On Shooting Mickey Mouse in Beirut

A very intriguing discussion in the New York Times among press shooters and editors about a series of photos taken in the aftermath of an Israeli bombing run against Hizbullah targets in Beirut during the 2006 war in Lebanon.

Read the rest:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/it-was-all-started-by-a-mouse-part-1/ War archives:

I was dealing with just these questions from the Israeli side of the border, as well.

My war archives:

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UPDATE: (Video) PM Eulogizes Late Israeli Astronaut's Son

What a tragedy:

From The Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804559879&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Baruch Dayan Emet.

Video of Assaf Ramon getting his IAF wings:



Initial findings: possible blackout at 18,000 ft. in a sharp turn during multiple craft dogfight, according to Israel TV Ch. 2 talking with IAF experts.

From The Government Press Office:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Sunday), 13.9.09, eulogized Lt. Assaf Ramon:

"'Thy beauty, O Israel, upon thy high places is slain! How are the mighty fallen!'*

Few are the moments in which private pain so strongly shatters the national heart. Today, the entire nation is wrapped in unfathomable grief over the death of Assaf Ramon, who fell from the skies like his father Ilan.

This is an awful tragedy for Rona and the entire Ramon family; this is an awful tragedy for the entire people of Israel.

I was moved when Ilan, the youngest of the pilots who bombed the death reactor in Iraq, took with him into space a pencil drawing titled 'Moon Landscape' by a 14-year-old Jewish boy, Peter Ginz, who was murdered at Auschwitz. I was also deeply moved when Assaf continued in his father's path and finished the IAF pilot's course with top marks. The loss of each of these outstanding individuals, father and son, is a disaster in and of itself. The loss of both brings with it pain too terrible to bear.

There is no consolation for the Ramon family, or for the Israeli people, only tears."

* II Samuel 1:19

I wrote a story about Col. Ilan Ramon, who died along with his crew in 2003, when Space Shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere:

"Elegy for Columbia: A Personal Requiem"

You can read it here:

Google Earth: Israel's striptease and refugees

From Jewish World Review:

When Google Earth first came along, the company went to some lengths to address the security concerns and restrictions in various countries, including Israel, where images of this nation were often blurry and you couldn't zoom in to find your house in Jerusalem.

Well, good-bye to all that.

"Sensitive installations, Air Force bases with their planes and helicopters, missile bases and even the nuclear reactor in Dimona have never been photographed better," writes Yuval Dror in Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "A recent Google Earth update shows satellite pictures that make it possible to see clear, sharp pictures of military and civilian targets all across Israel."

"Up until recently, the satellite pictures of Israel on Google Earth had a particularly low resolution: every pixel was equal to 10-20 meters. Now, the satellite maps of Israel show great parts of the country with a resolution close to two meters per pixel.

Here's a recent thread on an aviation enthusiast site with the details.

Here's an item in Ynet News about Palestinians using the service to commemorate villages throughout Israel. From the story, an intriguing suggestion:

"The Palestinian surfer, seems to be quite a moderate person. In the Google Earth forum, one of the surfers asked him: "There were hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who were forced to escape their homes in Arab states at the same time… maybe their property should also be documented, in order to maintain balance?"

And Darby replied: "I agree with you 100 percent. I wish I had time to document the Jewish residence in the Arab world, but I don't. I would be happy to see someone taking this project upon himself."

Nu? Anyone ready, able and willing to take up the challenge?

Here's a previous post on Google Earth, and here's one on amateur/semi-pro photo sites featuring Israeli and Palestinian areas.