Pallywood and the dishonesty of James Zogby

From Wikipedia:

James Joseph Zogby (born 1945) is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.–based organization that serves as a political and policy research arm of the Arab-American community. He is Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, LLC, specializing in research and communications and undertaking polling across the Arab world. In September 2013 President Obama appointed Zogby to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Zogby is a lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues and a Visiting Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at New York University Abu Dhabi. From 2001 to 2017 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee.

A prominent Arab leader, Democrat and pollster - one would expect a minimum level of honesty from such a person, and a backlash from his own party when he crosses a line, right?

He tweeted:

His photos include the one on the lower left, which is twice Photoshopped - it would be impossible for a soldier to maintain his balance like that.

What about the other photos of soldiers seemingly pointing their guns at innocent Palestinians?

Besides the optical illusion of a two dimensional photo making it impossible to see whether the guns are actually pointed at someone, there is another issue: this is how soldiers carry guns.

See this photo of a US soldier in Afghanistan:

And others from Afghanistan:

Given the right caption, any of these innocent photos can be twisted to look like US troops are terrorizing Afghan civilians, with guns pointed in the direction of children.

Pallywood isn't always the staged and Photoshopped photos Often it is the framing/captionng of an innocent event to make it appear as if it is malicious.

Another example from Twitter yesterday:

Israeli occupation forces humiliated and abused Palestinian civilians as they searched them at the military checkpoints installed around the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of #Hebron. pic.twitter.com/JPyTG4VMgc

— Palestine Live (@pallive_en) December 16, 2019

The video shows no such thing, but the people who follow the account are primed to believe the lie because of how it was presented.

It was pointed out to Zogby that at least one of his photos were Photoshopped. He doesn't care; he didn't take down the tweet nor did he acknowledge it. He knows he is being dishonest in both the text and the photos, but he doesn't care - he is not about truth but to push anti-Israel propaganda.

The real question is why the Democratic Party he is so heavily involved with tolerates someone who is so obviously dishonest. 

(h/t @kweansmom)

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