Many will remember the iconic image of the Second Intifada: terrified young Mohammed al Dura hiding behind a wall with his father during a firefight between the IDF and Palestinian gunmen until finally he is shot and killed. It sparked unending violence and has been quoted as justification for the Jihadist slaughter of Jews and Westerners by, inter alia, bin Laden and the murderers of Daniel Pearl. But as the indispensable Melanie Phillips discusses in a post on her blog about an equally compelling article in FrontPage, the whole thing was a sham. Little Mohammed was not killed; the purported tragedy was cooked up as a casus belli. That the horrific murder of two young Israeli soldiers [warning: GRAPHIC IMAGES] a few days later was justified by the alleged death of the Palestinian boy is just further evidence of how baleful the effects of this lie have been. And the wretched behaviour of the French judicial system in finding in favour of the plaintiffs (French TV station France 2) in a libel action vs. the brave man who pointed out the hoax (Parisian Philippe Karsenty) is little short of nauseating. Not for nothing are parallels between this and the Dreyfus affair being drawn.

For a lengthier discussion of the role that deception and lying has to play in the Islamists’ strategy, I can recommend this tutorial article on the subject. Note in particular the sub-section on the tactical use of children.

We face a wicked foe.

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