The Diplomat
The Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli, affirms that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is “one of the worst” political leaders in the world and considers him even “responsible” for the “more victims” in the Gaza Strip and the delay in the release of the hostages, for initiatives such as recognising the Palestinian state in the short term, a “prize” for terrorism in his opinion.
Chikli, one of the international leaders invited this weekend to the ‘Europa Viva 24’ political event organised by Vox in Madrid, affirms in an interview with Europa Press that “leaders like Sánchez make the war (in the Gaza Strip) last longer”, because “he encourages Hamas to continue fighting and gives “hope” to other actors in the area such as Hezbollah or Iran.
The minister insists that the Spanish president has “a broken moral compass” and calls for greater solidarity towards Israel in the face of “the worst massacres against Jews since the Holocaust”, in reference to the attacks perpetrated on 7 October. Some 1,200 people were killed and 240 abducted in the attacks, which triggered a military operation in Gaza that has claimed more than 35,000 lives, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Strip.
The list of reproaches includes an alleged lack of forcefulness in condemning the Iranian attack in April and the press conference given by Sánchez on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in November, which, according to Chikli, was “against Israel”. He aspired, in his opinion, to “profit” from the release of the hostages, to the point that he does not even consider Sánchez to have “visited” Israel, because “it is not enough to be just physically there”.
In fact, he considers that his “friend” Santiago Abascal was “the only leader of a (Spanish) party who visited the State of Israel after 7 October” and gave a “clear message of support”. Asked whether Abascal would in fact be a better president than Sánchez, he replies: “That’s very easy”.
Recognition of Palestine
The Israeli minister warns that talking about recognising Palestine now implies that “a state can come into being through terrorism and violence” – it goes against potential Palestinian “moderate forces”, he points out – and urges Sánchez to “learn more” so that, for example, he is clear that the Islamist ideology of Hamas is equivalent to the “jihad” that the 11-M terrorists also defended.
Nor can it be argued in this case that “one is not pro-Hamas but pro-Palestinian Authority”, because the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, which is politically responsible for the West Bank, have not condemned the attacks and have even described it as “a natural response” to the occupation.
“We cannot have peace with an entity that glorifies jihad, the massacre of innocent people. We cannot sign peace with an entity that pays money for every terrorist” killed by Israeli forces, he says, before going on to point out that “there has to be a profound change” before any possible rapprochement. He recalls the lack of progress after the Oslo Accords: “You can’t take the beast and turn it into a prince”.
He even believes that “there is already a two-state solution”, meaning the peace agreement signed between Israel and Jordan, where “more than 70 percent of the population is Palestinian” by virtue of colonial considerations stemming from the British Mandate, and questions the claim to the West Bank, because “the Israelis are the aborigines of Judea”.
“I am not aware of any Palestinian archaeological enclave in Judea and Samaria,” he quips, using the biblical name for the West Bank.
