Before the extraordinary success of "Phase One" of US President Donald J. Trump's peace plan yesterday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his regret recently that Spain, due to its lack of nuclear weapons, could not end the war in Gaza – meaning nuke Israel.
"Spain, as you know, doesn't have nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers, or large oil reserves," Sánchez lamented. "We alone can't stop the Israeli offensive. But that doesn't mean we won't stop trying. Because there are causes worth fighting for, even if winning them isn't in our sole power."
Sánchez's comment -- wishing for the annihilation of Israel -- did not raise any eyebrows among Western European elites, who are usually quick to arrest, fine and imprison for alleged "hate speech," anyone who disagrees with their policies or hurts their sensitive feelings. Apparently remarks such as that -- wishing for the genocide of the Jews -- are now normalized, mainstream and socially acceptable for the leader of an ostensibly civilized European country.
A few days later, Sánchez happily remarked that the violent rioters who have been disrupting the weeks-long Vuelta cycling race in Spain to protest the participation of the Israeli cycling team -- a private team, not a state one -- bring the riders into physical danger. The Spanish prime minister, far from ensuring the restoration of law and order at this international sporting event, was praising the violence and inciting more of it:
Today the Vuelta a España finishes and we show our absolute respect and recognition for the athletes. But [we also show] our admiration for the Spanish people who mobilise for just causes such as Palestine. Today Spain shines as an example and as a source of pride. It's [giving] an example to the international community by taking a step forward in defence of human rights."
Targeting Jews, we are given to understand, is now a "defense of human rights."
Spain's pro-Hamas rioters acted immediately on the prime minister's incitement. They launched such a violent attack on the last part of the Vuelta that it had to be cancelled entirely. According to sources in Spain's police trade union, the police appear to have received orders not to act against the pro-Hamas rioters as they struck.
"Spain is the only democratic country where it is the government that fuels violent protests," opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said.
Earlier, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares had done his own part in fueling the riots by announcing that ordinary Israelis are no longer welcome in Spain, and advocating for the expulsion of the Israeli cycling team from the Vuelta race:
"We have to send a message to Israel and the Israeli society that Europe and Israel can only have normal relations when human rights are respected."
Israel and Spain are not at war. Nevertheless, Albares, with his statement, declared Israelis – Jews – beyond the pale of "normal relations" due to a defensive and existential war that Israel is fighting - in part also to protect Spain.
Conversely, when Al Qaeda – sponsored by Qatar – launched the deadliest terrorist attack on European soil in Spain in 2004, murdering 193 people and wounding 2,000 others, Muslims were not spoken of this way: that would have been discriminatory. Not only that, but since then, Spain has welcomed millions of Muslim immigrants into the country, including a million Moroccans, even though one of the Al Qaeda terrorists behind the attack on Spain was Moroccan.
What of Qatar, which sponsors Al Qaeda? Spain and Qatar enjoy excellent relations, and entered into a strategic partnership in 2022 to deepen their economic and political ties. The country that most likely helped finance the biggest terrorist attack on Spanish soil is respected and rewarded by Spain, while Israel, which is fighting that very same terrorism, is denigrated and its citizens hounded.
Already, Spain has prohibited any trade in military equipment with Israel, banned the use of Spanish ports and airspace to transport fuel or weapons to the Israeli military, and is introducing an additional 9 measures against Israel, while throwing many more millions of euros after the terrorist UNRWA.
In May 2024, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz Pérez vowed that "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea," so the genocidal strain in the Spanish government since 1492, when both the Jews and the "Moors" (Muslims) were expelled, is not new. Apparently Spanish ministers are too busy threatening the Jewish state with annihilation to have time to look at people within their own country to whom they are denying statehood.
Catalonia, for instance, which is a region with its own national culture and language, has long struggled to be independent, but in 2017, when it tried to hold a referendum for independence, Spanish national police beat Catalonian voters and threw Catalonian politicians in jail.
At the end of the day, other than his hatred of Jews, Sánchez is doing what all corrupt leaders have always done: blaming the Jews to deflect attention from his own problems. Sánchez finds himself in the midst of several corruption scandals and is struggling to stay in power amidst demands for him to be held accountable and resign.
Meanwhile, Spain's Jews pay the price for the Spanish government's Jew-hate, most recently at the Vuelta. Spanish Jews, who went to see the Vuelta with Spanish and Israeli flags, were harassed by "hundreds of people with Palestinian flags and with a tremendously violent and coercive attitude," despite the fact that they were located where the police told them to stand to avoid confrontation. The mob even chased them even though they moved elsewhere "not to provoke anyone." Meanwhile, the police did nothing.
Ángel Más, president of the Action and Communication for the Middle East (ACOM), said:
""It was a very sad day in which street terrorism was normalized as a way to obtain political objectives through coercion, intimidation, the breaking of the law and fundamental rights.... These people did not come to protest a cycling tour, or support any team, or peacefully express an opinion at a public event. They came to lynch us. Their problem is not the participation of an Israeli team in La Vuelta; its problem is that we breathe, it is that we exist."
Perhaps it is time for Sánchez and those who voted for him to reconsider.
Robert Williams is based in the United States.
