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The anti-Israel Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, is under fire from Israel and Spaniards alike for his alleged comments to use nuclear weapons against the Jewish state.
The socialist Prime Minister Sanchez, said in a speech last week that “Spain, as you know, doesn’t have nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers, or large oil reserves,” adding, “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.”
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused his Spanish counterpart of making a “blatant genocidal threat to the world’s only Jewish state. Apparently, the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews of Spain and the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, is not enough for Sanchez.”
The Times of Israel reported that Spain summoned Israel’s top diplomat in the country to “categorically reject the false and slanderous statements from the Israeli prime minister’s office.”
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Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez (left), during his meeting with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohamed Mustafa (right), at the International Conference on the emergency humanitarian response for Gaza, at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Center, on June 11, 2024. (Moncloa via Getty Images)
Juan Caldes, the European advocacy coordinator at the European Jewish Association, told Fox News Digital that, “It is beyond hypocritical and cynical to call Israel a genocidal state when one mentions how unfortunate the fact that Spain doesn’t have nuclear weapons to stop Israel. That is the definition of a genocide, when there is a deliberate intent to destroy a specific group (be it ethnic, religious or racial).”
Caldez, who is Spanish, said, “Sanchez embraced the Palestinian cause in order to avoid talking about his own personal corruption scandals that surround some of his family members and also many of the corruption scandals involving many of his colleagues from the Socialist Party.”
He claimed, “Sanchez’s coalition (of socialists and communists) have been expressing very antisemitic views since Oct. 7th.” He cited Yolanda Diaz, vice president of Spain, who in a televised speech last year, said, “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free … In other words, from the Jordan River until the Mediterranean state a one-state solution erasing all Jews from the land.”
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Spaniards protesting against Israel. Unions have called for a general strike day in solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanon demanding the Spanish government break relations with Israel. Sept. 2024. (Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
According to Caldes, “Sanchez’s rhetoric and actions show how embedded antisemitism is part of the Spanish government. That being said, it is still important not to conflate it with the majority of the Spanish people who do not hold antisemitic views.”
Santiago Abascal, the leader of the right-wing Vox Party, said, “Sanchez would like to have nuclear weapons … but not to defend Spain. To defend Hamas.”
According to statistics from The Jewish Agency for Israel in September, the size of the Spanish Jewish community numbered 12,900 out of a population of just over 49 million.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on December 9, 2024. (MAYA ALLERUZZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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Last year Spain experienced “the largest increase in modern history in antisemitic speech, incidents, and attacks, up 321% compared to 2023 and 567% compared to 2022,” according to a report by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain.
Fox News Digital reached out to Spain’s embassy in Washington and its foreign ministry for comment.