#7
The Israeli army has said it is investigating a soldier who was seen apparently striking a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in southern Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces said they had determined that an image circulating on social media showing the incident was authentic. The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross. The sculpture is located in Debl, a Christian village in south Lebanon near the border with Israel.
Israel's army said in a post on its official X account on Monday that it viewed the incident with "great severity" and that the "soldier's conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops".
"The Israel Defense Forces confirms the authenticity of a photo showing a soldier in southern Lebanon smashing a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer ... "
www.timesofisrael.com
*** IDF Jails Two Soldiers 30 Days for Smashing Statue of Jesus ***
"...the soldiers' conduct completely deviated from IDF orders and values."
But the daily killing of Palestinians or gang-raping them in Gaza doesn't deviate from IDF orders and values.
Uh-huh.
Got it.
Source: www.theguardian.com
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#6 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-04-20 10:09 AM
Not sure why "investigates" is in scare quotes. I don't doubt Netanyahu and his cabinet are pissed about this...
Because transgression of one soldier can be spun as the "policy" of "genocide" / "IDF" / "Israel" / "Nuttyahoo" etc., while ignoring actual policies of Fatah / PLO of having a fund to pay families for Palestinians "martyrs."
Here is the rest of the statement, and the history of Israel's investigations and prosecutions of crimes committed by IDF personnel:
|------- ... Later in the day, an official statement was released, confirming the photo was not AI.
... "Appropriate measures will be taken against those involved in accordance with the findings. Furthermore, the IDF is working to assist the community in restoring the statue to its place. The IDF is operating to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure established by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and has no intention of harming civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols."
-------|
It's much more fun (and profit, for a small group of trolls and "influencers") to flare up on usual channels and hype any incidents of some Israelis "behaving badly" and conflate and accompany them with long-debunked mythical attributes of "colonizers" / "occupiers" / "apartheid" / "genocide" etc. (documented going back to KGB in the 1950s) **, than seeing and reporting attacks against Israelis, or the aftermath of decades of Soviet Union / Russia, various Arab countries (some of which have since made peace with Israel after a number of military defeats), Intifadas and multiple "Palestinian" terrorist groups sponsored by Iran, etc.
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** Not going to rehash the usual "counter-arguments" on this board - has been done to no avail. But if you view the issues of either Israel or Ukraine same as Putin's troll Effeteposer, you suffer from bizarre cognitive dissonance and should know where and how these propaganda memes have started and continued ever since:
en.wikipedia.org - Agitprop
For example, ridiculous 'apartheid' meme started by KGB after Soviet Union lost 4 major proxy wars against Israel since Day 1 of its existence, and was picked up by the left, including some in Israel.
www.researchgate.net - THE KGB AND ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA OPERATIONS - 2019
www.meforum.org - Israel and the Great Powers: The Unsung Cold War Role - 2020
Not surprisingly, anti-Israel contingent on this site is about the same as those enamored by "socialism" and, in the light of fall of Soviet Union and failed socialist states worldwide, they are trying to redefine and rebrand "socialism" as prosperous ("free and universal" healthcare and other goodies which in reality are neither "free" nor "universal" in access, as not an "all you can eat" system, as CHS in Canada, NHS in UK and several other European countries has shown) and "happy" - based on clearly faulty, inconsistent or made up criteria, like "Cantrill ladder"-based lists of "World Happiness Index" - just so some countries at the top of such surveys could be branded "socialist" and that few selected policies necessary for nations to be 'happy.'
There is no cure for docta ignorantia ("learned ignorance"), when facts are ignored, dismissed, and drowned out by constant [social media] reinforcement of confirmation bias and ressentiment.
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#21 | Posted by Corky at 2026-04-22 10:03 AM
Although social democracies aren't 'socialists' per say.
No, they are not 'socialists' per se.
That's why it's so disappointing that some "influencers" promoting dubiously "happy" countries as "socialist" (supposedly because they have those cherry picked, selected attributes that make them such) are constantly inverting the meaning into "democratic socialists / democratic socialism" - which, if one understands what socialism actually is, and if one ever asked or talked to people who have lived under a socialist system, would know is a contradiction in terms.
Trying to conflate a few of the countries that are at or near the top of "World Happiness Index" (based on unweighted, unadjusted and problematic, to put it mildly, criteria and methodology) with "socialism" because some of them have government with a majority party calling themselves "democratic socialists" is just a poor excuse for bad propaganda against 'MuriKKKa':
en.wikipedia.org - Agitprop
Not that the US doesn't have problems - especially with corrupt "like we've never seen before" Trump attempting idiotic Putin-influenced "Reverse Perestroika" ( media.rabobank.com - Trump's-Reverse-Perestroika ) simultaneously with idiotic Putin-influenced "Reverse Kissinger" - but more "socialism" is the opposite of the cure for what ails it.
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#21 | Posted by Corky at 2026-04-22 10:03 AM
Although social democracies aren't 'socialists' per say.
No, they are not 'socialists' per se.
That's why it's so disappointing that some "influencers" promoting dubiously "happy" countries as "socialist" (supposedly because they have those cherry picked, selected attributes that make them such) are constantly inverting the meaning into "democratic socialists / democratic socialism" - which, if one understands what socialism actually is, and if one ever asked or talked to people who have lived under a socialist system, would know is a contradiction in terms.
Trying to conflate a few of the countries that are at or near the top of dubious "World Happiness Index" (based on unweighted, unadjusted and problematic, to put it mildly, criteria and methodology) with "socialism" because some of them have government with a majority party calling themselves "social democrats" is just a poor excuse for bad propaganda against 'MuriKKKa':
en.wikipedia.org - Agitprop
Not that the US doesn't have problems - especially with corrupt "like we've never seen before" Trump attempting idiotic Putin-influenced "Reverse Perestroika" ( media.rabobank.com - Trump's-Reverse-Perestroika ) simultaneously with idiotic Putin-influenced "Reverse Kissinger" - but more "socialism" is the opposite of the cure for what ails it.
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