I don’t know what perspective bignews.com advocates (if any explicitly) but I just found this story and I have to know what truth if any there is behind it:
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=fa79e186a736be09
It says an israeli soldier who raped his 11 year old cousin for three years (ending when she was 13) has recieved as punishment six months of community service, and that the courts took into accout the fact that he seemed distressed by the prospect of jail time.
This wouldn’t even pass the laugh test for me except that I didn’t see any equally outrageous sounding stories at the website (though I didn’t look that long) so now I don’t know what to think.
Any help?
-FrL-
Well I found another fringe newspaper supporting this (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/574866.html) and the National Council for the Child it refers to is a legit institution, however, there is no way to confirm this quote.
Am I being whooshed? Haaretz is one of Israel’s biggest newspapers, and perhaps the most respected internationally. We’re talking about the New York Times of Israel here…
Come on, Ha’Aretz is just a rag for hacks like Amira Hass to scribble on.
[/sarcasm]
Let me second (or third) the fact that Ha’Aretz is extremely main-stream. The story is also on YNet (Yedioth Aharonot’s web site) – and Yedioth is the most popular newspaper in the country.
And the National Council for the Child is a very real and active organization as well.
What worries me most about the whole thing is that I haven’t seen anything about the State intending to appeal this ludicrous sentence 
Dani
I appologize. I shouldn’t have assumed things based on such a quick glance. Somehow I automatically assumed it was an AMERICAN zionist newspaper, and as such the content on the rest of the site seemed ‘fringe’. In the context of being Israeli, it changes everything.
Teaches me to jump to conclusions ;j