European Parliament: Spanish representative derides US "Jewish lobby"

Source: Z-Word (A Spanish Socialist, by Eamonn McDonagh)

Emilio Menéndez del Valle represents Spain’s ruling PSOE party in the European Parliament and was formerly his country’s ambassador to Jordan and Italy. He has an op-ed in yesterday’s El País about the Israel-Palestine negotiations in which he doesn’t hold back on the power of the Jewish lobby in US politics ["poder del lobby judío en EE UU"] and goes so far as to say that America’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been kidnapped by Jewish power. Another brave socialist speaks out about Jewish power. Well done, Emilio.

One particular part of his article deserves special attention. He says that Israel’s claim to be recognized as a Jewish state is a :

"… contradictio in natura given that 20% of the population of Israel is Arab, not Jewish."

So without a uniform national identity among its inhabitants states can’t claim to represent a single national identity. Irony can’t be Menéndez del Valle’s strong point because judged on this basis his own country, the Kingdom of Spain, doesn’t come out very well as it obliges a large minority of its citizens (Catalans, Basques, Muslim inhabitants of the colonial enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and, at least to some degree, Galicians as well) to accept Spanish national identity in spite of the fact that they don’t feel themselves to be Spanish in any way and that they see the Spanish state as robbing them of their right to self-determination.

My advice to Mr. Netanyahu would be that Israel should drop its demand to be a recognized as a Jewish state when the Kingdom of Spain dissolves itself and is replaced by a confederation of independent Iberian nations.

- 35% of Spaniards do not like Jews
- WSJ: anti-Semitic riff by EU Commissioner met with "collective yawn" in Europe