Shortly after living in Israel, you learn a word that Israelis themselves affirm is an essential part of their national character: ‘chutzpah’a Yiddish word that in its positive aspect could be defined as boldness, brutal sinceritycourage to sing the boatman’s truths and, in its negative meaning, impudence, rudeness, impertinence. Israeli diplomacy, both public and discreet, usually presents high components of ‘chutzpah’ (you just have to regularly follow the statements of its ambassadors to verify this), whether directly or indirectly.
Famous is the monumental anger of Jacques Chirac in 1996 during a visit to Jerusalem. Diplomatic relations between France and Israel were not going through a good moment. Chirac had been in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state (there are things that never seem to change) and had refused to let the mayor of Jerusalem accompany him on his visit to the old city because Paris did not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the city. . The Israeli authorities organized a suffocating security deployment which forcefully prevented Chirac from greeting some Palestinian merchants who were cheering him. The visit ended with Chirac confronting the police (he pushed a bodyguard) and denouncing the “provocation”: “What do you want? “Let me go to my plane and return to France?” He told a police officer. The prime minister was Binyamin Netanyahu.
On his recent visit to the area, Pedro Sanchez and the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croothey did something that is not usual: They told the Israeli authorities what they do not want to hear, in person and at the Rafah border crossing. It is natural that Israel has been disgusted and irritated, no one likes to be spoken to with brutal sincerity, especially in public. Sánchez, perhaps emboldened because he is not alone in criticizing Israel (even the US and the United Kingdom speak of “too many Palestinian deaths”), raised his tone and on TVE expressed his doubts that Israel complies with international law in Gaza. In response, Tel-Aviv withdrew its ambassador from Spain, in one more step in the diplomatic dispute. The significance of the movement is not minor, Spain is an EU country, president in turn. It is evident that Europe does not have a unified position on the crisis. Between Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, Berlin and Madrid, a world is far away.
Transmit a message
The Israeli ‘chutzpah’ in its diplomatic version is not impulsive, but responds to a strategy, it usually sends the message that Israel is not to be trifled with. In this crisis, Israel’s ambassador to the UN wore a Star of David on his lapel in the Security Council to compare with Nazism the lukewarmness with which in his opinion the international organization treats the Hamas attacks, in a gesture that angered even the director of Yad Vashem, the imposing center of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. The forcefulness of the ambassador’s denunciation was undiplomatic, but effective in conveying Israel’s message. He met his objective.
Related news
What is the objective of Sánchez’s sincerity regarding what is happening in Gaza? From a purely Spanish point of view, it is counterproductive. Spanish diplomacy aspires to act as a mediator in the conflict, in the wake of the Madrid Conference (1991). In this sense, burning bridges with one of the parties is a guarantee of failure, as was seen at the Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona. If the objective is to pressure Israel to force a ceasefire in Gaza, the ‘chutzpah’ of Sánchez and De Croo is not the way. The EU is the forum that offers the tools (diplomatic, political, commercial…) for this. It is in Brussels, Paris, Berlin and Rome where Sánchez and De Croo must speak openly.
Sánchez’s forcefulness does work for meet internal objectives of Spanish policy. For the left and the right, the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is a way to establish an ideological profile among their own ranks. At a time when the amnesty generates doubts among many people, not only on the (ultra) right, Sánchez gains muscle in an issue with a symbolic significance as powerful as the Palestinian one. His sincerity will not serve to achieve a ceasefire, but it will serve to align with his bases and establish the PP as an ally of Israel when the images of death and destruction in Gaza generate so much consternation. When talking about Gaza, other issues are not talked about.