Soccer Dad

Department of silly pictures 05/29/2006

AbbaGav in his comments thinks that this guy looks like an

Imperial Storm Trooper cross bred with an Ent

. The caption reads

A Palestinian armed militant of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of the former ruling Fatah party

My own feeling was that he looks organic enough to be the character played by Stephen King in "The Lonely Death of Jordy Verrill."

The caption for this picture was fascinating

Masked Palestinian militants from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, hold up their weapons during a rally in support of the 'national dialogue' in the West Bank city of Nablus May 25, 2006. Rival Palestinian movements began a two-day 'national dialogue' on Thursday, an urgent attempt to bridge differences that have pushed the Hamas-led government and its opponents into open conflict.

Remember Hillary Clintons "listening tour?" As much as I might have derided it at the time, I recall that she really did go and listen and didn't bring any firearms with her.
"National dialogue" sounds as benign as "listening tour," but when the dialogue is carried out by masked men with rifles, it seems rather ominous. Doesn't it?

The guy in this picture is interesting

A militant of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to the Fatah movement, drives a scooter in the Old City of the West Bank town of Nablus, on his way to a march in support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday, May 25, 2006.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that a sniper's scope on his rifle? Is he going to the march as a participant? Or to pick off counterprotesters?

Does this look like marching to you?

Hamas militia members march after they evacuated Gaza's streets May 26, 2006.

It looks like these guys are dancing. Especially the guy in the left foreground. The lot of them, despite the guns, look rather light on their feet. But they're not doing the usual goose step, so it's hard to think of them as marching.

We read here that

The gunfight left one police officer dead and four others wounded in the latest outbreak of internal Palestinian fighting, doctors and witnesses said.

No word on the thousands of mourners who came to protest the violence.

Imagine that!

But when four terrorists are killed by Israel we learn

Thousands of people attended the funerals of four Palestinians who were shot dead during an Israeli operation in the West Bank town of Ramallah one day earlier.

So do you think that they showed up out of grief? Or because they knew where the cameras and reporters would be?

Technorati tags: Media Bias, Hamas, Palestinian Authority.

Posted by SoccerDad at May 29, 2006 1:56 AM