The unanswered questions continue to pile up regarding the Qana incident. I am not saying that it definitely is not Israel’s fault, nor am I saying that the deaths of children and civilians is anything but tragic…however, some things definitely need to be answered before I will be convinced that part or all of this tragedy is not the result of some Hizballah media shenanigans.

• The Time Gap: The IDF photos and records indicate that the building was hit (either directly or the launchers next to the building) between 12 and 1am. The building did not fall until 8am – seven to eight hours after the bombs hit. There is no explanation for this gap in time. If the building collapsed as a result of the bombs, why were there dozens of children in the building 8 hours later? And if the building did not collapse as a result of the bombs, why did it collapse?
• The Banner: within a few hours of the building collapse, there was a large rally in Beirut against Israel and the US. The rally featured a 30+ foot long poster featuring a picture of Condi and the words “”The massacre of children in Qana 2, is the gift of Rice. The clever bombs..Stupid”. According to one comment that I have seen on Israel Matzav (by someone claiming to be a professional printer), making such a poster would be an all-day affair. In other words, for such a large, high-quality poster to be ready and in place within hours of the Qana incident, production would have had to start before the building fell down (hmmmm).
• Mr. Green Helmet: Check out these posts by EU Referendum (caution: graphic pictures). Apparently the same two guys (one in a green helmet, one in a white tee shirt) manage to show up in just about every picture, holding mangled children in different poses, with different anguished looks on their faces. Not only that, but at least one of them was also on the scene in Qana 1996. Although it is possible that this one guy was Mr. Hero Rescue Worker, saving the day and recovering all of the bodies, one might also posit that he is on Hizballah’s PR team, and was conveniently on the scene to give the waiting reporters looks of anguish to capture on film and publicize throughout the world
• Children in the building: According to this Lebanese blog (English Google translation), Hizballah took a bunch of handicapped children, put them in the bomb shelter of this building, and then placed a missile launcher on top of the building for Israel to target. Dead children = good PR for Hizballah and more support for their cause from the Lebanese people.

  Even if you don’t buy this (I have no source other than that blog post), one has to wonder how it came to be that all of these children ended up hiding in the building next to the firing positions and storage containers of rocket launchers that make such obvious (and legitimate) targets for Israeli air strikes.

  (And to satisfy the most ardent conspiracy theorists out there, check out this post which brings up the possibility that dead bodies from Tyre were relocated to Qana in order to perform double-duty as the victims of Israeli aggression. Also see this post from Confederate Yankee – Caution: Graphic Photos – which has more speculation on the same subject. Euphoric Reality also makes a good read for those so inclined)

The whole thing stinks. It is very sad and tragic that anyone other than the people firing the missiles and those helping them were killed in Israeli air strikes. However, that does not absolve us from trying to find out what actually happened, and who was actually responsible.

Some may call into question how it happens that whenever there is a seemingly obvious example of Israeli ruthlessness (like Mohammed al–Durah, the family killed on the beach, or this incident), there is immediate universal recognition of Israel’s guilt, and then an IDF investigation somehow finds that things are not so clear cut. If you think that this is the real conspiracy theory, then you are invited to refute this with whatever evidence you may have. Personally, I am more concerned with the first part of this statement: Israel is guilty until proven innocent when it comes to civilian deaths and what this indicates about either the gullibility or biases of the world media and their audiences.

(This article was cross-posted on Newsvine)