Israel brings out divisions in the PP
Despite the PP's attempts to focus the public debate exclusively on the judicial problems surrounding Pedro Sánchez, what is happening in the Gaza Strip is so serious that its leaders are being forced to take sides. Alberto Núñez Feijóo seemed to have found a balance between the positions of the moderates and the hardliners by using the word massacre, but in recent hours it has become clear that it has failed again, and divisions within the party have resurfaced with force. First, the Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, and then the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, did not hesitate to call what the Israeli army is carrying out in Gaza "genocide." However, on the same day, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, received the Israeli chargé d'affaires and asserted that Pedro Sánchez's stance on the conflict is "suicide" for Spain.
Núñez Feijóo is very uncomfortable with this issue, as he also watches helplessly as all the steps taken by Pedro Sánchez, which they have harshly criticized, have been followed some time later by the international community. This was the case with the recognition of the Palestinian state, which a year later was also approved by Great Britain and France. And also with the stance in favor of breaking the EU-Israel association agreement, for which the first steps have already been taken and which increasingly enjoys the support of more countries.
The PP also criticized Spain's decision not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and was highly critical of the Spanish government's support for pro-Palestinian protests during the Vuelta a España (the second round of Eurovision Song Contest). But this Thursday we learned that UEFA and FIFA are considering excluding Israel from all international competitions, just as they did with Russia. If this decision is confirmed, the PP will once again be left out of the game, having argued that what the Israeli government does should have no consequences for Israeli society.
But, of course, according to this logic, there should also be no sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine. And, above all, the PP forgets the fundamental role played by South Africa's sporting exclusion during apartheid. Because, no matter how much they repeat it, it is not true that politics and sport have nothing to do with each other; on the contrary.
In reality, Feijóo's fear is that the more international pressure on Israel grows, the more internal divisions within the party will surface and, consequently, the more evident his lack of leadership will become. At some point, Feijóo will have to take a stand and support his own people. men moderates, who have no problem considering what is happening in Gaza as a genocide, or the hardline pro-Zionist wing of José María Aznar and Díaz Ayuso, who maintain that we must stand by Israel at any price because Western values are being defended there.
But as Lula da Silva said before the UN plenary, "the genocide in Gaza buries the myth of the West's ethical superiority."
