The anti-Israel prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, is under fire from Israel and Spaniards alike for his alleged comments to use nuclear weapons against the Jewish state.
The socialist Prime Minister Sanchez said in a speech last week that "Spain, as you know, doesn't have nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers, or large oil reserves," adding, "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 winning them isn't in our sole power."
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused his Spanish counterpart of making 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."
A spokesman from the Spanish embassy in Washington, D.C. referred Fox News Digital to a statement from the country's foreign ministry that called the allegations by Netanyahu "false and slanderous," adding, "The Spanish Government reiterates that we immediately condemned the atrocious attack committed on October 7 by the terrorist group Hamas and have demanded the unconditional release of all hostages from day one."
Juan Caldes, the European advocacy coordinator at the European Jewish Association, told Fox News Digital that, "It is beyond hypocritical and cynical to call Israel a genocidal state when one mentions how unfortunate the fact that Spain doesn't have nuclear weapons to stop Israel. That is the definition of a genocide, when there is a deliberate intent to destroy a specific group (be it ethnic, religious or racial)."
Caldes, who is Spanish, said, "Sanchez embraced the Palestinian cause in order to avoid talking about his own personal corruption scandals that surround some of his family members and also many of the corruption scandals involving many of his colleagues from the Socialist Party."
He claimed, "Sanchez's coalition (of socialists and communists) have been expressing very antisemitic views since Oct. 7th."
He cited Yolanda Diaz, vice president of Spain, who in a televised speech last year, said, "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free ... In other words, from the Jordan River until the Mediterranean state a one-state solution erasing all Jews from the land."
According to Caldes, "Sanchez's rhetoric and actions show how embedded antisemitism is part of the Spanish government. That being said, it is still important not to conflate it with the majority of the Spanish people who do not hold antisemitic views."
Santiago Abascal, the leader of the right-wing Vox Party, said, "Sanchez would like to have nuclear weapons ... but not to defend Spain. To defend Hamas."
According to statistics from The Jewish Agency for Israel in September, the size of the Spanish Jewish community numbered 12,900 out of a population of just over 49 million.
Last year, Spain experienced "the largest increase in modern history in antisemitic speech, incidents, and attacks up 321% compared to 2023 and 567% compared to 2022," according to a report by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain.
The statement from Spain's foreign ministry took issue with allegations of antisemitism noting that "This same government took the decision to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism and approved the first National Plan against Antisemitism in 2023. Spain rejects any form of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, or intolerance and has welcomed 72,000 Sephardic Jews as fellow citizens in recent years as a result of specific legislation for them."
The foreign ministry also stated its support for a two-state solution. "Spain defends the existence of two states, Palestine and Israel, living side by side in good neighborliness and with reciprocal guarantees for their peace and security, as the only path to peace."