Israel never made concessions, according to Eugenio García Gascón.

This time his assertions have been shocking and even insulting. In an article published on Friday, May 20, 2011, under the title Concesiones (Concessions), Público's journalist Eugenio García Gascón wrote about Ehud Barak's statements declaring that Israel is strong enough to make concessions.

According to Eugenio García Gascón, Ehud Barak's intransigence derived on the Second Intifada in 2000, when the truth is that precisely in 2000, the aforementioned Israeli politician, then the Prime Minister of his country, proposed a peace plan consisting of the creation of a Palestinian State with sovereignty over many sectors of East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian response consisted of starting the Second Intifada. Is Ehud Barak responsible for the Palestinian failure to continue the negotiations instead of murdering Israeli civilians as the Palestinians actually did?

The journalist describes how Israel has never made concessions by arguing that Israel's withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and the Gaza Strip in 2005 were made in order to avoid casualties to happen within those territories, but he fails to explain why Israel didn't withdrew also from the West Bank (where soldiers and settlers were also killed; just remember the so-called Ramallah lynching or the more recent Itamar killings) or why Israel sent its soldiers to Lebanon in 2006 and the Gaza Strip during the operation Cast Lead at all.

The truth is that Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and the Gaza Strip in 2005 were in fact concessions. The aforementioned peace plan as proposed by Ehud Barak was intended as a concession, as well as Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai in 1957 and in 1982 again were also concessions. And what about Jewish acceptance of the United Nations-proposed Partition Plan of November 29, 1947, intended to create two States for two peoples and to bring Jerusalem's inhabitants the opportunity to decide by themselves what of those States did they want to belong to through a referendum? Was not that a concession, Eugenio?

Manuel Tapial's activities on Facebook (IV).

As explained many times before, Manuel Tapial was one of the three Spanish activists who were on board the Mavi Marmara when the vessel was assaulted by the Tzahal. I spent some time trying to explain how this activist thinks regarding Israel and the Jews to the point that he declared once that my coverage of his political activities on Facebook would be treated as a punishable offense in the form of threats. But since he should be worrier than me regarding the law, I'll continue to summarize his ideas. Translations are made as accurate as possible, between quotation marks.

1.- Manuel Tapial works for a platform called Rumbo a Gaza or, as it is known in English, Ship to Gaza. Apparently, some members of the organization and their vehicles were checked by the Civil Guard (a Spanish national law enforcement agency which is part of the military). Please notice that such a measure is in fact one of the Civil Guard's role, but let's see how Manuel Tapial overreacted (#1):

"What has happened to our fellow activists has no precedents. A legal campaign in which the volunteers are harassed by the Civil Guard, their belongings are 'photographed' and 'manipulated' far off their presence and everything indicates the harassment has just begun!! I call the media to ask the Government why is this harassment happening!!!"

2.- Answering one of his contacts on Facebook, Manuel Tapial wrote (#2):

"Ackbar, the situation HAS BEEN ILLEGAL as they have confirmed to me. All of this is in the lawyers' hands and this week there will be fresh news. We'll report soon. I reiterate that WE ARE LAW-ABIDING!!!!"

Again, Manuel Tapial has failed regarding the law, since it is not illegal for the Civil Guard to check vehicles. In fact, there has been no such "fresh news" regarding lawsuits against the Civil Guard for now. And now please notice what a Manuel Tapial's contact wrote (#3):

"Spain's main interest is not a humanitarian campaign but the weapons, 9 dead people on board the Mavi Marmara were nothing for them, did in fact the media report about it? Absolutely not! It's not interesting the harassment the members of the new freedom flotilla are experiencing as well... but for that we have to fight. PALESTINE!!!"

I don't know where this individual was between May and June, 2010, but yes, the media reported about the Mavi Marmara massively... and from an intentional anti-Israeli perspective.

3.- As Manuel Tapial warned (#4):

"The next week there will be a response due to the situation they have created, we have ceased to recognize the Spanish government as an interlocutor for being actively favourable towards the state of Israel."

As commented before, there was no response, while we still see how the activist tried to promote some sort of conspiracy theory which was answered by two of his contacts as follows (#5 and #6, respectively):

"[This was] the response by the fascist apparatus which rules the Spanish State".

"What has happened to you is nothing new in kaosenlared [an extreme left webpage] the threats, the criminalization and detentions of some of some collaborators happen constantly..."

4.- But such a theory didn't end there. Manuel Tapial even suggested that the Spanish Government shoud be tried for treason and conspiracy in favour of a foreign State, taking into account what the Civil Guard supposedly did (#7). Cristina Soler Crespo and Manuel Tapial wrote about the issue as follows (#8):

"Your lawyer should verify whether there is some way to denounce that offense, before an International Court or the National Court or something..."

Manuel Tapial's answer was:

"We will do so, Cristina, we will do so... ;)"

5.- Manuel Lozano added the following:

"Since there are Mossad agents at the Spanish airports registering Spanish citizens IN SPANISH SOIL before embarking to go to Israel, I already believe everything."

This is clearly indicative of how pro-Palestinians in Spain are vulnerable to anti-Israeli conspiracy theories.

6.- Manuel Tapial finally created a Facebook event in favour of Palestine and against the Civil Guard. At the end of his explanatory text (#10) he commented:

"Let's avoid other GAL!!!"

This is a clear and very offesive reference about the G.A.L. (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación or Antiterrorist Liberation Groups), which were formed and maintained by the Spanish governmental authorities between 1983 and 1987. More information about them here.

Maybe another overreaction after being notified by his lawyer he wouldn't be able to denounce the Civil Guard?

Eugenio García Gascón uses Yom HaShoah to criticize Israel.

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, Israel commemorated the 6,000,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust through the Yom HaShoah, i.e., the Holocaust Day. The next day, Público published an article by Eugenio García Gascón titled Antisemitismo (Anti-Semitism). This journalist's double standard and lack of historical accuracy is more than evident in this article. Please pay attention to the first paragraph (translated as accurate as possible, between quotation marks):

"Yesterday night, during a ceremony held at the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu told that the world hasn't learnt the lesson derived from the Holocaust, and compared the Holocaust, that is the Second World War nazi actions against Europe's Jews with the current Iranian threat. It's something which seems to be disproportionate and out of place but all Israeli leaders talk endlessly about Iran, once they see a microphone within their reach, and Netanyahu is not an exception, although Iran is a country which never has attacked anybody, unlike Israel, and in exchange it had to endure aggressions."

So Eugenio García Gascón pretends to make his readers to believe that Iran never attacked anybody while Israel did, and that Iran suffered attacks. The truth is that Iran attacked others in the past and is currently doing so. Its victims include Iranians (real or alleged political dissidents, homosexuals, adulterous and raped women, and so on), Israelis (who suffer attacks by terrorists organizations supplied with weapons by Iran), Palestinians (who suffer repression by the aforementioned organizations) and the Red Crescent (whose ambulances were used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to smuggle weapons into Lebanon).

Meanwhile, aggressions against Israel are not mentioned by Eugenio García Gascón as the main cause of Israel's defense policies. It's not also told by the Spanish journalist how, while Iran was being attacked by Saddam Hussein-led Iraq between 1980 and 1988, the Persian State received Israel's help; in spite of this, Iran refused to re-establish ties with Israel.

The journalist ends his article by suggesting that complete Israel's withdrawal from the Palestinian territories would stop anti-Semitism worldwide, taking into account statistical data which shows that anti-Semitic acts dropped in 2010, a year after the operation Cast Lead ended. The truth is that Israel withdrew once from the Gaza Strip and such a concession only led to an increase on terrorist attacks by Hamas (an anti-Semitic organization), while reading journalists such as Público's Eugenio García Gascón should be enough to understand that media bias against Israel seems to be one of the actual and main reasons behind anti-Semitism.

Spanish Goverment's and media's double standard.

One of the most acclaimed TV programs in Spain is Tengo una pregunta para usted (I have a question for you), broadcasted by TVE's (Televisión Española, Spain's public TV) channel La 1. It gives citizens an opportunity to ask politicians about those issues they consider important or of a special interest. And on January 26, 2009, Spain's President of the Government and secretary general of the P.S.O.E. (Partido Socialista Obrero Español or Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was the politician invited to be questioned by ordinary citizens.

Rafael Lafuente Blanco, 29 years old, from the city of Granada, was one of those ordinary citizens. He chose to ask Zapatero about the Spanish arms trade, which makes Spain one of the main exporters of weapons globally, as well as about the hypocrisy behind Zapatero's cabinet, publicly committed to peace while veiledly committed to supply Israel and Colombia with weapons (please notice that, according to Lafuente, Israel and Colombia are countries which usually violate human rights).

Spanish President of the Government answered by explaining that the total amount of weapons sold to Israel by Spain equals just about 1,000,000 €, and that such a quantity means that Spain is not one of Israel's main suppliers of weapons. Then, Lafuente interrupts Zapatero's answer by asking: "Do you have any idea about how many Palestinian civilians have been killed by our weapons?" Zapatero answers by telling that Spanish war material sold to Israel was not used by the Jewish State to kill Palestinian civilians.

Another argument provided by the Spanish socialist leader is the fact that Spain is a pioneer country on the erradication of cluster bombs.

Well, on Friday, April 15, 2011, Público published an article, based on another one published by Europa Press (a Spanish news agency), regarding Libya. Both of the articles reveale that Muammar al-Gaddafi's forces used cluster projectiles against Libyan rebels in Misrata. Those cluster projectiles were made in Spain in 2007 (a year before Spain signed an international agreement which banned this kind of weapons), and later provided to Libya. This issue was also covered by The New York Times, and can also be read in El País, in English.

Público's and Europa Press' articles also deal with the fact that al-Gaddafi's forces used Grad rockets during their operations. The two articles provide explanations about these type of rockets regarding their use by al-Gaddafi's forces, including civilians killed and locations attacked by them, as well as their design and technical data.

Now please notice that:

i) The P.S.O.E. has been very critical towards Israel, especially during the 2006 Lebanon War and the 2008-2009 operation Cast Lead. Spain's socialist leader, who is the President of the Goverment since 2004, admitted to have provided Israel with weapons, and justified it by explaining that those weapons were not used to kill innocent civilians. But at the same time, the socialists, while governing the country, sold nothing less than cluster ammunitions to the Libyan regime.

ii) Público and Europa Press explained in detail how the Grad rockets have been used by al-Gaddafi's forces, how these rockets affected civilians and infrastructures in Misrata and how these rockets were designed. But at the same time, neither Público nor Europa Press depicted in such detail how Israel has been being attacked with al-Qassam and Grad rockets, as well as mortars, during the last months.

Eugenio García Gascón on the religion in Israel (I).

Yoram Cohen was appointed new Shabak director. The Shabak (an acronym for Sherut haBitahon haKlali or General Security Service), formerly known as the Shin Bet, is Israel's security service for operations inside the State of Israel itself and the Palestinian territories.

Público's Eugenio García Gascón wrote an article about the issue, published on Wednesday, March 30, 2011, under the title Kipot y uniformes (Kipot and uniforms). The journalist describes how religious Jews are taking the control over the State of Israel, putting Yoram Cohen as an example. On what grounds did Eugenio García Gascón base his theory? Yoram Cohen usually wears a kippah (whose plural form is kippot). This means Yoram Cohen is a religious Jew, and for Eugenio García Gascón this is enough to think that "a doubt concerning his professional behaviour will always exist."

He also wrote that many appointments recently made in Israel fell on religious Jews, as well as there are many religious military high commanders. On these grounds he argues that Israel is becoming a more nationalistic and religious country.

Well, he seems to forget that, in spite of the presence of religious Jews in Israel, Israel's Supreme Court sentenced against imposed gender segregation in mehadrin buses, used precisely by religious Jews; that Israeli homosexual couples are granted the right to adopt children and take paternity or maternity leaves, being the homosexuality a sin according precisely to the Jewish religious law or halakha; that religious Jews can be arrested for having committed hate crimes based precisely on religious laws; and that in Israel there is a free press legally able to criticize precisely religious Jews.

Please notice that the aforementioned facts happened during the last years, being Israel under Netanyahu-led coalition Government, usually portrayed as too much nationalistic, too much religious and of a right-wing extremist nature by the Spanish media. So, is there a regression in Israel, as Eugenio García Gascón literally wrote? Should we be alert, as he recommends us?

Should somebody tell Público's journalist that protraying Yoram Cohen as he did just because the new Shabak chief usually wears a kippah is an anti-Semitic argument in nature?

An analysis of the vocabulary and the images used by the Spanish media regarding Israel.

On Tuesday, March 22, 2011, an article by Ana Carbajosa was published by Spanish daily El País. Ana Carbajosa is El País' correspondent in Jerusalem, which is Israel's capital, though the newspaper she works for still denies this fact by intentionally indicating that Israel's capital city is Tel Aviv.

But now it's time to focus on the vocabulary and the images used by the Spanish anti-Israeli media, and the aforementioned article will be used here as a good example of media bias against the Jewish State.

Firstly, the article is titled as follows: El ejército israelí mata a ocho palestinos, dos de ellos menores, en Gaza, i.e., Israeli army kills eight Palestinians, two of them being minors, in Gaza. And secondly, it's subtitled as follows: "Más de una veintena de palestinos, varios de ellos jóvenes, han resultado heridos durante el ataque a consecuencia de una serie de ataques perpetrados por el ejército", i.e., "More than twenty Palestinians, several of them being youths, have been injured during the attack as a consequence of a series of attacks perpetrated by the army".

Both the title and the subtitle deliberately omit Israel's main reason to attack: Palestinian attacks intentionally directed against Israeli civilians by launching rockets from the Gaza Strip. It's also deliberately omitted that among those killed there were three Palestinian terrorists who were firing from densely populated areas, a fact which could confirm Israel's claim of being attacked by them and the use of local non-combatants as human shields and civilian infrastructures as bases for their operations.

The Palestinian attacks against Israel, the dead terrorists and their tactics are mentioned within the main body of the article, but taking into account that the title is written in bold and in bigger letters and the subtitle is just under it, as well as they're the first part to be read, they claim the attention of the reader firstly and thus condition his or her perception of what has happened: a supposed Israeli attack against Palestinian civilians or at least without consideration for them.

Furthermore, the terms "terrorist", "terrorists" or "terrorism" are not used regarding the members of Palestinian terrorist groups or the groups themselves. The two Palestinian terrorist groups mentioned in this case are Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which are referred to by their names or as "Palestinian armed groups" or simply "armed groups". Hamas is also referred to as an "Islamist movement".

The terrorists are referred to as "militiamen".

In order to avoid doubts about Israel's veiledly alleged vileness among the readers and to erase those facts which could be used to defend Israel's claims from their minds, it's told precisely in the last paragraph that Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, early in 2009, left 1,400 Palestinians dead.

Facts which could be used to defend Israel's claims regarding what really happened during the 2008-2009 Gaza War, such as statements by a spokesperson of Hamas admitting the use of human shields as well as confirming Israel's death toll of Palestinian terrorists killed (about 700, an estimation initially denied by Hamas), as well as the increasing of Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks against Israel in spite of the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, are not mentioned.

Finally, the picture shown next to the article shows a dead Palestinian child's body, which is claimed to have been "murdered" by an Israeli tank. Please notice that the verb "murder" is used referring to an intentional, premeditated and illegal killing, and in this case there is no evidence enough supporting such a claim; it seems to have happened rather the opposite, i.e., an unintentional, unpremeditated killing, whose legal consequences should affect the terrorists who fired from a densely populated area.

Meanwhile, not a single picture showing the intentionally sought adverse effects of the Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians is shown to El País' readers.

Is Antonio Gala an anti-Semite?

Antonio Gala is surely one of the most renowned Spanish writers, with works such as Petra regalada, Samarkanda or La pasión turca, among many others.

But he doesn't only write novels, poems or scripts, but also opinion articles to be published by Spanish daily El Mundo. And, as Libertad Digital reported on Wednesday, March 16, 2011, one of his last ideas consisted of using the human and national tragedy Japan is currently living to target Israel.

Gala explained in his article about what he calls the "human fleas" that "lessons such as the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan should teach them other kinds of behaviour: unity in the face of helplessness, generosity, (...). But they don't learn." And then he writes about Israel in this manner: "So we see Israel there, the most racist country, going back to Gaza after the fright."

This is not the first time he targets Israel or even the Jews. In an article published on February 5, 2009 by El Mundo, he explained that "the Jewish people will succumb again. Like it happened many times: pogroms, voluntary or unvoluntary ghettos, extermination, persecutions, expulsions,... From Egypt to Sepharad, from Canaan to Zion: all of them promised lands. Shouldn't they ask themselves why does always happen the same to them? Or is the rest of the world wrong?"

Spanish journalist David Gistau answered Gala through an article published on February 8, 2009 by El Mundo. He wrote that Gala's "reasoning makes Hitler an executor arm of a hate morally justified by a majority", as well as "we should ask Gala whether he would apply the same logic to (...) understand other persecutions (...). For example, those which were suffered by homosexuals."

Did Gala react to Gistau's argument by apologizing to the Jews? No, he didn't. On March 5, 2009, another article written by Gala was published by El Mundo. The Spanish writer explained about the Jews that: "Always the same: or persecuted or persecutors. Or both things at the same time."

I'll not insult anybody's intelligence by explicitly answering the question which serves as the title of this article since I think you can do it by yourselves easily.