What’s behind the Hezbollah sign

The people who put up the Hezbollah sign in Windsor, Canada, say they achieved their purpose.

The controversial billboard depicting Hezbollah’s leader has disappeared, but one of the men responsible for the sign says it’s not because they’re backing down from fierce public backlash.

“Whatever we believe, we’ll speak about it anytime,” said Hussein Dabaja. “We will speak about human rights, about the truth, about Nasrallah. We’re going to do it and nobody can stop us.

“We’ll talk about it anywhere, any place we have a chance.”

[…] The billboard Dabaja said organizers took up a collection from community members to pay for the billboard, and many of them were willing to pay more to keep it up.

He said the company that owns the sign, CBS Outdoors, removed the billboard because the Lebanese community members only paid to have it up over the weekend. “We paid for the weekend and it’s done,” said Dabaja. “We have our message, and our message got the point across.”

CBS Outdoor didn’t return phone calls on Monday.

Which makes me wonder exactly what they were trying to accomplish.

Dabaja said the billboard was meant to honour friends and family in Lebanon who died fighting against Israel, and promote peace.

He said the point of the message will be driven home today, when Nasrallah makes a speech in Beirut honouring Hezbollah’s “victory” against the Israeli occupation.

I wonder if he pays Hezbollah membership dues. Because he sure toes the Hezbollah line.

Dabaja said he doesn’t understand why Kessler and others are so upset. He has no quarrel with Jewish people, he said.

“I am Canadian, he is Canadian,” he said. “The Jewish are not the enemy. When Hezbollah fights the Israeli army, they fight the Israeli occupation to Lebanon. We are not fighting them because they are Jewish.”

Dabaja said he had considered putting pictures of coffins and the bodies of Lebanese people killed in the fighting on the billboard, but instead chose a more peaceful picture.

“I chose something to show some respect,” he said.

Yeah. Respect. Here’s another Lebanese opinion.

Elias Bejjani of the Lebanese Canadian Co-ordinating Council, a collection of non-profit groups focused on educating people about Lebanese issues, said there was more to it than that.

“It was a challenge,” he said from Toronto. “They were testing the seriousness of the Canadian government to its anti-terrorist act. It was more than somebody putting up a billboard. It is symbolic. As Canadians we can not be neutral. There is no neutrality when it comes to terrorism.”

I’m going to side with Bejjani. It was a challenge. They deliberately put up a billboard honoring a terrorist organization, knowing full well there would be a backlash. They were testing the waters to see if they could get away with propagandizing Hezbollah in Canada.

Something that these terrorist groups do, that the media and government do not acknowledge, is fight an effective public relations war. Al Qaeda is winning it. Hamas is working hard to do the same. Hezbollah had a superb PR effort during last summer’s war, tightly controlling everything that came out of Lebanon, while Israel allowed reporters far more leeway to report the news from Israel. The result: Israel was once again demonized, and the world rose up in favor of the terrorists who started the war. Even today, you cannot get an honest summation of what happened last year. Reading this NPR hagiography of Hezbollah’s “victory” celebration, you’d think that the IDF were the terrorists and Hezbollah the unassuming victims.

The conflict erupted when Hezbollah guerrillas launched a cross-border raid and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israeli warplanes unleashed waves of airstrikes against Lebanon and sent troops and tanks across the border. Hezbollah then retaliated by firing Katyusha rockets at Israeli cities and towns.

Really? That’s how it began, is it? I call bullshit on NPR.

Western Galilee residents woke up to loud sounds of exchanges of fire on both sides of the border. Explosions were heard on the central and eastern zones. Six people were injured on the western area of the border, one of them sustaining moderate wounds. They were evacuated to the Nahariya hospital.

In the villages of Natua and Zar’it, which are close to the fence, residents reported hearing sounds of light and heavy weapons. At least two mortar shells landed in the area and five soldiers were wounded. The alert level was raised in Israel Defense Forces posts and IAF aircrafts flew over Lebanon.

A ground chase was being conducted in the field, along with aircrafts, in a bid to locate the missing soldier.

“We received instruction that all residents should enter reinforced rooms and shelters,” said Gabi Neeman, head of the Shlomi Regional Council. “Our first concern is of course for the children in kindergartens and summer camps.

Total bullshit.

In the Shlomi and Maale Yossef regional councils, residents were asked to take shelter in underground bunkers. In Nahariya, the municipality decided to transfer children in summer camps to safer locations.

Army vehicles could be seen on roads leading to the border, but there was little civilian traffic.

Zar’it residents said the Hizbullah attack started at about 9 a.m.

“At around nine in the morning there was a very loud and prolonged explosion accompanied by light and heavy fire…I can’t remember an incident like this in the recent past, not since the IDF left Lebanon,” a resident said.

Israel is losing the information war, and losing it badly. Yes, it’s always been an uphill battle for the Jewish state. But western news media make it even harder when they are so blatantly biased. America and Israel need to sharpen their own PR machines and thwart the Hezbollah/Hamas/Iran/Al Qaeda messages.

Of course, that begs the question: If the PR machines on our side sent out information, would the mainstream media actually disseminate it?

Yet another depressing thought that makes me wish I were the dictator of the world. Oh, how fast the MSM would change.