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Israeli Vulture Suspected of Spying Returned
New submitter red crab writes: BBC reports that a griffon vulture with GPS tracking device attached to its leg that was part of conservation program at Tel Aviv University was captured in Lebanon after it was suspected to be a Israeli spy. UN Liaison forces helped secure the release of the bird after holding talks with Lebanese and Israeli officials.
In the Arab and Muslim worlds, if anything is in any way associated with Israel, it's perfectly obvious that it's nefarious - I'm surprised they didn't think it was the "vulture of doom, spreading biological weapons" or some such.
The Arab POV on Israel is so one sided as to be cartoonish.
this was a spy swap for the Lebanese osprey.
The media is trying to spin this as no big deal, but the secret terms of the exchange required Isreal to release 2 convicted Hezbollah attack pigeons, a weapons-smuggling-tunnel canary, and an ill-tempered parrot that keeps saying either "Yasser Arafat" or "Yes sir, you're fat."
Nothing posted to
The Arab press is filled with fairy tale stories about israel and about Jews. I remember a few years ago one story was circulating that israel was dropping poisoned candy to children on gaza. Then there was the story that aids was created by Jewish doctors to afflict the Palestinians. Then there was the one the israel was organ trafficking palestinians. Etc. Etc. Etc. The vulture story is frankly rather mild, if amusing. Much of the paranoid conspiracy theory about israel's and Jews on the Arab world could be rooted right off the pages of Nazi propaganda rags. Why this kind of trash is actually believed in the Arab world is another story entirely, but illustrates wht it's so hard for the two parties to come to compromises - if one side believes the other is capable of such inhuman Acts, it's no surprise they won't compromise.
There's an entire Wikipedia article about this phenomenon.