Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused his Spanish counterpart of making a “blatant genocidal threat” after the latter lamented Spain’s lack of “nuclear weapons” to defend against Israel during his announcement of sanctions against the Jewish State.
In his speech on Monday, Pedro Sanchez said “Spain, as you know, doesn’t have nuclear bombs, nor aircraft carriers, nor large oil reserves. 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 it’s not in our sole power to win them.”
Sanchez then introduced nine new measures, including a full arms embargo on Israel and a ban on imports of goods from illegal Israeli settlements.
Responding to this on Thursday, Netanyahu tweeted: “Spanish PM Sanchez said yesterday that Spain can’t stop Israel’s battle against Hamas terrorists because ‘Spain does not have nuclear weapons.’ That’s 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,” he added.
Sanchez was also criticized by other Spanish politicians, including the leader of the Vox party, Santiago Abascal, who said “ Sánchez would like to have nuclear weapons … but not to defend Spain. To defend Hamas. And surely Maduro too. Cornered tyrants always end up going mad.”
Abascal accused Sanchez of “allying with Hamas to cover up that his wife, charged with theft, is testifying before a judge this very week.”
Partido Popular spokesman Carlos Díaz-Pache said “Pedro Sánchez has aligned himself with Hamas terrorism with a repugnant antisemitic statement.”
Jewish org. calls to investigate Sanchez's comments
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) called for Sanchez’s comments to be investigated using international legal courts and treaties.
“These disgusting and inflammatory comments have violently ripped off the mask of Prime Minister Sánchez, who claims to be acting on behalf of humanitarian intentions, when his secret desire appears to be militarily attacking Israel, even with the use of weapons of mass destruction,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa said.
“PM Sanchez now joins an unenviable club of those who have wistfully aspired to use nuclear weapons against Israel, which includes Palestinian Authority senior official Jibril Rajoub who said that ‘if we had nuclear weapons, we’d be using them’ and a former Iranian president who said ‘Israel is a one-bomb country’.”
CAM asked Sanchez to apologize “unreservedly” or else “international legal courts and authorities should explore charging him with incitement to genocide.”