Spain has reportedly downgraded its diplomatic relations with Israel. Per Reuters: “Spain permanently withdrew its ambassador to Israel on Tuesday as a diplomatic standoff worsened between the two countries over Spain’s opposition to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.”
At some point, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government is going to run out of ways to petulantly express its opposition to the democratic West.
The U.S.-Iran conflict is not like Israel-Gaza in that it doesn’t pit the U.S. against Europe. There are some countries on the continent, like the UK and France, that don’t love President Trump’s enthusiasm for punishing the Islamic Republic but that nonetheless don’t make a scene about it. But Spain—well, you just can’t take Spain anywhere, can you.
Sanchez’s problem is with Trump first and foremost, but he can’t go full-throttle against the United States. So he’s doing the diplomatic equivalent of unfollowing Trump’s friend because he’s angry at Trump. Welcome to the junior high cafeteria.
Spain’s relations with Israel were already on ice because of Sanchez’s impulsive decision to recognize “the state of Palestine” last year. But the UK and France did so as well, and Israel managed to stay on speaking terms with those two allies.
That’s mostly because those two countries matter.
There is, of course, a third way: the path taken by Germany. Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not refrain from criticizing Israeli government policy, but neither does he allow those disagreements to send him into a toddler tantrum. Israel’s plan to allow construction in the Jerusalem area known as E1 is, Merz said yesterday, a “big mistake.”
He added that such construction would amount to “annexation moves,” and that his foreign minister will convey the same message to his Israeli counterparts when traveling to Israel.
To repeat: when traveling to Israel. The German government is not going to boycott the Jewish state over a policy disagreement. Because in the grand scheme of things, Merz knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are—and the mullahs in Tehran aren’t the good guys.
In a different address, Merz was heckled by anti-Zionist protesters. He was unfazed: “The federal government I lead will never leave any doubt about where we stand. We stand with Israel.” After being interrupted again, he shot back: “Let me tell you one thing. I will do everything in my power to combat anti-Semitism in the Federal Republic of Germany wherever it occurs, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that this country remains a country where Jews can move about freely and openly.” He then pointed to a group holding a pro-Palestine poster and said: “And if those for whom you’re holding up this banner lay down their weapons, then the conflict will be over within 24 hours, ladies and gentlemen. That is the root cause and not the state of Israel, which is fighting for its existence and its right to live in freedom.”
There is, to be fair, a bit of intellectual consistency to Spain’s handling of its relations with Israel, at least as compared to France and the UK. Spain understands that Hamas and Iran are one. (Germany understands this as well.) That these are set pieces in a larger war. That there is something funny about running interference for Hamas and then denouncing Iran.
In fact, to take it one step further, the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran are legitimate responses to October 7, when Iran’s subsidiary invaded Israel and carried out the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Those attacks included the murder of dozens of Americans. Another Iranian proxy then killed three U.S. service members in Jordan.
And yet, France and the UK opposed Israel’s counteroffensive against those who carried out the massacre but are more supportive of strikes against those who financed and armed the ones who carried out the massacre.
Germany doesn’t have that problem, because under its current government Berlin has remained morally consistent: The terrorists and their nuke-pursuing masters are the bad guys. Sometimes Israeli actions come in for criticism from Merz, but never does he abandon the alliance of democracies for the axis of authoritarians who are currently also trying to smash up Europe with Iranian missiles. Moral clarity has the advantage of being easy to explain, even to pro-Palestinian protesters.
