Now that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is gaining strength, it makes sense to remember that Spain is a country of anti-Semitic customs. Explicit, as demonstrated by the demonstrations against Israel promoted by the left of the left. And implicit, as can be seen from the naturalness with which our language refers to Jews and converts.. Marrano is an insult, while the adjective Jewish acquires a pejorative definition in the RAE dictionary, naturally in its connotations of greed and usury..

The Spanish-Spanish roots of anti-Semitism – which also concerns the suspicion with which we treat Muslims (they are also Semites) – can be recognized in the exhibition that has just opened in El Prado and that describes embryonic xenophobia and supremacism. Not because the rules of dress were established in 1215, but because of the usual resort of pogroms, the scrutiny of the Holy Office and the expulsion of 1492..

Anti-Semitic history weighs. And this explains why the Sephardim in exile did not accept with special enthusiasm the “reparation” of the Spanish passport that our Government granted in 2015.. There are few Jews in Spain, less than 1% of the population. And many of them reside in Madrid -12,000-15,000-, whose synagogue represents an exceptional territory where the most important practitioners gather on the sacred day of the Sabbath..

It makes sense to mention it because the obligation of Saturday rest explains that the Sephardim would have conceived a culinary recipe prepared well in advance.. They called it “adafina”, it was prepared in clay pots and brought together many of the ingredients that identify Madrid stew.. Chickpeas, potatoes, carrots, cabbage. And meats compatible with the kosher diet, including beef and chicken.

The dish became popular in Madrid. And it served as an example in the context of gastronomic exchanges, although cultural and sociological suspicion towards Jews precipitated the formula of desecration. Nothing is simpler than putting the pork bacon and chorizo in the pot and boiling it..

This is how the canonical line of the Madrid stew was formulated. And the hostility of the forum's residents towards the sons of David was demonstrated, whose reputation as blasphemers, greedy and deicides lavished an inventory of black legends and superstitions that can be identified in the Prado exhibition..

Pork fat has worked and operated as a discriminatory argument. And not only in the dishes of the repertoire, but in the custom of smearing the ammunition with lard.. It happened in remote religious wars and it happens in contemporary ones, naturally to send the infidel Jews and Muslims to hell with more guarantees..

And I'm not saying that eating a proper Madrid stew – I like the one from La Bola and the one from Malacatín – is an exercise in profanation of Jewish customs, but it makes sense to thank the Sephardim for their culinary ingenuity and warn us against the xenophobia with which we deal. to the semites.

Being a correspondent in Paris, I was impressed by the coverage of information that concerned the distribution of “solidarity food” in railway stations and other sensitive points.. They were promoted by the extreme right. And he supplied the poor with the warning that the broth and food offered to them had been prepared with pork fat.. It means that the campaign was not motivated by sensitivity towards those in need, but rather by rejection of Muslims (and Jews).. Just like cooked bacon.

Something is moving in the ranks of the Canarian socialists—something, and some—. Aware that it is not up to them (discretion is decreed, waiting to know the outcome of the investiture), no one recognizes anything or knows anyone. No qualified spokesperson will admit publicly or officially that in just a few weeks the party map may be different on the Islands.. But, not only the clinical picture of the PSOE. Being the main opposition group, the fluttering of the socialists would bring with it a shock wave in the parliamentary context or in the relations between the main actors in local politics..

The more or less immediate future of the general secretary and former president of the regional government, Ángel Víctor Torres, will mark other futures. If Torres continues at the regional level for four years – as he announced shortly after winning the elections, with no options to remain president – all the pieces will return to their place, to the starting point, to what is known.. If, on the contrary, he leaves the regional scene to occupy some position of responsibility at the level of the State, then yes, the Canarian socialists would be forced to make reforms at home..

Torres does not speak. He knows that any loose statement (susceptible to more or less free interpretations) could open the door to changes in the PSOE of the Islands, and he does not touch. Not yet. In December it will be seen. Pedro Sánchez told Ángel Víctor Torres (some weeks ago, before Alberto Núñez Feijóo's failed attempt) that he would call him after the investiture. That's what they say he told him. That is what those who have the confidence of the former president say.. Pedro told him that he would call him – they say in his circle of trust -.

Like someone who leaves a sign on the road, a thread to pull, a clue to follow, when they say that Sánchez told Torres that he will call him, they leave the door ajar, they create reality, they say without saying, they announce without specifying, they predict a ministry , a secretary of state, some high-flying position in a major league company or institution or, among other possible destinations, promoting to the General Staff of the organic army of the PSOE.

Pedro told him that he will call him. Let everyone interpret what they consider. There will be those who conclude that Pedro Sánchez's announcement was written on an ice bar. Others will be convinced that it is solid, and that, indeed, Ángel Víctor Torres' cell phone will ring when the president, now re-elected, makes the promised call; But, whether he calls it or not, there is more than enough evidence to conclude that the former Canary Islands president quietly dreams of playing a relevant role in the next Government of Spain.. That possibility is in the equations (and sentences) of the closest. They see it in Madrid. They see him. In the absence of explicit recognition that not only Ángel Víctor Torres is seen in Madrid, there are elements that support that objective.

Among others, the change in profile – increasingly evident – of Torres himself, less and less Torres and much more Sánchez, leaving behind the conciliatory former president, the good man who allowed him the miracle of transversality, to adopt a more sour tone , feisty, tough (in short, more Sánchez). Clues. Indications. Signs. Ángel Víctor Torres seems to want to retire Ángel Víctor to be reborn as Torres, with a record more similar to that of the president who, according to what they say in his industrial belt, told him that he would call him. More clues. Torres' effort to be seen in Madrid, prioritizing sharing focus with those who move on the front lines in his agenda, continues to be a sign. One more.

If the phone finally rings and abandons regional politics, a few questions would open up for the Canarian PSOE, some difficult to answer (or not so difficult).. If the general secretary of the Canarian socialists packs his bags, the PSOE will be forced to find someone to replace him as leader of the opposition at the regional parliamentary level, also outside; And, incidentally, in their ranks, already involved in moves, doubts would multiply about the opportunity to begin to shape another candidate for the presidency of the Canary Islands Government in 2027. The candidate. Carolina Darias, for example. Being more or less compatible with occupying a prominent national responsibility without losing the status of general secretary or electoral poster, it is not easy to be the first while surviving the second and third..

Less, if possible, if in the Islands there remains, with the projection given by the mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a former minister with tables, glue and an organic path – what can we say about her relationship with Sánchez himself -. If Torres leaves the Islands, the immediate thing is that, slowly but unstoppably, the melon of the candidacy will open for him and, who knows, also that of the general secretary (although, in this case, his good results in the last electoral calls keep him strong among his own). There is more. If Sánchez calls Torres, and the former president accepts (he would accept, that is beyond any doubt), one might wonder if he would have ministerial options. Difficult.

The Constitution says nothing about the obligation that a canary always sit in the Councils of Ministers – like this, to begin with -. And, if this circumstance is repeated, Torres' options would cross paths with Héctor Gómez, current Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. You can aspire to a ministry without having experience, but it is difficult to apply for a position as a minister.. These are, among others, the questions that would arise if Pedro Sánchez has Torres and, when summoned, leaves a gap in the Canary Islands that Carolina Darias would foreseeably end up filling..

Nor would relations with neighbors be left out.. If Torres is no longer on the Islands, the change of distribution could open the windows to possible agreements, until now unthinkable, between the Canarian Coalition and the PSOE – in some prominent municipality, why not -. Since imagination is free, some voices are carried away by science fiction and predict that if Torres is minister (or whatever, in Madrid) he would resurrect the idea of an agreement between CC and PSOE in the regional Government. It won't happen. However, it is in the story of what life would be like with Ángel Víctor gone, perhaps because those who say it believe it, perhaps because that consequence has been fed—returning to the Government, the former senior socialist officials—to encourage the troops. in the event that the chief of the tribe packs his bags.

Although it seems like nothing is moving, in the ranks of the PSOE they hold their breath and walk on tiptoe, but any appearance of stillness does not correspond to reality. Pedro told him he would call him, they say. They do not specify more. Nor less. Enough. That is enough to confirm that there is an desire for the phone to ring.

The municipal and regional elections of May 28 buried the political validity of 15-M. His two political sons, Podemos and Ciudadanos, have already been abandoned by their voters, there will be time to do a detailed analysis of his legacy. Curiously, this political cycle, in electoral terms, ends as it began, with overwhelming majorities on the right in autonomous communities and city councils..

However, the hasty general elections of July 23 have not opened a new political cycle, quite the contrary.. Despite the spectacular electoral results (the PP manages to impose itself as the first political force while the PSOE increases its support by almost a million new voters) there persists a strong electoral weakness of the traditional parties, trapped in a difficult dynamic of imperfect bibloquism, the blocks of the right and the left practically tied and highly polarized, depending on the support of a third block, the nationalist, whose parties have been the authentic hinges of Spanish democracy. Seen in retrospect, this transformation from bipartisanship to bibloquism has strained all political and constitutional seams, giving way to a long period of instability and unprecedented situations, failed investitures and electoral repetitions, which Artemi Rallo so brilliantly narrates in his book Failed Investitures and Constitution unknown (2015-2020).

But if the municipal elections in May close, electorally, the cycle of institutional crisis that opened in 2011, which had been under way since the economic crisis of 2008, the results of the general elections once again put the other underlying crisis at the center of the debate throughout all these years, the territorial crisis, opened with the revision of the Statute of Catalonia in 2006, which will have its most brutal expression in 2017 with the holding in Catalonia of an illegal referendum on October 1 and the proclamation, as solemn and brief as it is ridiculous, of Catalan independence. The drama with which Spanish society experienced these events and the consequent application of article 155, suspending Catalan autonomy with its legal consequences, caused two conflicting phenomena that will determine Spanish political life to this day; In June 2018, the first success of a motion of censure, which gave the Government an alliance between the socialists, the left and the nationalist parties, and, in December of that same year, the reaction from the voters of the right: the emergence of Vox in the Andalusian elections. In order not to forget and not repeat anything from this period, it is recommended to read The Conspiracy of the Irresponsible, by Jordi Amat..

A few days before the more than presumed new inauguration of President Sánchez, it is good to remember that the reason for the success of that motion of censure was not the condemnation of President Rajoy's PP for corruption, but rather the socialist commitment to seek a way out of the stagnation in Catalonia, after the limited political effects of the application of 155 and its judicial consequences. The promise of that first parliamentary coalition that brought Sánchez to Moncloa, supported by his left and the nationalist right parties (PNV and the followers of the old Convergència, already thrown into the pro-independence mountain) was to “deflame” Catalonia.

Today, five years later, ERC has replaced Junts at the head of the Generalitat, both in electoral withdrawal and with loss of influence on the street, they are fighting for the only really important flag: retaining municipal power and preparing again for the battle for very constitutional control of the Generalitat. Nothing is known about that dialogue table, about that narrator who deserved so many rivers of heated ink in the right-wing press.. The pardons for the independence leaders and the reforms of the crimes of sedition and embezzlement have undoubtedly taken their toll on the socialists, a loss of support largely compensated by the poor understanding of a large part of Spanish society of the fiery opposition led by PP and Vox. The de-escalation of the Catalan conflict is a political and social fact, uncomfortable for the PP, which does not find in Catalonia (or in Euskadi) a conservative partner with which to try to form a Government, also uncomfortable for the independence parties themselves, since today the PSC is the the first Catalan electoral force and the PSOE the only formation with the possibility of governing and the ability to dialogue with the nationalist left and right.

And this is where we must place the debate on the amnesty on which a new investiture of President Sánchez depends. Junts' proposal, empowered by an electoral result that gives it the key to the government, as has already happened on previous occasions and as is usual in any pluralist democracy that has abandoned the times of absolute majorities, follows the logic of the agreements that led to the socialists to the Government in 2018. The latent territorial crisis under the management of the pandemic and the economic effects of the war in Ukraine enters a phase in which, with or without a Junts proposal, Catalan society had to face the legal consequences of the process, not to the independence leaders who have already paid for their actions with years in prison to later be partially pardoned, but for many of their followers. To reproach the socialists for taking on this debate now when they denied it in the past or did not contemplate it in their program denotes great naivety.. Demanding elections to position oneself against the amnesty can only respond to bad faith, since some form of forgiveness by a new coalition government was the next logical step from that promise of de-escalation..

Can Junts allow itself to send Spanish politics back to elections, assuming that the next legislatures will be under PP governments, depending on a parliamentary ally, if not a government partner, like Vox? How do the pardoned independence leaders explain to the dozens of followers with cases pending in court that they do not deserve the pardon that their leaders did obtain? But the really relevant question is, does anyone have a political offer to improve coexistence in Catalonia that inspires more agreement? Support for amnesty is far from being the majority, but does strict compliance with the law attract more consensus? Is it the best response for a State to turn the page on such a regrettable episode of collective deception?

Today we only know the independence proposal, which more than demanding amnesty, demands political replacement and review of the role of the State. But we also know that the demand for a new referendum, already legal and agreed upon, is postponed to other political times.. In reality, we still need to know what to expect, that is, what the socialist proposal will be.. What we do know is that all the actions promoted by the socialist governments in recent years have been carried out within the limits of the Constitution, and that their effect has not been to strengthen, but rather to weaken, the independence movement..

The investiture debate must be the moment of clarity. The intervention of the socialist candidate must return Parliament to its role and give public opinion certainty, regardless of whether one is in favor of or against the pardon.. The political, social and economic complexity of the legislature that is starting requires debate on certain facts and focusing on what is important; prevent a new crisis, in this case due to the consequences of a war in the Middle East, from overlapping previous crises, still half resolved.

Joan Navarro is a sociologist, professor of Political Science and Administration at the UCM.

• New opposition in the National Police: date and scale for which it is called
• Aid of up to 7,000 euros for candidates: how and when to apply for the scholarships

To join the Civil Guard you had to have an ESO degree, have a driving license and exceed the established minimum height, among other requirements.. Well, one of these conditions for taking the exams is a thing of the past: the height limit for admission to training centers for incorporation into the Scale of Corporals and Guards has already been eliminated, according to the BOE..

The Official State Gazette (BOE) published this Thursday the 19th the rule that generally eliminates the requirement that left out men and women who did not reach the required minimum height. A measure that, according to Europa Press, aims to “continue advancing in equal opportunities between men and women” and with the purpose of promoting the “attraction of talent.”.

This is how the requirements are

In this way, the new regulation to access Civil Guard positions, which has already come into force, does not include that men must measure more than 1.60 meters and women, more than 1.55 meters.. The requirement that prevented people taller than 2.03 meters from entering the body has also been eliminated. Height limits are no longer a condition for working as an agent.

This change in requirements affects the scale of corporals and guards of the Civil Guard. So that the requirements regarding height, as already occurred in the case of the National Police, may be maintained “for the occupation of certain destinations or for access to specialization education.”.

ℹ️ Today, October 19, a new provision has come into force, through which the height limit for entry into training educational centers for incorporation into the Scale of Corporals and Guards of the @guardiacivil is eliminated.

🔗https://t.co/6aw91Eb2D9 pic.twitter.com/P9Jxy1Rp3g

— Civil Guard (@guardiacivil) October 19, 2023

The new regulations have taken into account the criteria contained in Sentence 1000/2022, of July 14, 2022, of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber, Fourth Section, of the Supreme Court, which states that “that the size of The candidate should not be an impeding element in order to overcome the selective process leading to admission to the training center.”

• No, Spain has not raised the terrorist alert to level 5: the Police deny this hoax circulating on WhatsApp

Spain has maintained level 4 anti-terrorist alert activated since the attacks that occurred in France in 2015. The Minister of the Interior, who meets every week with law enforcement to discuss aspects of national security, is in charge of reviewing this measure following the Anti-Terrorism Prevention and Protection Plan.. To date, this level 4 terrorist alert, for which complementary measures have recently been implemented to reinforce, for example, security devices at certain “especially sensitive” points throughout Spain, has not been withdrawn in recent years..

The Anti-Terrorism Alert Level (NAA) scale consists of five levels, ranging from low risk to very high risk.. Level 4 of anti-terrorist alert corresponds to a high risk of threat, and this week the acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has precisely chaired the Terrorist Threat Assessment Table to determine the need to apply complementary measures at the level. 4 in the face of the climate of bomb threats that has altered the usual routine of the citizens of France, the neighboring country. For now, the members of the Board do not believe it is necessary to raise the alert to level 5, which would correspond to a “very high risk”.

This anti-terrorist alert scale was implemented in 2005, after the terrorist attacks that occurred in Atocha, Madrid, in 2004.. At the beginning, the scale had three levels, but in 2015, after the attacks in France, the range was expanded to five levels, leaving Spain at level 4 to this day.. Thus, between 2005 and May 2015, the anti-terrorist alert levels in Spain have been between 1 and 3, with level 4 being activated on June 26 of that year after the attacks that occurred in France, Tunisia, Kuwait and Somalia, according to what can be consulted in a dossier on the NAA distributed by the Ministry of the Interior.

What the Anti-Terrorism Prevention, Protection and Response Plan entails

As the Ministry of the Interior website explains, the Anti-Terrorist Alert Level scale is based on four fundamental points: prevent, protect, pursue and prepare for the response.. With level 4 of anti-terrorist alert in Spain, the aim is to protect all those objectives susceptible to a terrorist attack, such as facilities, networks, systems and physical and information technology equipment.. Public or official centers and organizations, people, goods, services and the environment also fall within this protection.. Each level entails the immediate gradual implementation of a specific group of measures adapted to the nature of the threat..

Level 4 with complementary measures in Spain

After the violent attacks in France and Belgium, the Terrorist Threat Assessment Table, chaired by Fernando Grande-Marlaska and which meets weekly, decided to apply complementary measures for level 4 out of 5. Among these measures, the reinforcement of security devices at certain especially sensitive points stands out, such as synagogues, Jewish educational centers or the Israeli Embassy, among others..

1. It is important that we all know the location of the EMERGENCY EXITS and the evacuation routes of the places that we frequent with some regularity, such as work centers, sports stadiums, shopping centers or places of leisure.#WhatToDoInAnAtentado pic.twitter.com/ Cw3m7zESTE

— Ministry of the Interior (@interiorgob) December 18, 2017

The different people responsible for State security participate in these meetings, such as the Secretary of State for Security and the General Director of Coordination and Studies.. Representatives of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the National Police, the Civil Guard, the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Ertzaintza, the Intelligence Center of the Armed Forces (CIFAS) and the Department of National Security also collaborate..

Although complementary measures have been activated for level 4 of anti-terrorist alert, the Minister of the Interior ruled out raising this alert to level 5. This level would be reserved for possible imminent attacks in national territory, deploying the Army in sensitive points and with large concentrations of citizens..

The investigating court 3 of Manresa, in Barcelona, has agreed to provisional release for those detained in Catalonia of a neo-Nazi network, as explained by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) in a statement this Thursday..

The case has been pending in this court since April of this year for the crimes of constitution, membership and direction of a criminal organization; crime against the exercise of fundamental rights and public freedoms; crime of illicit possession of weapons and explosives and public health crime.

The magistrate has agreed, according to the prosecutor's office, that she has not requested provisional release for any of the detainees: six of them with weekly appearances before the judge and the other six at the disposal of the court, as long as they are required.

police device

The Mossos d'Esquadra and the National Police began an operation against this organization and 16 people were arrested in Catalonia, Madrid, Lugo, Toledo and Málaga. The device focused on Combat 18, a “criminal organization linked to national socialism and white supremacy”, whose objective is to violate fundamental rights and public freedoms, promoting hatred for racist and ideological reasons..

During the investigation, it has been possible to determine the degree of participation and militancy of the detained people, as well as the international relations with members of Combat 18 in other countries, both in Europe and South America..

The statements about Palestine and Israel by the ministers of Sumar and Podemos are an almost irrelevant anecdote in the enormity of the Middle East conflict. But a Government that allows its ministers to make uncoordinated and reckless statements about such a serious conflict should question whether it is really prepared to continue exercising the European presidency..

During the years that I was an advisor to the European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs on the Middle East, we used the motto that “the greatest success is not making a mistake”. In an area where interests, emotions and the weight of history are always on the surface, the watchword must always be prudence.. And even more so now, when we don't even know if what we are facing is a response to a terrorist attack, a confrontation between Israel and Palestine, a regional conflict or a possible global conflict..

Apart from alleviating the humanitarian situation, the most important thing is to prevent the conflict from spreading. Therefore, everything that is done or said now has to avoid that inflammation, even if it means keeping quiet about things that one thinks.. That is what the majority of leaders of democratic countries are doing.. That is why statements are copied and they avoid commenting on things whose effect is still uncertain.. For example, it is not yet clear whether establishing a corridor to Egypt for the civilian population of Gaza is a wise measure or not, because if that removes the historical echoes of the displacement of the Palestinian population, it could do immense damage; That explains why there are still almost no public statements on the matter..

When things are as serious as what is happening in Israel and Gaza, the international community has to know its place and row in favor. That is the only thing expected from a Government like ours that has lost (during this and previous legislatures) almost all the influence it had in the area.. Our mission as presidency is not to weaken the position of the European Union. And the mission of the European Union is to support the actions of the United States, which are the only ones that can temper the response of Israel and that of the Arab world (or Arab worlds, because they are now clearly divided).. What Blinken and Biden are trying to achieve is extremely complex: limit Israel's response, free the hostages, open humanitarian corridors, contain the Arab countries and avoid a regional or global escalation, all at the same time.. If we do not agree with their strategy (and it is unlikely that Europe has a better strategy, and it is also impossible that it could implement it), the only option is to try to modulate the American position from behind, but never publicly open a new gap.

It cannot be difficult for the Spanish Government to submit to this basic discipline, because that is basically what the European Union has been doing for decades in the Middle East: filling the holes left by the American strategy without opposing it.. If the Government now disagrees with the American or European position and thinks that not enough measures have been taken to hold Israel accountable for the Palestinian occupation recognized by the United Nations, the time to question those policies is another, not this.. And this rule of not making sudden changes in position now that could further complicate the situation also applies to the European Commission: even those of us who launched direct aid to the Palestinian Authority believe that it almost makes no sense to maintain unchanged that aid that we designed more than 20 years ago, when there was still hope of reviving the peace process; but this aid cannot be suspended suddenly and without coordination, as the European Commissioner for Cooperation tried to do last week.

In its response to the Israeli embassy's ill-considered complaint about the statements of the Sumar and Podemos ministers, the Government has stressed that all Spanish political leaders have freedom of expression with respect to their opinions.. With all due respect to the Government, all Spaniards have freedom of expression, but Spaniards who are part of the Government have to know when and how to use it. Ministers cannot go around saying whatever they want. That is what distinguishes a minister from an influencer who allows himself to give his opinion on everything without filters because nothing he says has consequences. Being a minister, even in office, is a public position, not a position to please your public. Being a minister of a Government that exercises the European presidency does not require freedom of expression but prudence.

Danny Garcovich moved from Chile to Israel in 1984 with his wife and daughter Dafna.. “Everyone lives in the place where they feel most rooted,” he says.. His place in the world is Kibbutz Kisufim, just two kilometers from Gaza. His house is 100 meters from that of his daughter Dafna and his son-in-law, the Spanish citizen Iván Illarramendi. Both disappeared on the day of the brutal Hamas attack and the Israeli authorities have included them among the nearly 200 kidnapped by the Islamists.. Garcovich attends to El Confidencial in a telephone conversation. He says he has good information because he is chief of the fire department that covers the entire perimeter of the Gaza Strip in Israeli territory.. He advocates for a future without terrorism and reacts like this when asked about a possible exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners: “If to save one life I am sure that I am going to lose 1,000 lives later, painful decisions must be made.”.

ASK. Can you describe your last communication with your daughter and son-in-law?

ANSWER. At 12:30 on Saturday was the last contact. My daughter wrote because she couldn't speak so as not to make noise and not be heard. She asked for “help, help, help” and all communications were cut off because the mobile transmission antennas blew up and the power supply was cut off. We could no longer have contact with them.

Q. Did she report that there were people in her house?

A. She reported that there were people inside the house who spoke Arabic and a little later she reported that they were destroying everything in the house and then she asked for help, she asked that we send someone to help them.

Q. Do they have a safe room in their house?

A. Yes, we all have a safe room.

P. Do you also live in that same kibbutz?

R. In the same kibbutz of Kisufim, yes. 100 meters from where Dafna and Iván live.

P. I was impressed by how close it is to Gaza.

R. It's two kilometers away, yeah.

P. Had they suffered terrorist incursions of this type before?

R. No. Missiles always fell. And, well, the armored room always helps, but in this case, a militia incursion under the cover of the rain of missiles, which lasted for many hours and in quantities that we have never seen, did not. They used the missiles as a curtain to be able to approach and enter and carry out massacres inside the houses, kill entire families inside, shoot them to death or, in the case of an elderly person, burn the house with the elderly person inside.. In the case of another person, cut their throat. They are acts that do not fit within the human mind. If it is a fight between soldiers, it might be a little understandable, but attacking civilians who have nothing to do is terrible and very horrifying..

P. Have you ever considered moving to live somewhere else?

R. Each person lives in the place where they feel most rooted to the earth, where they feel that this is their place.. Haifa [north of Israel and far from Gaza] may be a much nicer place, but they are not exempt from some bombing there as well. We are in our place, we will rebuild our place and we will live again in the same place. I can assure you that, I promise you.

Q. How many years had Ivan been living in the kibbutz?

A. Nine years, more or less. They got married in Spain and arrived at the kibbutz. They bought their house, they had their jobs. Everything was already settled in life. They were even thinking about having children.. They already had everything they should have gotten.

P. You are of Chilean origin, right?

R. Yes, we are of Chilean origin. Dafna came with me and my wife from Chile in 1984.

P. What does Dafna do?

R. She is the head of a quality control department at one of the factories that was here in the area and Iván is the dining room manager at another kibbutz to the north.. It's north of us, about eight kilometers away.. What I am telling you about what happened in the kibbutz where I live is a grain of sand compared to what happened in that other kibbutz: death, massacred people, families, children, old people.. Because? It is an act that would be applicable to Daesh. I don't think a sane person could do this..

P. Have you been able to speak with Iván's relatives in the Basque Country?

R. Yes, we are in contact with them, with Iván's brother. He is very sad, he doesn't want to talk much, he doesn't want to talk to you journalists, he is locked up, thinking, I ask you to leave him alone, to respect him, it is very important.

P. What information have you received from the Government of Israel?

R. As head of the fire brigade in charge of the Gaza Strip from the north to the Egyptian border, in Israeli territory, I have quite a bit of information. Information is given to people in an orderly and safe manner so as not to cause further harm and cause public alarm.. You have to try to pass the information very carefully, because there are older mothers and relatives who could be harmed.. It is not necessary for me to inform myself on that side because I am aware of several things.

P. And without endangering your safety, do you know where Dafna and Iván are?

R. No. As long as I don't see proof that they are kidnapped or Hamas gives any information or the Red Cross offers some information, for me they are missing.. As a father, in my heart, I have pain, but as a rescuer used to seeing tragic cases, we have 50% hope that the news can be positive.

P. The other day, a mother in a similar situation to hers, with a missing daughter, said she didn't know if she would prefer her to be dead or kidnapped by Hamas.. What do you think?

R. We all prefer to know the truth. As long as she is kidnapped, we have 50% hope that everything will turn out well in the end. The governments, both yours and Chile, the International Red Cross and everyone, are trying to act to obtain information. The moment we are sure and we receive information about what state they are in, then I will be able to say that we have a hope that will not be 50%, but 75%. But we are dealing with people who cannot be described as human. Everything is possible until we know reality.

Q. If you could talk to Benjamin Netanyahu, what would you ask him?

A. Let Netanyahu decide what he sees fit. I do not intervene in their work, they do not intervene in mine. The only thing I would like is for them to make intelligent decisions, because if they are intelligent we are going to achieve a world free of terrorists in this area.. They are a pain not only for us, but for their own people. They are using their people as hostages. They hide in hospitals, we have seen a bombing in a hospital and it is not because Israel has committed a war crime but because they are firing missiles from there and there are people who are hiding. The ringleaders are hiding, using their own people as human shields.. It is important for us to end this and root out this problem to also give the Palestinian people the opportunity to live in peace..

R. On occasions, exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners have been negotiated…

R. [Interrupts] One in 1,000! One for 1,000, one soldier for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. And I tell you what the citizens of Israel think: there is nothing more important than a human life, but to save a life, if I am sure that I am going to lose 1,000 human lives, painful decisions must be made.. That's what I can tell you. What will I think in 24 hours? Don't know.

Q. What, for you, is the solution to this secular conflict?

A. We are dealing with an organization that is like Daesh. We are not going to stop.

Q. The international community insists these days on the two-state solution. Do you agree?

A. Of course it is possible to build that and live in peace and harmony, as long as there is no terrorist organization that does things even against its own people to take care of their interests.. Not only does it come from here, it also has to do with the financing that comes from other countries that are interested in maintaining this. The attack has been very well planned.

Q. Do you fear that an Israeli intervention in Gaza could lead to reprisals against the hostages?

A. They have already said it. If Egypt itself does not want to open the border so that terrorists do not enter… I am sure that they will be able to do anything.

It is possible to reach the greatest abjection. It is achieved when someone calls a Jew a Nazi. This expletive is the epitome of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic propaganda in which certain ideological sectors militate – not only on the left –, comfortably installed in the European and North American mildness.. These sectors try to locate the best argumentative alibi to attack the right of the State of Israel to defend itself – although not all Israelis are Jews – and to, by comparing them with their Hitlerite exterminators, create a thick consciousness of inverse guilt on them.. But the historical reality is different.. The most cruel and obscene pogroms in the 20th century have been suffered by the Jews and, yes, also by the Palestinians, but not at the hands of them but of their Arab brothers in the region..

The massacre of Jews on October 7 is considered the largest and most cruel since the execution of the final solution by the Nazis. Although, long before the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel, in 1929, the Palestinians already staged a sadly remembered pogrom in the city of Hebron, incited by Al-Husayni, grand mufti of Jerusalem and ally of Adolf Hitler.. The wars in Israel (the intifadas and limited war clashes from the beginning of this century until 2021 are different) have been waged with the Arab States of the region, which have culpably and hypocritically used the Palestinians as cannon fodder. and, as is now happening in the Gaza Strip, also as human shields.

In fact, the Arabs—Jordanians and Lebanese—have been the protagonists of massacres of Palestinians.. The first, in September 1970, when King Hussein of Jordan devastated the Palestinian communities in his country due to the risk that they would destabilize his kingdom.. The second dates back to September 1982 in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, in Lebanon.. The Lebanese Maronites put the Palestinians to death in an action of unspeakable revenge. This episode is so embarrassing that anti-Jewish propaganda has already attributed inaction to Israeli troops to prevent collective crime, shifting that responsibility to Israel.. One way or another, Jews are always guilty. Thus they fulfill the universal role of scapegoat for the omissions, indifference, selfishness and fanaticism of Arab countries and many Western countries..

What is happening in the Gaza Strip leaves no one indifferent. Nor to the Jews themselves, who keep in mind the famous and heartfelt phrase of the former Prime Minister of Israel between 1969 and 1974, Golda Meir (1898-1978): “I can forgive them for killing our children, but I cannot forgive them for killing us.” force them to kill their own”. This expression contains all the frustration, all the anguish and all the determination of a people who have been permanently harassed for centuries..

Months before the Hamas terrorist attack, thousands of permits were being processed for Gazans to cross the border and be able to work in Israel. The supplies and transportation of inputs were normal and touring the vicinity of the territory allowed us to observe, as in the West Bank, a clear improvement in the living conditions of the Palestinians, thousands and thousands of them employed in Israel.. Many Israelis, including our friend Enrique, an Argentine Jew, have lived for many years in the vicinity of Gaza and until the Hamas attack they have done so with reasonable security.. On Sunday, October 8, we contacted him. His response—the last one, we haven't heard from him again—was brief and very much his style: “This is getting ugly, very ugly.”.

The control of these territories of Gaza and the West Bank by the Palestinians is absolute. In the months of April and May of this year, on a trip to Israel traveling from north to south, it was not possible to enter several cities, for example, Jericho or Ramallah.. Neither Jews nor visitors could do it.. Bethlehem is under such Palestinian command—which also controls the Church of the Nativity there, as well as the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem—that Jewish guides cannot accompany foreigners who want to see the city.. And more information: the community of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem – with some of whose representatives I had the opportunity to speak – is already a small minority crushed by their Muslim compatriots..

Hamas knew that its attacks would provoke Israel's reaction (as Juan Soto Ivars has written, there is no possible proportionality in the response, as there has not been in the previous terrorist intrusion) and it discounted that this same reaction would serve to victimize and defend itself. of the counterattack with the human barricade of the Palestinians of the Strip, who have been ordered not to evacuate the northern area. No country so far has offered truly effective measures to rescue the Palestinians.. The territory has a southern border with Egypt of more than 13 kilometers and a coastline of more than 45. The blatantly cruel behavior of Hamas (and Hezbollah) towards the inhabitants of Gaza is in sympathy with the instrumentalization of some States in the region that have armed the terrorist organization and that sacrifice without lifting a finger the Palestinians to make it fall on them. Israel all the blame for its fate. They are those States that seek the annihilation of Israel, but would never consent to a Palestinian State.

We must not fail to remind the Government of Israel that it has the inescapable obligation to respect international treaties and preserve the lives of the Palestinians as much as necessary, without giving up their permanent comprehensive defense.. But to an even greater extent, Arab countries must also stop being, by action or omission, executioners of the Palestinian people, whom they treat as a pariah and subaltern community.. Finally, progressivism on both sides of the Atlantic has been served with the critical reflection (“The moral insensitivity of the left”) signed by 73 Israeli writers, sociologists, journalists, historians and political scientists, published last Tuesday in the newspaper El País. This is how the text ended: “We urge our counterparts on the left to return to a politics based on humanist and universal principles, taking a clear stance against the abuse of human rights of any kind and help us in the fight to break the cycle of violence and destruction”.

The clash between the PP and Vox in the Balearic Islands has also shaken the ultraconservative formation. This Wednesday, Santiago Abascal's party dismissed the deputy spokesperson in the regional Parliament, Francisco Cardona, just 24 hours after the clash with the group led by the president of the islands, Marga Prohens.. The popular party presented a proposal for a spending ceiling to articulate the 2024 budgets, but Vox voted against it in retaliation because the PP previously rejected its plan to implement free choice of language in schools in the region. Cardona defended supporting the initiative of his partners.

The linguistic issue has caused a small earthquake in the region. The future of the Prohens Government has been compromised after the first confrontation with Vox, which does not have executive responsibilities but is essential to carry out any initiative.. This Tuesday the tension skyrocketed in the plenary session after only a few months of coexistence.

The PP abstained from its partners' motion on language because it could not present its amendments to the motion, and then the conflict broke out.. Once their proposal was rejected, the ultraconservative party blocked the budget project along with left-wing groups..

The vote on the spending ceiling, a previous step to preparing the accounts, sparked a debate in the formation. Popular sources consulted by this newspaper explain that Vox had not proposed anything other than supporting the initiative, but finally voted against and left the immediate future of the Executive in the air.. Idoia Ribas, spokesperson for Abascal's party on the islands, justified the decision after the plenary session. “We do not have sufficient guarantees that with this spending ceiling the agreement we have with the Popular Party to guarantee the stability of government on these islands can be fully fulfilled,” he declared..

The vote and the exchange of reproaches between the two right-wing parties has uncovered an internal crisis in the parliamentary group. Only 24 hours after the clash, Ribas struck down Cardona as his deputy in Parliament. This newspaper has asked Vox in the Balearic Islands about the reasons for the dismissal, but they have declined to make any comment on the matter.. Ribas' second from now on will be deputy Sergio Rodríguez.

The situation in the Balearic Islands has come to a standstill. Vox declared after the plenary session that it hoped to recover the negotiations to bring its proposal for the language to fruition, but the truth is that its internal problems have interfered. The sources consulted by this newspaper assure that the group headed by Idoia Ribas has asked for one day before resuming contacts, so they will not sit down again until this Thursday at least..