Knesseter Yitzhak Navon, chairman of the Zionist General Council, viewed Spain’s “cold shoulder” to the World Jewish Congress as a Spanish failure to foresee the magnitude of Arab protests to any friendly Spanish gestures to the WJC.
Navon, who has recently returned from Spain, said today in a radio interview that the WJC convention did not come as a surprise to Spain and it had indeed intended in the first stages to send the Deputy Justice Minister to the convention and have the King hold a reception in honor of the Jewish delegates.
Thus, Navon suggested, rather than blame WJC leaders for failure to foresee the Spanish attitude, one should blame Spain for giving in to Arab pressure. Spain had an interest in having the convention take place in Madrid, perhaps in order to strengthen Spain’s new, liberal image, Navon said.
Navon added, however, that perhaps it was not correct to “test” Spain’s intentions at this early stage. “Perhaps there was too much of a playup of the pending events with the King and the Deputy Justice Minister, perhaps we should have kept a low profile.” he observed. Navon explained the Spanish attitude in the context of a negotiated $2 billion loan from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Spain, “and perhaps a political act of some sort at the United Nations.”
He added that he did not believe the affair would have any special effects on future relations between Israel and Spain. “What happened now reflects much more the present than the future, it reflects the struggle of Spain between the old and the new traditions,” Navon said.
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