In the Shadow of the Holocaust and the Inquisition: Israel's Relations With Francoist Spain by Raanan Rein

Author:Raanan Rein [Rein, Raanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781135221904
Google: jc-2AQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 20846425
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1997-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Madrid loses interest in Israel

At the beginning of 1953, Pedro López Garcia replaced the Duke of Terranova as Spain's Consul-General in Jerusalem.37 Unlike the Duke, the new Consul made no intensive efforts to further the cause of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel. Under López García, the consulate seemed to lose some of the vitality that had characterized its activities in Terranova's time. It also lost its capacity to promote material improvement in relations between the two countries. This was partly because of differences in the personalities of the two Consuls, but officials in the Foreign Ministry (which was moved to Jerusalem in the summer of 1953)38 attributed the new Consul's behaviour primarily to Madrid's waning interest in forming political ties with Israel. The report prepared by Joel Barromi at the end of 1953, which included the recommendation to establish an Israeli consulate in Barcelona, remarked:

The previous consul, the Duke of Terranova, has more than once made overtures concerning the establishment of regular diplomatic ties between Israel and Spain. The present consul, López, has so far refrained from taking any clear steps in this direction. This may be an indication of Arab influence in Madrid.39

Nevertheless, the Consul did take the trouble to inform the Foreign Ministry that it should make haste if it wanted to establish relations with Madrid, 'because of its increasingly close relations with the Arabs.'40

As Israel lost importance in Spain's eyes, various organizations and other entities in Israel made greater efforts to foster rapprochement with Madrid, and articles favourable to Francoist Spain frequently appeared in the Israeli press. The new Consul reacted to most of these friendly manifestations with a mixture of suspicion and hostility, usually declining to encourage them. Behind every one of these initiatives he saw the long arm of the Israeli government - a government seeking credit for diplomatic achievements in a period when its international standing was problematic - even in the case of completely private undertakings or actions by members of the opposition. Apparently unable to grasp the dynamics of democratic political life, this representative of the Francoist dictatorship was prey to various conspiracy theories and negative images of Israel and Jews.

In the fall of 1953, the Israel-Spain Friendship League was established in Tel Aviv. The new organization, founded by a group of right-wing anti-communists headed by the lawyer Rafael Mani, stated its purpose as the creation of an atmosphere more propitious to rapprochement with Spain. In his speech at the foundation ceremony, Mani said:

I cannot accept the way leagues of friendship with mortal enemies and notorious haters of Zion have blossomed in our midst owing to the presence here of traitors and Diaspora-minded Jews, and to the lack of a handful of honest, openhearted people to declare out loud that only those states showing us peace and good-will deserve close relations; and who more than Spain and its people is worthy in all respects? Spain, after all, was one of the saviors of this country's Jews in World War I, and Franco's government was in fact one of those which saved Jews from extermination by the Nazis [.

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