The Lebanese “official” newspaper published an insane article about the IDF dropping poisoned balloons on Lebanon.
Beirut- Eight people were hospitalized Saturday after inhaling toxic gases from poisonous balloons dropped by Israeli warplanes over Upper Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.
NNA said among those who were rushed to hospital suffering from nausea and fatigue were a Lebanese staff sergeant, a recruit and An Nahar reporter Rana Jouni.
The agency said Israeli warplanes dropped at least 10 poisonous balloons with Hebrew markings over Upper Nabatiyeh at about 9 am Saturday.
NNA said contacts have been made between the Lebanese army command and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which has instructed an Italian peacekeeping unit to take samples from the balloons for examination. The agency said the results are likely to come out on Sunday.
NNA had earlier said that the Lebanese army’s engineering unit headed to the area and destroyed the balloons by explosives.
The army, in a communiqué issued Friday, warned civilians against messing with the balloons and urged them to report finding them to the closest army unit.
The picture of Lebanese Army engineers destroying balloons with explosives is one that deserves to live in my mind forever. You simply can’t make this stuff up. But behind the immediate humor of that image is a very troubling anti-Semitic slur that echoes the lies of Jews poisoning wells during the Black Plague.
So, what were the balloons? A promotional campaign.
The green and orange balloons – branded with the Hebrew word Ha’ir (The City), the name of a Tel Aviv newspaper – appeared on Saturday in the southern Lebanese cities of Nabatiyeh and Tyre.
[…] An Israeli military spokesperson in Jerusalem said the balloons had been filled with helium for distribution at “a kind of party” thrown by the Ha’ir newspaper.
“It was a public relations thing,” she said. “They gave out balloons with helium in them and the balloons flew away and into Lebanon.”
However, the lie has already taken on a life of its own.
Israel planes dump ‘suspicious green balloons’ on Lebanon
Israel Planes Dump “suspicious Green Balloons” On Southern Lebanon
Strange Balloons Arrive In Southern Lebanon
Israel dumps suspicious green balloons on Lebanon
8 Hospitalized after Inhaling Toxic Gases from Israeli Balloons
Israel planes dump ‘suspicious green balloons’ on Lebanon
Israel planes dump “suspicious green balloons” on southern Lebanon
Israel planes dump ‘suspicious green balloons’ on Lebanon
The thing that is not funny is that several of the above links are legitimate news outlets with fairly large readerships, such as “Monsters and Critics.com” in the UK. They pass on uncritically the lie that the IDF dropped poisoned balloons on Lebanon. Indian newspapers are telling this lie to their readers, and a service that claims to be a leading of news for web content published an article that takes seriously the Lebanese claims of poisoning.
Lebanese media and Israeli media disagree over the context the balloons end up in southern Lebanon. According to Haaretz newspaper, an Israeli daily, the balloons were part of a promotional campaign for Ha’ir, a Schocken group newspaper. Lebanese media, oppositely, said that the balloons were dropped by Israeli planes and were poisonous.
All Headline News doesn’t make itself look too good in its concluding paragraph to this story, either.
Despite Israel continually violating the August 14 United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended last summer’s month-long war, the balloons appear to have been part of the promotional campaign by Ha’ir newspaper and floated in the winds into southern Lebanon.
And so, another Big Lie will take on a life of its own, to be passed along by Israel-haters as the truth. The blood libels continue, updated for the modern age. Instead of poisoning wells, now Jews are sending poisoned balloons over the border, apparently because, well, none of the articles give a reason. None is needed, when spreading lies about Jews. The fact that they are Jews, apparently, is enough.