great influence,” said Daniel Leconte, a former correspondent for France 2. “If this image does not mean what we were told, it is necessary to find the truth.”
As we say in French, je me demande.
PJM Home
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
21 Comments
1. ahem:John Rosenthal at the Trans-Atlantic Intelligencer also has quite a bit on this.
Feb 9, 2005 - 10:04 am 2. Hogarth:“That image has had great influence,” said Daniel Leconte, a former correspondent for France 2. “If this image does not mean what we were told, it is necessary to find the truth.”
Wow! Compare and contrast with “Fake, but accurate!”
Feb 9, 2005 - 10:30 am 3. Knucklehead:Why you’d voluntarily suffer the French is beyond me but if you feel you must at least steal some Armagnac from the conards.
Feb 9, 2005 - 10:32 am 4. Roger:Knucklehead, I don’t regard the French as monolithic an more than I do Americans.
Feb 9, 2005 - 10:38 am 5. Yehudit:Here are a couple of articles on the topic:
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp482.htm
http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2004/12/the_mythical_ma.html
http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/004600.shtml
Feb 9, 2005 - 10:51 am 6. kynna:It’s encouraging that they’re willing to talk about this and try to find the truth. At least they’re willing the SAY they’re willing to find the truth.
Better than our MSM who seem to over-report and under-report the strangest things.
Feb 9, 2005 - 11:25 am 7. Jakester:Of course, the whole thing was the usual paleo lie, the bullets were coming from the side while the only Israelis were in front, where our phony martyr and his lying father would have been shielded.
Feb 9, 2005 - 11:38 am 8. Fausta:Here are links for the programs,
Le Journal news
Telematin and other programs
Please let us know which program you’ll be on, Roger.
(Roger, you are definitely The Cool Blogger.)
Feb 9, 2005 - 12:11 pm 9. Connecticut Yankee:Bonne chance, Roger!
Feb 9, 2005 - 12:32 pm 10. Terrye:Roger:
Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
Feb 9, 2005 - 1:43 pm 11. Knucklehead:“I don’t regard the French as monolithic an more than I do Americans.”
Be that as it may, grab some dang armagnac, willya!
Feb 9, 2005 - 2:05 pm 12. M. Simon:I don’t know if you caught this Roger but I did a bit on this here.
I show that one of the reporters admitted to lying and that the whole thing may have been staged. One of the reporters is seen giving the sign for take two.
Feb 9, 2005 - 3:11 pm 13. Fausta:The France2 evening news broadcast started with a report about Israeli TV showing little Mohammed’s father, Jamahl Al Doura, and the father of a soldier who died, discussing the current situation. The footage included the France2 video. You can watch here go to right sidebar and click under Editions du JT 09/02/2005 – JT 20h
Feb 9, 2005 - 3:47 pm 14. Fausta:Incidentally, on the France2 news this evening there was no mention of the staging.
Feb 9, 2005 - 3:49 pm 15. -S-:I am really curious as to how the two of you were selected and why in regards to this issue…
I’m sure you’ll provide an interesting interview, and not implying otherwise, but the association is what intrigues me.
Feb 10, 2005 - 5:15 am 16. Phoenix:My husband and I both live in France and would like to know when your interview will air so we can watch and record it. So, if you know when they’ll be showing it over here, email me at klopez at legardinia dot com so that we’ll know when to put the tape in the VCR, please.
Looking forward to seeing it,
Kelly Lopez
Feb 10, 2005 - 5:19 am 17. Knucklehead:Roger,
Can we expect and update telling us about the gory details of the franconphonein? Inquiring minds and all. Is there any chance that a of the Mohammed al-Dura slander on the part of France2? Any indication why they might be interested in setting the record straight?
Feb 10, 2005 - 8:22 am 18. vegetius:Just slip in a little Zola..maybe a J’accuse or two and end with ìla verite est en marche et rien ne l’arretera.î You are a leader in this march.
Feb 10, 2005 - 10:28 am 19. pst314:Good luck, Roger, and I look forward to reading your report on how it went.
Now, I wonder when French journalism will discover NoPasaran and the Dissident Frogman? That would be fun to watch….
Feb 10, 2005 - 11:05 am 20. Independent George:My French is quite rusty, but doesn’t the use of the reflexive, Je me demande, mean “I ask myself”?
Feb 10, 2005 - 12:11 pm 21. nopundit:Isn’t it interesting how much an image pushes the news (oftentimes not in the direction of the truth, but in the direction of the agenda), and a lack of image can stall it?
In the Jordan-in-Davos case, we have (at least) five very credible witnesses (rather unimpeachable sources, as it were) all corroborating each other around essentially the same storyline. Yet, the story seems stuck in the mud. There is a notion floating around that once the video is released the story will somehow become more “true”. To me, it’s already true.
What occurs to me is that there are not only rational truths out there, but visceral, emotional truths as well. For those of us who’ve braved watching the beheading videos, the visceral truth is that this is a truly evil, barbaric act. Without wathcing the videos, the truth remains on the rational plane (yeah, beheadings are bad, yawn). Is this the reason the MSM completely avoids showing any of them, even on access-controlled websites?
Kenneth Greenlee
Feb 10, 2005 - 2:06 pm