Saving the distance, the words of President Sánchez at the Rafah border reminded me of those of the UE Sant Andreu, a beloved club with great concerns, when in the middle of the Gaza war it issued a statement: “We demand an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities.” Ah! And also the formula of the two states...
(So far, the State of Israel has not responded to the EU Sant Andreu, despite the tantrum that Beniamin Netanyahu must have caught.)
Pedro Sánchez is a bold leader and, as such, prone to risk. Felipe González was also, but those were different times: networks did not exist and nothing was cooked in a minute and a half. Establishing diplomatic relations with Israel took time, patience and judgment. Deteriorating them costs very little...
Except for Aznar and Zapatero, the foreign policy of the Spanish presidents has had little influence on the evaluation of their mandates. European Union, Atlantic Alliance... what more could a country that escaped two world wars due to its loneliness ask for?
In Rafah, Pedro Sánchez expressed a foreign policy criterion on Israel and Palestine and some legitimate humanitarian concerns, but as out of place as Sant Andreu's note on Gaza, a model of toasts to the sun.
When the world waited that afternoon for the departure of the first kidnapped by Hamas, the Spanish president seemed to address exclusively the domestic parish or, at most, the European left. If Spain intended to contribute to the desirable peace process, it can now say goodbye to any role, such as the one it had during the Oslo peace process, projected at the Madrid conference in 1991.
Some will consider it dignity and courage, others consider it a strategic error, one of those that takes its toll and does not solve the drama either. Forms count, discretion too. The foreign policy of a State should be that, State policy, not just that of the government in power.
Oh, these quick – or not – from Sánchez, who overnight already destroyed the historical relationship with Algiers and the Polisario to surrender to Rabat. And without saying a peep.
