So once again an international matter, and again the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has futher polarised an already divided national political sphere in Spain. The right rushes to condemn the Hamas terror attack, but says little or nothing about the long-term situation. The left rushes to condemn Israeli “apartheid” against Palestinians, but says little or nothing about the abduction, rape and murder of women, children and grannies at the weekend.
The leader of the Communist Party in Spain has spoken of Palestinians’ “legitimate right to resistance”. The Deputy Prime Minister and leader of Sumar, a lifelong communist, said it was time for the world to seek a “just peace” for the Palestinians, and offered solidarity “with all victims” but did not condemn Hamas. Several senior members of Podemos and United Left attended the pro-Palestinian rally in Madrid yesterday.
Bildu, the far-left Basque separatist party closest to the terror group ETA, unsurprisingly said that “these things are going to happen”.
The interim left-wing coalition government, currently trying hard to renew its mandate for a second parliament by negotiating unconsitutional paths forward with regional separatists, led this time by Puigdemont, still fugitive from Spanish justice in Belgium, did not sign Spain up to the new joint Western declaration from the leading countries: three nuclear powers, the US, the UK and France, along with the leading economies of Europe, Germany and Italy. But not Spain. Perhaps Sánchez was not asked.
That new joint statement doesn’t seem like an unreasonable or illogical position to me. It supports “equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike”, as well as the “legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people” while strongly condemning the barbaric new Hamas attack and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself now.
It’s not a statement that should be very difficult for democratic politicians to get behind. Constructive peace and non-violence should be the goal for all over the long-term, but faced with as barbaric an attack as has just occurred in Israel this weekend, they cannot realistically expect Israel not to defend itself very resoundingly.
How would left-wing politicians in Spain respond if such a terrifying attack had occurred here instead of in Israel? If a thousand murderous thugs had suddenly visited such horrors on Barcelona or Bilbao? It is unlikely they would be chanting in central Madrid in favour of the side the terrorists had emerged from, without condemning such an outrage against peace, life and liberty.
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Comment: Spanish politics + Israel-Palestine