The attached ad, ostensibly raising money to help Israelis, aired during MSNBC's Countdown tonight. As a tipster pointed out, one of the explosions looks totally fake.

Check out that early shot of a presumably Hamas-fired rocket from the Gaza strip hitting Israeli homes. The resulting fireball looks almost painted on — very colorful and well-defined against a more blurry background. (The contrast is a bit harder to see in our small video player.)

At the very least, the ad makes cable news even more melodramatic and pointlessly heart-pounding, adding no new information about an admittedly terrible situation in which Hamas is rocketing Israel. Pointless for the viewer at least; the advertiser, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, hopes to further link (as it has) Israelis with MSNBC-watching American Christian evangelical donors, many of whom support the Jewish state because they believe it paves the way for an "apocalyptic battle between good and evil in which Jesus returns and Jews either accept him or perish," as AP put it.

If you believe the apocalypse is coming, no alarm is likely to sound over the top.