The escalation of violence in the Middle East, following Hamas' attacks on Israel and the reaction of the Jewish State, which threatens to provoke a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, generated turbulence within the European Union and also burst into the political debate with a bang. in Spain, where the mystery of the investiture still remains to be resolved.
Pedro Sánchez maintains a firm position condemning the terrorist attacks by Hamas, while demanding that Israel not exceed international humanitarian law in Gaza. And yesterday he defended the recognition of the Palestinian State as “the only way to definitively resolve the conflict” with Israel.
But the criticism from the purple sector of the Government, which demands to "stop" the Israeli Prime Minister, Beniamin Netanyahu, and take him to the International Criminal Court for "genocide" against the Palestinian people, provoked a forceful reaction from Israel yesterday. His embassy in Madrid issued a harsh statement calling on Sánchez to “unequivocally denounce and condemn the shameful statements” that he attributes to “some members of the Spanish Government.”
“It is deeply worrying that, at a time when Israel is mourning the loss of innocent lives in the barbaric attack by Hamas (...), certain elements within the Spanish Government have chosen to align themselves with this ISIS-type terrorism (... Islamic State)”, denounces the Israeli statement.
“Absolutely immoral” statements, warns the embassy, that “endanger the security of the Jewish communities of Spain, exposing them to anti-Semitic attacks.”
The reaction of the Spanish Government was equally forceful, through a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to “flatly reject the falsehoods expressed” by the Israeli embassy about some of its members, and warn that “it does not accept unfounded insinuations about them.” “Any political leader can freely express positions as a representative of a political party in a full democracy such as Spain,” warns Foreign Affairs.
The truth is that no member of the Government is “aligned” with Hamas and everyone, including the ministers and leaders of Podemos, Ione Belarra, and IU, Alberto Garzón, condemned the terrorist attacks on the Israeli civilian population, although they do demand respect for human rights, the application of United Nations agreements and the cessation of Israel's attacks on the population of Gaza, which they call "genocide."
Sánchez went ahead, as highlighted in the Moncloa, to establish a firm position, inside and outside our borders, in the face of the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. A position that he already defended last Saturday, at a PSOE rally, and with the declaration that he signed as president of the Socialist International.
As acting head of the Executive and acting president of the EU Council, yesterday he defended the recognition of the Palestinian State as “the only way to definitively resolve the conflict.” And he did it before the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the presidents of the Council and the Commission, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, at the Tirana summit.
In line with the common position that the 27 EU member states adopted on Sunday, and in the same sense in which the European Council will express itself today. With all the pieces aligned, therefore, to add forces and avoid cracks. Also within the coalition Executive.
“The position of the Government as a whole with respect to the terrorist attacks by Hamas is clear: categorical condemnation, demand for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and recognition of Israel's right to defend itself within international humanitarian law,” reads the Foreign Affairs statement. .
“The Government as a whole – he emphasizes – has repeatedly expressed the need to distinguish the Palestinian population from the terrorist group Hamas, to protect the civilian population of Gaza and the imperative need to maintain the basic supplies essential for the well-being of said population” .
And, in line with the position expressed by Sánchez yesterday in Tirana, the statement states that “the Government as a whole reiterates that the only viable solution to achieve a situation of peace and stability in the region is the solution of two states that coexist in Peace and security".
“The only way to definitively resolve the conflict is through the recognition of the two states, so that they can coexist in peace and security,” Sánchez had warned at the Tirana summit. “We must now work to prevent an escalation of violence in the region and redouble all our efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” he demanded.
Sánchez's position is framed in the same coordinates as the UN. And those that Congress approved in Spain, unanimously, in 2014, are alleged in the Moncloa. But the negotiation process in which the leader of the PSOE is immersed, to try to articulate a new investiture majority, polarizes the political scene in Spain and also sharpens the offensive of the right to try to prevent his re-election.
From Sumar, an organization led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz, the recognition of the Palestinian State was incorporated into the negotiation of the government agreement. As explained yesterday by its spokesman, Ernest Urtasun, who once again condemned the Hamas attacks, this recognition "must be done unilaterally, unconditionally and urgently as an essential contribution to peace."
Urtasun thus alluded to the urgency for Spain to individually recognize the Palestinian State outside the criterion of the 27, as Sweden or Greece already did, since waiting for unanimity from the EU is postponing it sine die. And he recalled that this recognition was already approved in Congress with almost unanimous support from all groups – two PP deputies voted against and one abstained – in November 2014.
The Popular Party and Vox agreed yesterday to denounce Sánchez's government coalition, the current one with Unidas Podemos and the one he seeks to reissue with Sumar, for alleged collusion with Hamas in the space to the left of the PSOE. The PP spokesperson, Borja Sémper, warned of the “weakness” that Spain projects on the international stage, since the Executive is “broken” in the face of the conflict in the Middle East. Sumar, Sémper criticized, “is not even capable of recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization.” As happened with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Hamas attack also generates “division within the Government,” as he highlighted.
And the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, in turn accused Sánchez of having “admiration for Hamas terrorism embedded within the Council of Ministers.”
