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TERRITORIOS / Medio Oriente

Spain's PSOE Socialist Party Follows The Same Foreign Policy As The PP Under Aznar

Agustín Velloso
CEPRID
11 - XII - 07



Ex-President Aznar made himself dismally famous four years ago when he chose to ally his fate with that of US President Bush in the war of aggression against Iraq.

The lies, cliches and slick, superficial slogans, that mixture of political machismo and fake Spanish-ism that are typical of Aznar, have broken out again lately, the difference being they come not from him - although he backs them 100% - but from the PSOE Zapatero government Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Just before the start of the war on Iraq, Aznar said, "in a fight, Spain knows who to stand by and it will stand with its friends, with the USA". This is the same ill-starred mental bewilderment afflicting Moratinos, published by the EFE news service on November 15th, "Spain, simply, whatever the circumstances will always be on the side of Israel."

The same news service added "The Foreign Minister has confirmed that whoever is acquainted with him knows the links "of friendship, assistance and commitment" towards Israel so it "lives in peace and security" is "absolute and total"." What was said before about Aznar, one now has to repeat about Moratinos:

Everyone is well aware that Spain has to be on the side of international law. Neither Aznar nor Moratinos are free to choose bad friendships while being President or Minister of a member State of the United Nations Organization. The UN has not authorized aggression by the United States (nor Israeli attacks on Arab nations : Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq or Syria). Nor has it authorized the partition of Iraq (or in the case of Palestine the separation Wall, the settlements, or the occupation of territory, including Jerusalem).

Are we to ally with a State condemned by the International Court of Justice for breaking international law? (Israel has the world record for breaking international law and UN Resolutions.) Aznar and Moratinos have forgotten their good buddy's criminal record and are unwilling to note Israel's likely current recidivism as it threatens Arab neighbours and Iran too.

It seems there is a tendency on the part of Spanish and European political leaders, without, of course, forgetting their US colleagues, to regard Israel with deference and servility, utterly oblivious to the obligations of their own positions and completely unafraid of ridicule.

It is unimaginable, for example, that a Spanish left wing official might, for example, declare total support for Venezuela's Bolivarian project towards socialism. As well as that project being attractive to those who call themselves socialists, we are joined to that country by history, language, customs, religion, blood and whatever else one might want to add.

Still, Moratinos the socialist throws all Spain's weight - the slightness of which he recognises, at least - behind a country that has broken international law since its founding 60 years ago, with which Spain has had diplomatic relations for just 20 years and with which it has little in common except military exchanges and arms sales; a country which is a pariah State not just for a billion Muslims but for a large part of the world; a country that daily kills and thieves in Palestine and which is the main ally - or more correctly, accomplice - of the other great planetary delinquent, the United States; a country that has recently attacked Lebanon leaving it with thousands dead and littered with bombs ready to explode; a country that threatens Iran and which has been covertly or openly involved in wars around the world, in Nicaragua, Colombia, South Africa and Iraq; a country with nuclear weapons; a country that has sentenced the Palestinians to genocide by means of a blockade unique in human history for being applied to refugees who are supposed to be protected - clearly no more than theoretically - by international law. The list goes on....

No doubt Israel has sought an expression of public support from Spain through convenient channels. It is out of the question that Moratinos, repeatedly presented in Spain for years as a recognised expert on the Arab world, as well as being a good friend to its peoples, suddenly, off his own bat forgets Israel's history and changes friends just as Israel now tries yet again, this time in Annapolis, to paint itself before world public opinion not as the unrepentant aggressor it really is but rather as a partner for peace.

One needs to look back at the recent past to explain the re-heated love affair between zionism and the PSOE. Just over a year ago on July 20th 2006, Moratinos attended a breakfast of the New Economic Forum with leading zionist business people. According to El Pais the next day, one of these, Mauricio Hatchwell, expressed the "indignation" of Jewish people in Spain at some remarks the day before by Spain's President, "They are anti-Israeli and anti-semitic statements and we cannot accept them." He was referring to the mild - not to say cowardly - assessment by Zapatero of Israel's attack on Lebanon which he described as "an excessive use of force", something any high-school student of a course like Citizenship, Ethics or Religion would identify with no difficulty as a war crime.

In case such remarks by a private citizen might not have impressed the Minister, Israel's then ambassador to Spain, Victor Harel, according to the same newspaper, made very clear that "the protest demonstrations against the attacks on Lebanon held last night in various cities - ""in which the government's party is included", he said - are a gift to Islamic terrorism". And Harel added, lamenting, "although we are now in our twentieth anniversary, I do not believe relations (between Spain and Israel) are at anything like their best. One finds here very hard criticisms, very unfair to Israel, going far beyond the EU consensus".

If one sets aside the Zionist interference in Spain's politics, and the bad manners and contempt for the Minister, for the PSOE and for Spanish society - in regard to which one hears no patriotic protests or op-eds against the Zionists in El Pais or in other media, in contrast to what happens with Chavez - one can see that the above rebukes had an educative effect on Moratinos.

The award of two of the 2007 Prince of Asturias prizes to the Holocaust Museum (one refers here to the historical one of the Nazis against the Jews, not the current, active one of the Zionists against the Palestinians) and to the writer Amos Oz, signified little more than that he had learned the lesson in time to prepare public opinion for the recent declaration to the four winds that Spain supports Israel "totally and absolutely". The Minister is one of the signatories of the letters in support of Yad Vashem for the Prince of Asturias 2007 Concordia prize. Among the other signatories one finds those arch-protectors of human rights, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vicente Fox, Kofi Annan, Hillary Clinton and Israel Meir.

One could fill a horror museum with the results of the actions of these beacons of contemporary humanism, with torture chamber, testimonies of massacres, recordings of children torn to bits by missiles, stories of families buried alive in their houses toppled by earth-movers and other princely examples of Judaeo-Christian concord. So perhaps it is no surprise that a leading PSOE Minister can hardly wait to add his signature to those of the group proposing the prize.

While it may seem that things are not going badly for Aznar, not all his money nor all his friends will manage to clear his name from the list of reviled Presidents, where his place is assured in perpetuity. His party and the deputies who cheered his lies and blustering in Congress, slink away unjustly almost unobserved.

If Moratinos prefers Zionist goodwill to his own good name, that is his own affair. Whoever wants to can join him. But he has no right nor the authority to enlist everyone in Spain in a revolting and illegal policy.

What appears hardly surprising at all right now is that the PSOE shamelessly apes the foreign policy of the Partido Popular under Aznar, stating publicly its unqualified support for a criminal State and its extreme right wing policies. What is perhaps surprising is that no PSOE member has handed in their party card. After Spain's role in Lebanon, now Israel. Why not PSOI : Politicians Submissive and Obedient to Israel?

translation copyleft tortilla con sal