Zapatero is not only a coward when it comes to knuckling under to Islamist demands, but he’s also a hypocrite.
Israel’s envoy to Spain said on Thursday the two countries’ relations had been damaged after the Spanish prime minister accused Israel of using “abusive force” during an event at which he also wore a Palestinian scarf.
Spain’s ability to use its influence to help defuse the growing Middle East conflict could suffer following the speech by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to a meeting of young Socialists on Wednesday, Ambassador Victor Harel said.
His comments came as European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, himself a Spaniard, was involved in talks aimed at ending fighting between Israel, Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas and Palestinian militants.
“Each declaration which is not balanced has consequences for parties who want to use their influence,” Harel told reporters at Madrid’s Ritz Hotel where he listened to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos at a conference.
Moratinos, Solana, and Zapatero should stop looking East and instead sould look South at Spain’s own brutal and shameful longtime occupation of another country’s lands.
According to the CIA World Factbook, Spain currently occupies sovereign Moroccan territory, the land of Arab Muslims:
Morocco protests Spain’s control over the coastal enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and the islands of Penon de Velez de la Gomera, Penon de Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas, and surrounding waters…
Spain uses attack dogs that are trained to kill, armed troops with shoot-to-kill orders, double-fencing, barbed and razor wire, and electrified barriers to protect their illegal and humiliating occupation of Ceuta and Melilla.
Territory won in colonial wars on conquest, not defensive wars protecting Spain from utter destruction and its population from genocidal massacre.
And unlike Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Golan, and Southern Lebanon, if Spain were to hand over that territory now they wouldn’t be sacrificing Spanish security in the slightest or putting the existence of Spain at risk by one bit.
Pingback: A Blog For All
Meryl, you wrote:
“Spain uses attack dogs that are trained to kill, armed troops with shoot-to-kill orders, double-fencing, barbed and razor wire, and electrified barriers to protect their illegal and humiliating occupation of Ceuta and Melilla.”
Except for the use of “double-fencing, barbed and razor wire” the rest of your tirade is simply baseless. Ceuta and Melilla were settled by Spaniards long before anything remotely similar to the kingdom of Morocco ever existed in its present shape or form, so absolutely no one except the Moroccans (this is another grievance they use to conceal their own shortcomings as Arabs are wont to do with Israel) is disputing the Spanish sovereignty over these two cities. (Unlike, say, the Moroccan invasion of Western Sahara after the Spaniards left that colony in 1975.)
Spanish police patrolling the border at Ceuta and Melilla are NOT issued live ammo of any kind. The Moroccans gendarmes, on the other hand, have a habit of shooting illegal immigrants in the back while climbing over the fence. Your whole theory is absurd. Do you really think this people would really rush the fence as they have done several times, in their hundreds, if the Spaniards were shooting at them using live ammo? There would have been dozens of fatalities and the number of casualties would be in the hundreds by now.
There are NO shoot-to-kill orders, Meryl. Stop being disingenious. These immigrants have been so fearfully frightened by those evil Spaniards that they routinely attempt to get back into Spain (illegally, to be sure), after they have been expelled from the country — which happens ever so rarely, because the Spanish authorities cannot deport illegal immigrants with no documents back to their home countries, and — guess what? — these immigrants have a tendency to get rid of their papers asap, you know.
So no, there are no shoot-to-kill orders, no dogs trained to kill and no electrified barriers.
You have simply made these accusations up.
Does the Guardia Civil brutalize the immigrants when they think no one is watching? You bet! Do they shoot and kill immigrants? Nope. None whatsoever. There have been but few killings and ALL of them on the other side of the border.
In fact, Spain is such a great destination for illegal immigrants that, when they arrive in Northern Morocco, they pay the rackets there for the trip and get a discount ticket for THREE attempts to cross illegally into Spain. This way, if they are sent back to Morocco, they have two attempts left to try and set foot in Zappy’s backyard.
Zapatero hates Israel. Anti- american Zapatero (psoe) blames Israel. Zapatero surrenders to terrorism. Zapatero, traitorous to free world
Zapatero´s Spain is currently occupying Olivença/Olivenza, part of sovereign Portugal
You Americans are lucky; your Canadian neighbors are more, shall we say, subdued than our Moroccan ones and don’t resent your ongoing occupation of Canadian land in Nortwest Angle out Minnesota and Point Roberts out Washington…
(Cross-commented -currently awaiting moderation- at This Blog Is Full Of Crap).
FC-
1) It’s me, not Meryl.
2) If you believe what you say, give your name and email address.
3) As for the bits you have in dispute, check Amnesty’s site. Then dig a little deeper.
Meryl, you should take on consideration that the great majority of spanish citizens, and I am pretty sure that europeans also, ahare the opinion of the “abusive force” of Israel against Lebanon.
If you would know a little Spain, you will see that we are not people that support easily arab interests, we have more conflicts that common interests with them. In fact few countries in the world have had more wars against the arabs in their history. For this reason, our support to Lebanon on this ilegal war (UN said) is still more relevant. I had fully supported a war against Hezbola, but I cannot accept a war against Lebanon, against civilians, factories, roads, etc. that i not at all Hezbola.
Ceuta and Melilla is a very complex issue, as Gibraltar or las Malvinas, that you can mention also. Sooner or later Spain will have to give them back to Morroco, and UK Gibraltar to Spain, Las Malvinas to Argentina … and Israel Gaza and Cisjordania to Palestinians for having their own country.
Hypocrite is to speak about Ceuta and Melilla when you have Gaza and Cisjordania, Coward is doing a “war” when one side has all the power.
No, you got that back to front. Hypocrite is to speak about Gaza, which was given back in its entirety, when you have Ceuta and Melilla.
Coward is doing a war from behind the woman’s skirts.
I am a Spaniard and I feel deeply embarrassed by Mr. Zapatero’s accusations and the pictures he allowed to be taken wearing a Palestinian scarf. I think his radical left / pacifist approach serves no good purpose to anybody. He portrays Spain as anti-Semitic, and the worst thing is that the Spanish left is in fact becoming a bit anti-Semitic.
That being said, I think your comparison between Ceuta and Melilla with Gaza is disproportionate. The “brutality” of Spanish “occupation” seems to be concentrated in keeping illegal immigrants from flocking in. It must not be such a bad occupation style when people want to get in risking their lives in the process.
I think your comment might arise as a reaction to Mr. Zapatero’s blunders and the desire to scold him. But please do not make the scolding extensive to all of Spain. I for one do support and admire Israel and I can tell you that slowly but steadily, the view of the Arab Israeli conflict is changing in my country. More people are beginning to understand all to clearly what the fight is about, and that Spain should clearly line up with those defending Democracy and Freedom against terror, like Israel right now.
Jose Manuel Nieto
Madrid