Spain’s boycott of Israel, Vuelta a España chaos, and more

Spain wants to boycott Israel.

Or at least the current leftist government does.

Here’s the story: last week, the government announced a package of sanctions designed to break Spain’s ties with the Israeli arms industry.

(There were other measures as well, but that’s the main thing.)

Meanwhile, the Vuelta a España cycling race was cut short due to disruption from anti-Israel protests – supported by President Pedro Sánchez and other left-wing politicians.

And now the government is talking about the need for a blanket prohibition on Israel’s participation in international competitions of any kind – not just sports.

Will Spain pull out of next year’s Eurovision song contest to protest Israel’s inclusion?

I don’t know. And I think Eurovision is stupid.

But still, there’s a lot to say about all this, and it’s pretty controversial. Let’s get to it.

Spain’s boycott of Israel – the bullet scandal

A few months ago I wrote an article called Fifteen Million Bullets, about the scandal that was unleashed when it was revealed that the Spanish government was buying ammo from Israeli suppliers.

Since then, it seems like a new scandal of some kind has dropped every week, and that one’s old news.

But now, the government is talking to defense companies like Indra and Escribano (also known as EM&E) about how to avoid using components manufactured in Israel, or even licensed by Israeli companies, in Spain’s military equipment.

All this is in the context of NATO’s rearming, which Spain is also resisting, for ideological reasons – and possibly because there are several buffer countries between here and anyone dangerous.

Anyway, those mobile rocket launchers I talked about in the previous article seem to be one of the things they’ll have to source elsewhere. But there are also the radio systems used by military vehicles, components in fighter planes and more. Other companies like Lockheed Martin over in the US make similar products.

So it looks like Spain is going to take its business to someone else.

Chaos at La Vuelta a España bike race

Meanwhile, in the world of sport…

The Vuelta a España bike race, which finished a few days ago, ended in chaos.

(In case you’re not following pro cycling, La Vuelta is one of the world’s top races, just a bit less popular than the Tour de France.)

The problems started on September 3, when Stage 11 was cut short outside Bilbao.

What happened?

Protestors who were (apparently) outraged at the participation of an Israeli team in the race decided to block the route. This is dangerous for everyone, but especially the people hurtling down the road at top speed on bicycles.

The stage, as I said, was suspended several kilometers before the finish line. And the suspension generated enough media attention that copycats started coming out to protest on other stages.

Some were cut short. Local leftist politicians came out to virtue signal in several areas.

At least one cyclist was injured and had to drop out of the race, after an accident when some idiot tripped out onto the road and knocked him over.

Others reported being doused with urine, or seeing people throwing thumbtacks onto the asphalt, which obviously could get people killed. But it’s all in the name of, um, human rights or something.

(The Israeli team, called Premier Tech, dropped the word Israel from its jerseys, but finished the race.)

The media’s double standard on anti-Israel protests

The Spanish media, who portray anyone with doubts about massive illegal immigration as xenophobic far-right lunatics, is oddly non-judgemental about the fact that a fair number of Spaniards can’t stand the sight of Israeli cyclists on their soil.

It seems like there’s sort of a double standard here. But we’re used to it by now.

(Others have pointed out that Russia was banned from certain sporting events because of the war in Ukraine, but from what I’m reading, it seems that they were already banned because of a previous government-sponsored doping scandal, so I don’t know.)

In any case, taking a stand for a cause is easy if you’re supported by the government and the media, as well as virtually all public intellectuals and celebrities.

And being angry at Israel is the cause du jour for many: it’s been rolled into the progressive Omnicause, along with anti-capitalism, trans rights, racial identity politics, climate change, dismantling the patriarchy, etc.

Why is Pedro Sánchez picking a fight with Israel?

Really, this has been brewing for a while.

Israel withdrew their ambassador to Spain in May 2024 after Spain recognized the state of Palestine. Since then, the rhetoric has escalated on both sides.

It’s unclear to me why Pedro Sánchez is doing all this.

Some people suggest “boycott Israel” is just something he can use to distract the media from his several corruption scandals. And that may be part of it.

My best guess is that he knows his days in Spanish politics are numbered, and he’s trying to become an international leftist figure in what remains of his career as President / Prime Minister. And it might work for him.

Friends of that persuasion from other countries are posting on social media about how great it is that Spain is “taking a stand”. And it’s undeniable that the whole issue is popular among a very loud minority here in Spain.

So maybe Sánchez is positioning himself to be a new, more effeminate Che Guevara – a hero for oppressed (and aspirationally oppressed) people around the world, coming soon to a t-shirt near you.

Maybe there are cushy EU-level jobs he’ll have access to when he’s done with Spanish politics. Or maybe he just wants to be an international celebrity like Greta Thunberg. Who knows?

I don’t like to assume that I can read the minds of complete strangers. Maybe he’s up to something else entirely.

Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni, in the meantime, was recently denied entry to Israel during an official visit to Jordan. Apparently City Hall has a boycott of its own.

(I’m not sure what any of this has to do with the job of “running Barcelona” – for example, taking care of the housing crisis, petty crime, or the fact that 40% of children in the city live in poverty. But that’s me.)

“Good guys” and “bad guys”

To me, this whole thing is a bit irritating. But that’s the world we live in.

The urge to divide everyone into “good guys” and “bad guys” is deeply ingrained in our tribal primate brains, and it’s not going anywhere.

I try to avoid that particular urge, for a couple of reasons. Mostly, because it tends to boil down to “people who agree with me are the good guys” and “people who hold opposing opinions are evil”.

And as I tried to get across in my article about beliefs and identity perfomance, I’m suspicious of people’s stated opinions, and I definitely don’t think that opinions or the repeating of certain slogans make you a “good person”.

Most people are just repeating what’s popular within their social group. They’re not thinking deeply about the issues. They just want to be liked.

So for now, every coffee shop, sports team, and social media influencer feels the need to take a stand on geopolitics and the other issues within the Omnicause.

“Does your matcha latte support Gaza? Because mine does. Also, it’s oat milk.”

It’s easy achieve moral clarity about issues that don’t affect you in any way. Even better if those issues are thousands of miles from where you live.

And protesting?

Well, I can’t think of anything easier than standing around yelling about how other people need to change. (And I’m saying this as a person who went to more than one protest, in my youth.)

Utopia achieved?

The Vuelta a España ended last Sunday, cut short before its final sprint through Madrid.

There was no public podium ceremony, but there was a riot on Gran Vía in which two people were arrested and 22 police officers were injured.

What boycotting a cycle race has to do with global geopolitics is a mystery to me.

In a similar vein, today I read that Radiohead is planning a series of concerts in Madrid, but that some fans are planning to boycott those as well, because guitarist Jonny Greenwood played a concert in Tel Aviv in 2024.

(He’s also married to an Israeli woman, and has been known to collaborate with Israeli artists, as well as musicians from around the Middle East… gasp!)

So activists have demanded that the the group “convincingly distance itself” from Greenwood’s actions. Vocalist Thom Yorke, best known for singing depressing songs about alienation in a high-tech dystopia, is now releasing lengthy statements on Instagram condemning both Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas. As one does.

At the time of publication, the patriarchy had not yet been dismantled.

Lady Gaga could not be reached for comment.

Talk soon,

Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo.

P.S. Thanks to the fan of my podcast who wrote in me asking about the Vuelta a España boycott. Among other things, I learned that the Spanish word “boicotear” has a different nuance than the English word “boycott”. In English, we’re just refusing to buy a product or attend an event because of some moral principle. In Spanish, boicotear implies that you’re stopping the event from happening. I used the English word boycott anyway. Sorry for any inconvenience.

P.P.S. Full disclosure: I probably had a Che Guevara t-shirt when I was younger. I can’t remember, but I think I did. I definitely had one with Kurt Cobain on it, and one with Lenin – not the Beatle, but the Russian revolutionary. In other words, I used to own some the leftist accessories, and share some of the opinions. But over the last several years, I’ve become annoyed by the increasingly off-putting behaviour of people who loudly claim to be “the good guys”. If you’re offended by that statement and decide to attack me online about it, I will either mock or ignore you, depending on my mood. Have a great day!