THE QANA SMOKESCREEN

By Michelle Malkin

First, take a look at mob scenes across the Muslim world this weekend, ostensibly--ostensibly--in response to the civilian deaths in Qana, Lebanon (via Yahoo! News). Angry Muslims from Beirut to Gaza to Lahore are setting fire to American and Israeli flags. Burning effigies of Western leaders. Raising their voices in death chants:

(Tigerhawk has more shots.)

It all seems so...so familiar, doesn't it? Didn't we go through this same routine, the same scripted jihad theatrics, barely sixth months ago over the Mohammed cartoons? From February:

The truth about Muslim outrage over Qana is that it's not really about the tragic deaths at Qana--just like the cartoon jihad was not really about the cartoons.

Remember: Muslim outrage over the Danish cartoons was stoked and manufactured amid attempts to bully Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to report Iran to the UN Security Council for continuing with its nuclear research program. Iran blamed Israel for the cartoons:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is at odds with much of the international community about Iran's disputed nuclear program, launched an anti-Israeli campaign last fall when he said the Holocaust was a "myth" and that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

In a speech marking the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on Saturday, Ahmadinejad linked his public rage with Israel and the cartoons satirizing Islam's most revered figure.

"Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime," he said. "We ask, 'Why do you insult the prophet?' The response is that it is a matter of freedom, while in fact they (who insult the founder of Islam) are hostages of the Zionists. And the people of the U.S. and Europe should pay a heavy price for becoming hostages to Zionists."

Now, the Qana jihad, gleefully stoked by Iran, is unfolding amid mounting U.N. Security Council pressure on Tehran and a looming resolution calling for the country to suspend its nuclear program.

US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, bless him, isn't falling for the ploy:

U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Hezbollah's actions were the ``fundamental cause'' of the conflict, and accused the group of hiding behind civilians.

``It says something about the morality and respect for human life of Hezbollah that they would use innocent civilians as shields; that's just something that for civilized people is not acceptable,'' Bolton said.

What better way to distract from Hezbollah's atrocities and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's annihilation plans than to start screaming about Israel's "war crimes" and Western crimes against humanity. John Hinderaker at Power Line points to prefab jihadi banners demonizing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. EU Referendum looks at morbid photo posing. Bob Owens wonders where all the men were.

But never mind all that, right? The Muslim world is united again. And some short-sighted Westerners are allowing themselves to be duped.

Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch has is right:

Western analysts continue to miss the fact that if it weren't Qana, it would be something else, and that Qana is just the latest in a long, long line of similar incidents used by jihadists to stir up a sense of grievance among Muslims and thereby increase support for the jihad du jour.

Exactly.

If it's not Qana, it's Gitmo.
Or cartoons or pop singers. Or filmmakers.
Or books. Or more books.
Or beauty pageants and bikinis.
Or American fast-food joints.
Or Valentine's Day.
Or playing cards.
Or Piglet.
Or soccer.
Or South Park.

There's always something burning with the jihadi members of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage. It's time to see through the smokescreen.

***

Now, go read Allah Pundit, who has a video double for you, plus a riddle:

"[W]hy is it that “fury erupt[s] around the world” when a building in the Middle East goes down, but when one goes down in lower Manhattan we get nothing but candlelight vigils and morons beating peace bongos in Union Square?"