José Antonio Lisbona
Author of the book “España-Israel. Historia de unas Relaciones Secretas”
In 1986 a thirty-year period of bilateral relations began, conditioned by the centrality of the Arab-Israeli conflict or by the progress in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, positively or negatively respectively and according to how it was seen or succeeded. The events of the conflict have conditioned these fragile relations, impeding them from advancing as has happened, however, with other countries on the basis of their own merits, without the intervention of third parties. On the contrary, the progresses in the peace talks have driven them, for example during the period between the holding of the Madrid Peace Conference in November 1991 and the fracas in the negotiations in Taba in January 2001. It is only during this stage that it can be said that Spanish-Israeli relations achieved a certain “normalisation”.
However, the Second Intifada begun in 2000, the encirclement of Arafat in Muqata in 2002, the Second Lebanon War in summer 2006 or Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009 are good examples that illustrate that Spain’s relations with Israel are not only conditioned by the conflict but also even to the extent of becoming hostages in the conflict itself.
All together 38 years had to pass until Spain and Israel established official relations on 17 January 1986. The history of these relations has been one of diplomatic asymmetry: when one of the parties wished to, the other did not, and vice versa. It is the chronicle of accords and discords between Spanish and Israeli diplomats, the history of of occasions lost in the hope of “opportune moments” that never arrived.
Only the necessity of a new international promotion of Spain, after it joined NATO and its entry into the EEC, led to an approach to Israel. Having said that, it maintains the traditional principles of its policy, by being always in favour of a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East through support for the solution of two States. This is taking a position around the common traditional policy of all the democratic governments and, in addition, one agreed by the consensus of the principal parties.
Relations between Spain and Israel are seen as a “zero-sum-game” that are determined by the fact that for the parties there is no strategic interest in play, in that it does not influence their respective internal or foreign policies, making them neither better nor worse.
However, they are certainly relations of a dependant nature; any initiative to Israel must also be entertained in respect of its repercussions in Palestine and the Arab countries and vice versa. These are not bilateral relations but trilateral ones, as Spanish policy in the area of the Middle East, in its origin and actuality depend on Spain’s connection with the Arab World.
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“Nowadays it is still essential to build bridges of understanding to buffer the differences”
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The guiding principle of Spanish relations in the Middle East is that of a “balanced policy” traditionally followed by the countries in conflict and more vulnerable to opposing pressures by Arabs or Israelis on Spain, with the object of bending it in favour of its respective interests. A “global policy” has been put into practice but it implies that every particular action in or with a country necessarily motivates a counterbalancing gesture in or with the other.
Tardy official relations, ones that have been delayed far too long and which instead of being adult today, like those enjoyed with other European countries, are to be found having scarcely come of age, at little more that a quarter of a century. This circumstance means that instead of establishing consolidation and reinforcement mechanisms (for example the institutionalisation of political dialogue within a framework of almost permanent consultations) it is still essential to build bridges of understanding and commitment to buffer the differences that periodically arise when conflict appears in the region.
If one talks of Spain and Israel, the expression “like the teeth of a saw” could represent to perfection the continuous ups and downs in the evolution of changing and unstable relations in the main. And, what is certain, always impassioned.
