Netanyahu: Israel will build West Bank settlements despite ICC pressure

Israel is facing a fierce campaign over existing settlements because of efforts against it at the International Criminal Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Likud politicians on Monday, in response to criticism for not doing enough to advance settler activity in the West Bank.

Netanyahu said he is proceeding carefully in order to make sure everything is legal, because of the “aggressive campaign against settlements that were already built.” His spokesman confirmed that this smear campaign is coming straight from the ICC.

The Prime Minister spoke in the closed section of the Likud faction regarding construction in Judea and Samaria.

Last week, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that she was close to a decision on whether to open a full-fledged criminal probe against Israel and Hamas for alleged war crimes. Her probe also includes West Bank settlement activity.

The government will continue building new homes in settlements despite pressure not to, Netanyahu assured the politicians.

“I am a prime minister who stood up to two very very difficult US presidents for 12 years. We built and we built and we built,” Netanyahu said, referring to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. “There is no and there will be no government that is as successful in repelling these pressures and maneuvering around them on the matter of settlements.”

“We built and we built and we built,” he repeated, “with wisdom and great persistence. What you think is simple is much more complex, but we are navigating it wisely in order to find the way, and when we find it, we will build and we will have the court’s backing.”

If he is unable to get support from the court, Netanyahu added that things might change, but in the meantime he is trying make sure it doesn't face opposition in court.

Netanyahu’s comments came hours after right wing politicians renewed their push to legalize all West Bank outposts in the aftermath of Sunday night’s terror attack that injured seven outside of the Ofra settlement, including a 21-year-old pregnant woman.

Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich plans to submit a bill to the Ministerial Legislative Committee for debate this Sunday that will set a two-year timetable to authorize those fledgling communities – which currently have an illegal status – as either new settlements or neighborhoods of existing ones.

He spoke of the bill during a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that had been scheduled prior to the attack.

But right wing politicians at the meeting, including settler leaders, linked the attack to their legislative drive to legalize settler homes.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-Israel-will-build-West-Bank-settlements-despite-ICC-pressure-573970

Projection

UK MUST prepare for ALL OUT WAR against Russia, China and Iran military chief warns

General Sir Nick Carter warned Russia, China, Iran and sadistic terrorist organisations like ISIS are a colossal threat towards the UK. He said Britain’s security, stability and prosperity are being challenged by the “ambitious” superstates. He admitted, “the multilateral system that has assured our stability since 1945 is threatened” and mass migration was “arguably an existential threat to Europe”.

Mr Carter said, in his first lecture as Chief of the Defence Staff at the Royal United Services Institute, that Russia and China had “studied our strengths and invested carefully in new methods and capabilities that are designed to exploit weaknesses”.

These included ballistic and cruise missiles, low-yield nuclear weapons, cyberweapons, space and counter space weapons, and electronic warfare.

The UK must now shift away from our peacetime mentality and embrace the innovation to stop these threats to our national security.

He said the UK needs to take risks and experiment with new technologies.

The military chief said: “We are in a period of change more widespread, rapid and profound than humanity has experienced outside of world war.”

Mr Carter added: “It inevitably brings instability which requires a different approach to the traditional peacetime mentality.

“We need to recreate the innovation and ingenuity seen in wartime to succeed in this environment.”

He empathised: “What constitutes a weapon in this ‘grey zone’, below the threshold of conventional war, no longer has to go ‘bang’.”

Looking to the future, he said the UK military would be “digitally enabled and integrated”, and change how it fights and develops capabilities.

The Chief of the Defence Staff also said Iraq and Afghan war veterans were “pitied” by the public rather than respected.

He said the younger generation of veterans are misunderstood because of dramas, documentaries, films and even charity campaigns that portray them as “scarred for life”.

He said the imaging was making it harder for the military to recruit.

In a bid for support he said: “While our servicemen and women appreciate public support, they want to be valued and respected – not pitied – in other words, it’s about empathy, not sympathy.

“The respect and honour shown to our Chelsea Pensioners proves that as a nation we value our older veterans.

“But we also have a generation of younger veterans from more recent campaigns who are subject to misconceptions.”

He added: “Public misconception is fuelled by television documentaries, dramas, films and some charity campaigns, and there is a risk that public misconception is acting as a barrier to the prospects of veterans in civilian life, as well as deterring would-be new recruits from joining.”

Despite declining to name a specific programme, BBC1’s hit series Bodyguard, which was watched by 10.4 million viewers for its final episode, had at its centre a “troubled war veteran” tasked with protecting the Home Secretary.

Sir Nick said modern-day veterans were often thought of as “scarred for life”, “homeless”, “have turned to alcohol or drugs because of traumatic stress disorder”, or “are more likely to go to prison”.

http://news.24honline.net/uk-must-prepare-for-all-out-war-against-russia-china-and-iran-military-chief-warns.html

Michael Cohen Cries in Court – Sentenced to 36 Months in Prison

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen appeared in a Manhattan court Wednesday to face sentencing on nine charges.

Cohen wept as he begged the judge to give him no jail time.

The judge sentenced him to 36 months in prison.

The Daily Mail reported:

An anguished Michael Cohen pleaded with a federal judge to keeping out of jail on Thursday, and expressed regret for trying to cover up former employer Donald Trump’s ‘dirty deeds.’

The tearful longtime Donald Trump lawyer took on Trump – who he once said he would ‘take a bullet for’ – for having called him ‘weak’ in a Twitter attack.

‘Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying,’ Cohen told a federal judge in open court. ‘It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,’ Cohen said.

Cohen headed to federal court in New York Wednesday to face sentencing after prosecutors in New York recommended he get ‘substantial’ jail time – as his attorney lauded his willingness to testify against the president.

In a courtroom plea for leniency, Cohen’s lawyer, Guy Petrillo, described Cohen as a brave witness who came forward with evidence ‘against the most powerful person in our country’ – and tried to draw a contrast with former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who prosecutors say committed ‘lies’ despite agreeing to cooperate.

In August, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws ‘at the direction of a candidate.’

Cohen was also charged Wednesday on allegations of bank and tax fraud from a taxi cab business he owned with another business partner after the FBI raided his home and office in April and seized personal property including computers and phones.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/michael-cohen-cries-in-court-sentenced-36-months-in-prison/

Polish PM to Call for Confidence Vote in Gov’t Ahead of EU Leaders' Summit

Following the recent call for a vote of confidence for UK Prime Minister Theresa May in her leadership of the Conservative Party, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would call for a vote of confidence in the Law and Justice (PiS) government to ensure it has a mandate for its reforms ahead of this week's summit of EU leaders.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has addressed the parliament requesting a vote of confidence amid a slight fall in the party's ratings following a corruption scandal regarding a financial regulator.

"I appeal to the marshal (chairman) of the Sejm with a proposal for a vote of confidence in the government so that the upper house can express an opinion about the need to continue the reform programme", Polish radio quoted the prime minister as saying.

After Law and Justice Party, abbreviated to PiS came to power three years ago, the separation between the EU and the country has reportedly grown amid accusations at home and abroad of a tilt towards authoritarianism.

The European Union has also sharply criticised Poland's judicial reform saying that it undermines the independence of Polish courts. The European Commission has sent several letters to the Polish government with its recommendations and stated its readiness to invoke Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would suspend Poland's membership rights in the European Union, including voting in the European Council.

In November, Polish lawmakers amended the law, enabling judges who were forced to retire after reaching the age of 65 to return to office in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, however, the newly appointed judges of the Supreme Court would still retire at the age of 65.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812121070614908-poland-government-eu-leaders-summit/

Google Hosts Sharia Law App Enabling Muslims to Report Blasphemy and Heresy to the Police

On December 7, 2018, the Google Play Store approved the latest version of "Smart Pakem," an app that allows Muslims in Jakarta, the capital of the largest Muslim country on earth, to report violations of Sharia law such as blasphemy and even heresy. The app allows users to report people who practice unrecognized religions or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognized faiths: Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Protestant Christianity, and Roman Catholic Christianity.

According to Google's translation on the Google Play Store, "Smart Pakem" intends "to make it easier to find information and manage religion, belief flow and community organizations in the jurisdiction of DKI Jakarta," the capital of Indonesia.

The app, which has more than 1,000 installs, claims to provide a list of "laws and regulations that regulate the activities of the flow of beliefs in the community."

While most areas of Indonesia do not enforce the entirety of Sharia (Islamic law), the national criminal code prohibits blasphemy, which it defines as "the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things." Article 156(a) makes it illegal to "express feelings of hostility, hatred, or contempt against religion," with a penalty of up to five years in prison.

As Laura Loomer reported at BigLeaguePolitics, Google's vice president in Southeast Asia, Rajan Anandan, has not shown any resistance to the app.

The National Secular Society (NSS) has protested the law in letters to Anadan. The organization's chief executive, Stephen Evans, wrote that Google's decision to stock the app was "incongruous with Google's mission statement" and "runs directly contrary to the democratic ideals which Google says it stands for."

Human Rights Watch reported that 125 people were convicted of blasphemy in Indonesia between 2004 and 2014, with 23 more convicted since 2014. Last year, Jakarta's popular Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama — better known as Ahok — was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy.

While the latest version of "Smart Pakem" came out on December 7, the original version came out on November 25. The app was created by the Jakarta prosecutor's office, which told Agence France Presse (AFP) it would help educate the public and modernize the reporting process.

"The objective…is to provide easier access to information about the spread of beliefs in Indonesia, to educate the public and to prevent them from following doctrines from an individual or a group that are not in line with the regulations," Nirwan Nawawi, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, told AFP in a statement.

The app lists religious edicts and blacklisted organizations and will allow users to file immediate complaints, instead of submitting a written accusation to a government office.

China Arrested 100 Christians After Blocking Their Phones and Social Media

Reviews for the app are very negative (it has a 1.2 out of 5 star rating). "This application would lead to national disintegration in Indonesia," a user named Emanuel Anggit wrote in the most popular review. He argued that the app enables "anyone, including fanatic religious people to report any traditional beliefs as harmful." He warned of persecution, and wrote that Indonesia is facing an "intolerance" that the app will only make worse.

"I live in Indonesia, and I know how the minorities will be treated after this application is widely used," he concluded.

Since Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, it is very diverse. Some areas have a culture where Muslims and Christians live together in harmony, while other islands are rife with radical Islamic terrorism. This app suggests an increase in religious persecution in the country's capital, and Google should seriously rethink its support for this app.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/google-hosts-sharia-law-app-enabling-muslims-report-blasphemy-and-heresy-to-the-police/

Erdogan: Turkey Will Launch Military Operation Against US-Backed Forces In Syria Within Few Days

Turkey will launch a military operation against US-backed forces in northeastern Syrian in the upcoming few days, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed during the Turkish Defense Industry Summit on December 12.

“We expressed that we will launch an operation in east of Euphrates in a few days to save it from a separatist terrorist organization,” the Turkish Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

The Turkish President also criticized the US-led coalition plan to build observation posts along Syria’s border with his country. At the same time, he stressed that the Turkish military will not attack U.S. service members deployed in the region during its upcoming operation.

“It is clear that the purpose of U.S. observation points [in Syria] is not to protect our country from terrorists but to protect terrorists from Turkey,” said Erdogan.

https://southfront.org/erdogan-turkey-will-launch-military-operation-against-us-backed-forces-in-syria-within-few-days/

Turkey may soon launch military operation east of Euphrates River, Erdogan says

ANKARA, December 12. /TASS/. Turkey may soon launch a military operation east of the Euphrates River in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the Turkish Defense Industry Summit in Ankara on Wednesday.

"In a couple of days, Turkey will launch an operation east of the Euphrates," the Daily Sabah quoted him as saying.

http://tass.com/world/1035647

Trump Says China ‘Back in the Market’ for US Soybeans

WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump said on Dec. 11 that China was buying a “tremendous amount” of U.S. soybeans and that trade talks with Beijing were already under way by telephone, with more meetings likely among U.S. and Chinese officials.

Trump told Reuters in an interview that the Chinese government was “back in the market” to buy soybeans after a Dec. 1 truce in the U.S.-China trade war.

“I just heard today that they’re buying tremendous amounts of soybeans. They are starting, just starting now,” Trump said in the interview.

Trump also said he believes China will soon cut tariffs on U.S. autos to 15 percent from the current 40 percent level.

“I think they’re looking to do it immediately, very quickly,” he said.

A Trump administration official earlier told Reuters that China’s plan to cut car tariffs was outlined in a phone call between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Soybean Sales Awaited

U.S. government data has not shown any soybean sales to China since July, when Beijing imposed tariffs on U.S. supplies of the oilseed in retaliation for U.S. duties on Chinese goods.

Traders have been watching closely for signs of confirmation of a resumption of Chinese buying of U.S. soybeans, particularly after Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that “very productive conversations” were going on with China. “Watch for some important announcements!” he added.

Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures edged higher on Tuesday on hopes that new deals would be signed soon, but there were no signs of increased activity in the cash markets, traders said.

U.S. Agriculture Department rules require exporters to promptly report sales of 110,000 tons or more of a commodity made in a single day.

China last year purchased about 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports in deals valued at more than $12 billion. With those exports gone, soybean prices had tumbled to their lowest in a decade.

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping called a temporary truce in their trade war on Dec. 1. Trump agreed to postpone for 90 days a Jan. 1 increase in tariffs on Chinese goods while the two sides negotiated over increased Chinese purchases of American farm and energy commodities, an end to forced technology transfers and stronger protections for U.S. intellectual property in China.

Trump said on Tuesday that those negotiations were already taking place by telephone.

“We’ll probably have another meeting. And maybe a meeting of the top people on both sides,” Trump said. “If it’s necessary, I’ll have another meeting with President Xi, who I like a lot and get along with very well.”

Trump did not offer any timetable for further face-to-face meetings among U.S. and Chinese officials.

He said he would wait to increase tariffs on Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent until it becomes apparent whether the United States and China can make a deal.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-says-china-back-in-the-market-for-us-soybeans_2736845.html

DRAGONFLY: Google Employees Publicly Rebel Against Building a Dystopian New Search Engine

More than 1,400 Google staff, many journalists, and human rights organizations are calling on Google to halt its controversial project called Dragonfly.

What is Project Dragonfly?

Dragonfly is a search engine specially built for China. It would unleash more censorship on a mass scale by selectively blocking certain search terms, apparently at the behest of China’s government. Human rights groups are blasting the company for aiding and abetting China’s mass surveillance and rights violations which could result in potential imprisonment.

It turns out Google’s employees had been unwittingly working on this project for a while until 2017 without knowing its intended purpose. News of this highly secret program finally leaked and no one is letting it get swept under the rug.

Thankfully, since the news leaked out, no amount of time has caused advocates and free speech lovers to forget this scandal. Those in the know are using the hashtag #DropDragonfly.

Sundar Pichai seems to be keen on protecting Google users privacy. So why does he want to give user data to Chinese authorities to help them arrest or imprison people? #DropDragonfly

— Joe Westby (@JoeWestby) December 11, 2018

How would the Dragonfly search engine in China Work?

The search engine would censure terms like “human rights” and “religion.” Hundreds of Google employees have called this out as obvious freedom of speech violations.

BBC reported in August:

The search app would “blacklist sensitive queries”, The Intercept says, identifying and filtering websites currently blocked by China’s so-called Great Firewall.

According to documents it had seen, a search via the app would result in a list with banned websites removed and a disclaimer saying that “some results may have been removed due to statutory requirements”.

It said the BBC News website and Wikipedia would be among those blocked.

Employees of Google are horrified.

“We are Google employees and we join Amnesty International in calling on Google to cancel project Dragonfly…”

Common Dreams reported that an open letter was drawn up.

Signed by 61 groups—including Amnesty International, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF), and Human Rights Watch—as well as 11 individuals that include NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the letter points to a series of reports from The Intercept that detail how the project “would facilitate repressive state censorship, surveillance, and other violations affecting nearly a billion people in China.”

Google employees recently published the open letter on Medium.com announcing that they had partnered with Amnesty International and called on their employer to cancel project Dragonfly, calling it an “effort to create a censored search engine for the Chinese market that enables state surveillance.”

They wrote:

We are among thousands of employees who have raised our voices for months. International human rights organizations and investigative reporters have also sounded the alarm, emphasizing serious human rights concerns and repeatedly calling on Google to cancel the project. So far, our leadership’s response has been unsatisfactory.

Our opposition to Dragonfly is not about China: we object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be. The Chinese government certainly isn’t alone in its readiness to stifle freedom of expression, and to use surveillance to repress dissent. Dragonfly in China would establish a dangerous precedent at a volatile political moment, one that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions.

Our company’s decision comes as the Chinese government is openly expanding its surveillance powers and tools of population control. Many of these rely on advanced technologies, and combine online activity, personal records, and mass monitoring to track and profile citizens.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/69694/dragonfly-google-employees-publicly-rebel-against-building-a-dystopian-new-search.html

Short Term Thinking Dooms U.S. Anti-China Strategy

The United States issued an arrest warrant against the chief financial officer and heir apparent of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou. At issue is a six years old alleged violation of sanctions against Iran. Mrs. Meng was arrested in Canada. She has been set free under a stringent $10 million bail agreement. An extradition trial will follow in February or March.

It is unprecedented that an officer of a large company is personally indicted for the alleged sanction violations by a subsidiary company:

The US rarely arrests senior businesspeople, US or foreign, for alleged crimes committed by their companies. Corporate managers are usually arrested for their alleged personal crimes (such as embezzlement, bribery or violence) rather than their company’s alleged malfeasance.

…

Meng is charged with violating US sanctions on Iran. Yet consider her arrest in the context of the large number of companies, US and non-US, that have violated US sanctions against Iran and other countries. In 2011, for example, JPMorgan Chase paid US$88.3 million in fines for violating US sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Yet chief executive officer Jamie Dimon wasn’t grabbed off a plane and whisked into custody.

The U.S. indicted dozens of banks for violating its sanction regime. They had to pay huge fines (pdf) but none of their officers were ever touched.

We called this U.S. operation a hostage taking to blackmail China. President Trump confirmed that this is indeed the case:

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Tuesday he would intervene in the U.S. Justice Department’s case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

The arrest of Meng is but one part of a larger political campaign against China directed out of the office of National Security Advisor John Bolton:

The Trump administration is preparing actions this week to call out Beijing for what it says are China’s continued efforts to steal American trade secrets and advanced technologies and to compromise sensitive government and corporate computers, according to U.S. officials.

Multiple government agencies are expected to condemn China, citing a documented campaign of economic espionage and the alleged violation of a landmark 2015 pact to refrain from hacking for commercial gain.

In typical propaganda style the U.S. media depict the Chinese as enemies:

Taken together, the announcements represent a major broadside against China over its mounting aggression against the West and its attempts to displace the United States as the world’s leader in technology, officials said.

…

The actions come amid mounting intelligence showing a sustained Chinese hacking effort devoted to acquiring sophisticated American technologies of all stripes. A number of agencies — including the Justice, State, Treasury and Homeland Security departments — have pushed for a newly aggressive U.S. response. A National Security Council committee coordinated the actions.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/12/short-term-thinking-dooms-us-anti-china-strategy.html#more

Magnitude 4.4 Earthquake in Tennessee Felt in Atlanta Metro, Southeast

An early morning earthquake in east Tennessee Wednesday was widely felt over the Southeast U.S.

The magnitude 4.4 quake struck around 4:14 a.m. EST, centered about 7 miles north-northeast of Decatur, Tennessee, in Meigs County, about 55 miles west-southwest of Knoxville.

It was followed about 12 minutes later by a magnitude 3.3 aftershock.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, light shaking was observed over most of the Atlanta metro area, and a number of states from southern Alabama to South Carolina, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

This quake was one of the strongest on record in east Tennessee, exceeded only by a November 30, 1973 near Maryville, south of Knoxville which lead to minor damage near the epicenter.

The quake appeared to occur along the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone, a southwest-to-northeast belt extending from Alabama to far southwest Virginia that is the second-most active quake zone in the central and eastern U.S. behind the more notorious New Madrid zone.

https://govtslaves.info/2018/12/12/magnitude-4-4-earthquake-in-tennessee-felt-in-atlanta-metro-southeast/

Former Congressional Staffer Sentenced to Prison for Extensive Fraud and Election Crimes Scheme

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-congressional-staffer-sentenced-prison-extensive-fraud-and-election-crimes-scheme

>>4274027

Is Poland securing support to go after the EU?

Tallahassee City Commissioner and Political Consultant Charged in Racketeering Conspiracy

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/tallahassee-city-commissioner-and-political-consultant-charged-racketeering-conspiracy

Venezuela's Maduro Accuses John Bolton of Plotting to Assassinate Him

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday accused US National Security Adviser John Bolton of preparing a plan to overthrow and kill him.

"John Bolton leads the plan to unleash violence and conduct a coup to introduce a transitional government. Bolton is preparing a plan of my assassination. He is training, in various places, mercenary and paramilitary units' forces jointly with Colombia, whose president Ivan Duque is an accomplice of this plan," Maduro said at a press conference broadcast on his Facebook page.

Earlier in the month, Nicholas Madure has already stated that the United States is preparing to topple the Venezuelan government.

"An attempt to undermine Venezuela's democratic life and to carry out a coup d'etat against the constitutional, democratic regime in our country has been launched under the coordination from the White House," Maduro was quoted as saying by the AVN news agency on 9 December.

The president added that in the coming days, he would hold a press conference to provide details on the alleged plans of Washington to carry out a coup in Venezuela.

In early August, Maduro was attending a military parade in Caracas, when his speech was interrupted by what the Venezuelan authorities said was a failed assassination attempt involving explosive drones.

Maduro claimed in October that the United States had allegedly instructed Colombia to organize his assassination.

https://sputniknews.com/world/201812121070628235-maduro-bolton-assassination-plot/

>>4274180

>>4274169 Venezuela's Maduro Accuses John Bolton of Plotting to Assassinate Him

>>4274102 Tallahassee City Commissioner and Political Consultant Charged in Racketeering Conspiracy

>>4274036 Former Congressional Staffer Sentenced to Prison for Extensive Fraud and Election Crimes Scheme

All plan related

>>4274255

They are cabal troops. Syria and Russia cannot go after them as this will provide pretext for WW3 but Turkey has been leveraged over the Khashoggi BS and Russia has the goods on them for state sponsored support for ISIS so the Turks are being made to go fight the cabal aka 'US lead coalition' in the Euphrates valley.

>>4274350

>>4274384

your a shit baker