Saturday, July 22, 2006

Where exactly were those Israeli soldiers when Hezbollah captured them?

Where exactly were those Israeli soldiers when Hezbollah captured them?

UPDATE #2: Some readers miss what the point, that the headline asks a question and that the body of this post makes the conclusion that the soldiers were captured along the Israel-Lebanon border on the Israeli side. Unfortunately, some people on the Internet don't use internal logic and instead insist that the initial report, which was corrected within hours, must have been correct. Some people overlook what I pointed out in the first update.

UPDATE #1: Could the first translation be what Associated Press Writer Joseph Panossian based his initial report on? The second translation sounds better worded and based on that and Jonathan Cook's reporting, I think the second one is the accurate translation. See Translations that don't match

On July 12th, the Associated Press reported "The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them." This is from the article Hezbollah Captures 2 Israeli Soldiers By JOSEPH PANOSSIAN , 07.12.2006, 05:41 AM

This AP news article was run by several news outlets on July 12th like ABC, CBS Forbes, The Boston Herald etc. but this version was probably based on a bad translation.

Changing the Story Two Times ( the first version probably was based on a bad translation):

5:41 AM ET, Associated Press Writer Joseph Panossian originally reported "The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon"Lebanon Israel Noam Chomsky

7:09 AM ET, Associated Press Writer Joseph Panossian had changed his report to read: "The Hezbollah militant group captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes along the Lebanese border on Wednesday."

4:13 PM ET, Associated Press Writer Joseph Panossian had again changed his report, this time to read: "Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers. "

On July 12th, Anthony Shadid, Scott Wilson and Debbi Wilgoren, of the Washington Post Foreign Service, did not say which side of the border in their article Hezbollah Captures 2 Israeli Soldiers , "The militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Lebanon border Wednesday morning, and Israeli officials said seven more soldiers were killed after tanks and troops moved into Lebanon in response to the attack." [as seen in google cache.] But that article was rewritten and on July 13th it read: "The Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah infiltrated the Israeli border Wednesday in a brazen raid, capturing two Israeli soldiers, killing three others and prompting Israeli attacks on the airport in Beirut and bridges, roads, power stations and military positions across the hillsides of southern Lebanon."

Asking this question "Where exactly were those Israeli soldiers when Hezbollah captured them?" is an attempt to get to the bottom of this specific fact. Note in my update that I quote Jonathan Cook who writes, in a July 25th article, Five myths that help Israel's war crimes, "Early on July 12 Hizbullah launched a raid against an army border post"

Jonathan Cook mentions in his article that " We now know from reports in the US media that the Israeli army had been planning such a strike against Lebanon for at least a year." see Israel set war plan more than a year ago
See Translations that don't match

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