Sunday 5 December 2010

IDF officers get photo of dead child from Spain

Source: Ynet (IDF officers get photo of dead child)

'How will you explain this to God?' says letter sent from Spain to homes of officers exposed on 'war criminals' website. 'I've gotten used to curses, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant,' reserve colonel tells Ynet.

Colonel (res.) Bentzi Gruber, a deputy commander of an Israel Defense Forces division, was at a training base in Tze'elim last week. His wife called to tell him that he had received a letter from Spain, which didn't particularly surprise him. But when she opened the envelope, she was shocked. "Unfortunately, I've gotten used to curses and scathing words against me, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant," he tells Ynet.
Gruber is just one of the officers who received a threatening poster from Spain, after his name appeared on a website referring to IDF soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead as "war criminals".

The poster includes a picture of a young child buried in the sand. His head is the only thing sticking out and he appears to be dead. Two hands in the background, apparently belonging to a soldier, are directed at him. The picture's caption reads, "How will you explain this to God?'

The letter was sent in an envelope from Madrid to the homes of Colonel (res.) Gruber and several other IDF officers, including Central Command Chief Avi Mizrahi and outgoing Military Intelligence Director Amos Yadlin. Some of the posters include a picture of an injured or dead young woman being held by a soldier. The English sentence is similar. The army does not know at this stage the exact number of letters sent to the officers' home. The website included dozens of addresses of IDF officers, most of whom are believed to have received such letters.
Read the whole piece HERE

What do Spaniards thing of Jews:
1) 58.4% of the Spaniards think that the "Jews have much power because they control the economy and the media". Among university students this attitude encompasses the 62.2%, and among people "interested in politics" this attitude encompasses the 70.5%. All of this means that anti-Semitism in Spain is highly worrying and intolerable, due to its level and to the fact that it's higher among educated and informed people.
2) 34.6% of the Spaniards have unfavourable or totally unfavourable opinions about the Jews. This attitude encompasses 34% of the far-rightists (who rate the Jews with 4.9 points in a scale from 1 to 10) and 37.7% of centre-left-wingers (who rate the Jews with 4.6 points in a scale from 1 to 10). This case is unique in Europe because far-rightists show less unpleasantness towards the Jews than centre-left-wingers.

3) Among those who admit to be "unpleasant towards the Jews", 17% of them attribute this attitude to the "Middle East conflict"; 29.6% of them attribute this attitude to "their religion", "their customs", " the way they are", etc.; others among them attribute this attitude to "general unpleasantness", "the power" and "the money"; 17% of them attribute this attitude to reasons they don't know. This means that only a small percentage of the Spaniards show unpleasantness towards the Jews due to "the State of Israel and its policies".

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