Society's ChildS

Star of David

Blatant theft: Israeli ministers pledge to settle '2 million Jews' in West Bank, promptly approve 4,000 new settlement units

Israeli settlement Har Homa West Bank
© UPI/Debbie HillA Palestinian stands on his property overlooking the Israeli settlement Har Homa, West Bank, February 18, 2011.
Israel has approved some 4,000 new settlement units as part of a massive settlement project spanning across occupied East Jerusalem and into West Jerusalem, Israeli media reported.

Jerusalem's planning and construction committee approved the project earlier this week, paving the way for 4,416 housing new units in the city.

According to local reports, units will be built in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina, 464 in the Gilo settlement which is built on the lands of the Beit Jala town in Bethlehem, and 480 units in the West Jerusalem neighborhoods of Kiryat Yuval and Kiryat Menachem.

Star of David

Sick! Israeli soldier posts disturbing Instagram photo of child in crosshairs of his rifle

Mor Ostrovski Israel soldier instagram
© Electronic IntifadaScreenshot of the infamous sniper photo in the context of Mor Ostrovskiโ€™s Instagram account on 15 February 2013, before its deletion.
Update, 19 February

Israeli soldier Mor Ostrovski subsequently deleted his Instragram account after the global attention his image received. However we have now posted screen captures of his account below showing the main account page and the sniper photo in its original context.

Original Post

This disturbing image shows the back of the head of a child or young man as seen in the crosshairs of a rifle. The photo was posted on the personal Instagram account of Mor Ostrovski, a 20-year old Israeli soldier in a sniper unit.

The context - particularly the character of the buildings seen in the background of the image - strongly suggests the child could be Palestinian.

There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case. The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets.

Quenelle

Pope calls priests & other Catholics who abuse children 'tools of Satan'

Pope Francis
Pope Francis attends a Eucharistic celebration at the Regia Hall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican on Sunday.
Pope Francis, speaking on the final day of a historic summit on clergy sexual abuse, called priests and other Catholics who abuse children "tools of Satan," but offered no concrete steps to address the church's massive and morally damning abuse crisis.

"The brutality of this worldwide phenomenon becomes all the more grave and scandalous in the church, for it is utterly incompatible with (its) moral authority and ethical credibility," the Pope said in a speech in Vatican City on Sunday.

"Consecrated persons," he continued, "chosen by God to guide souls to salvation, let themselves be dominated by their human frailty or sickness and thus become tools of Satan."

Bad Guys

Top French officer faces punishment after criticizing West's tactics against ISIS in Syria

Syria Deir Ezzor US marine army
© AFPA gunner mans a machine gun at the back of a US Marine Corps V-22 Osprey flying near a French artillery base near Al Qaim in Iraq's western Anbar province opposite Syria's Deir Ezzor region, a few kilometres away from the last scrap of territory held by ISIS.
A senior French officer involved in the fight against ISIS in Syria faces punishment after launching a scathing attack on the US-led coalition's methods to defeat the group in its remaining stronghold of Hajin, the army said on Saturday.

Colonel Francois-Regis Legrier, who has been in charge of directing French artillery supporting Kurdish-led groups in Syria since October, said the coalition's focus had been on limiting its own risks and this had greatly increased the death toll among civilians and the levels of destruction.

"Yes, the Battle of Hajin was won, at least on the ground but by refusing ground engagement, we unnecessarily prolonged the conflict and thus contributed to increasing the number of casualties in the population," Mr Legrier wrote in an article in the National Defence Review.

Comment: Luckily the entirety of Mr. Legrier's French article was saved here; it begins on page 65.


Eye 1

Horrible stories emerge of sex slaves & child abuse at the hands of ISIS jihadis

Yazidi sect
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border in 2014. About half of the 6,500 Yazidis kidnapped by IS are still missing
Marwa Khedr was just ten years old when Islamic State jihadis swept into her village in the Sinjar region of Iraq and rounded up all the families at gunpoint.

The men were buried alive in a mass grave, while the women and children were taken to a nearby town in the north of the country, where they were divided up by age.

The most prized, taken off by senior IS figures, were those aged between ten and 20.

This petrified group included Marwa, a member of the Yazidi persecuted minority religion. She had turned ten shortly before the appalling events in August 2014.

Pirates

'Welcome to Sweden!' Muslim woman in hijab chosen for Swedish municipality's welcome sign

muslim women billboard sweden
© Facebook / Mikael Svensson"Welcome home ISIS!"
A Swedish municipality is facing backlash after selecting a local Muslim woman wearing a headscarf to be the 'poster girl' for its roadside 'welcome' sign. Her past ties to a controversial local imam were also discovered.

The image of Suzan Hindi, a local Muslim woman in her early 40s wearing a blue headscarf, now welcomes motorists entering Gavle, a coastal municipality in Sweden about 100km north of Stockholm. The photo is occasionally shown on a digital board along with the message: "Welcome to Gavle!"


Comment: It's not just that many of Sweden's Muslims ideologically supported ISIS, many of them travelled there to fight FOR ISIS. And then the Swedish government welcomed the surviving members 'home'. That digital billboard may as well say "Welcome home, ISIS!"


Brick Wall

Trump's failing. Don't ask me to lie about it

trump wall cartoon
© Unknown
For decades, voters have been lied to by politicians promising to crack down on immigration. We vote and we vote and we vote, and nothing ever changes. Wage-lowering, culture-destroying policies manage to appear in every bill Congress passes.

We finally got sick of it and voted for Trump. He promised to build a wall, deport illegal aliens and end the anchor baby scam. No matter how much the establishment screamed at him, he never backed down.

To call Trump's promise to build a wall his "central campaign promise" routinizes it. That promise was indispensable to his election in a way that no other president's campaign promises ever were.

Trump had none of the qualities voters typically look for in a president. He hadn't been vice president, a U.S. senator or governor of California. There was little about his character to inspire a nation.

Trump's mandate on immigration was the loudest bell ever to be rung in American politics.

While I admire people's loyalty to the first presidential candidate to speak honestly about America's problems, what if they're being loyal to a false front?

Comment: In re-posting this, we're not necessarily saying we think there should be a 'big beautiful wall' along the US southern border. We're interested because Coulter likely has her finger on the pulse of why Americans held their noses and voted for Trump: The Wall.

So, assuming she's correct, does no wall mean no Trump re-election in 2020?


Arrow Down

Social credit crackdown: Millions of Chinese banned from flights and trains

china subway
China has banned millions of people from any number of activities for being labeled as 'untrustworthy' on the country's Orwellian social credit system.

Banned from things such as air and train travel, blacklisted individuals are being punished in a broad effort to boost "trustworthiness" among the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens tracked by the massive system - which assigns both positive and negative scores to various metrics, reports SCMP.

People with great social credit will get "green channel" benefits while those who violate laws will be punished with restrictions and penalties.

Hangzhou, the capital city of China's Zhejiang province, rolled out its social credit system earlier last year, rewarding "pro-social behaviors" such as blood donations, healthy lifestyles, and volunteer work while punishing those who violate traffic laws, smoke and drink, and speak poorly about government.

Human rights advocates have voiced concerns that the social credit system does not take into account individual circumstances, and has unfairly labeled people and companies as untrustworthy.

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Info

Second billionaire charged in connection to prostitution ring, warrant for his arrest issued

John Childs
© Patrick McMullan
The billionaire founder of a Boston-based equity firm joins Patriots owner Robert Kraft as one of the ultra-rich caught up in the months-long police probe of Florida massage parlors, authorities said.

John Childs, 77 - of J.W. Childs Associates - is wanted on a solicitation of prostitution charge, according to a warrant for his arrest obtained by TCPalm.com. He has not been arrested.

Childs firmly denied any involvement in the ring.

"The accusation of solicitation of prostitution is totally false. I have retained a lawyer," he told Bloomberg News. "I have received no contact by the police department about this charge," he said.

Childs, who lives seasonally in Indian River Shores and lives part-time in Boston, has donated to several Republican politicians and groups - including former US House Speaker Paul Ryan, 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Club for Growth, TCPalm.com reported.

Family

Opposing Israeli brutality in Occupied Palestine makes you human, not antisemitic

Jeremy Corbyn
© Dan KitwoodJeremy Corbyn
Writing columns often involves difficult choices. What you write about reflects your opinions and priorities. Every time I sit down at my laptop to construct a column I agonise over what to write about from a huge list of worthy topics and current affairs issues.

Today I simply cannot ignore the corrosive effect of the very powerful and well financed pro-Israel lobby which is at the heart of the concerted campaigns of vilification against Jeremy Corbyn over the last four years and is responsible for the ridiculous association of Corbyn and socialists within the Labour Party with anti-Semitism.

Every newspaper, news bulletin, political TV show and newspaper review segment on Sky News, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and other mainstream outlets associates Corbyn, his Labour Party leadership and rifts within the Labour Party with anti-Semitism. It is sickeningly inaccurate, bereft of evidence, informed by political bile and promoted by imbeciles with an agenda. That agenda is not to oppose anti-Semitism, racism or Islamophobia but to fuel popular belief that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and a racist. The idea that a man whose whole adult life has been devoted to politically campaigning against racism, Semitism, injustice and inequality is actually a racist and anti-Semite is so pathetically untrue that the only way it can gain a morsel of traction and credibility is through a powerful and deceitful campaign of lies and distortions via the mainstream media and paid for idiots and bought off lackeys.

Comment: