Israel's Black Basque Beret

Only hours after a bomb ripped through a parking lot at Madrid's international airport, Spain's leftist prime minister, Jose Zapatero, declared a halt to negotiations with the alleged perpetrators of the bombing, the Basque independence group, ETA.

In a press conference following the bombing, Zapatero expressed a very sober and well-reasoned position: "There can be no dialogue with violence," he said, referring to recent pledges by the government to maintain a ceasefire and hold talks with the ETA. And thus, with one quick and decisive move (and with no confirmation that ETA actually was responsible for the incident) Zapatero declared that the talks and the nine month-old ceasefire with the Basque group were over.

Zapatero's position, while quite reasonable when viewed within a Spanish domestic context, is awkward, illogical, and even bizarre when seen in a historico-global context.

The Prime Minister, who was elected after Spain was struck by a jihadist train bombing that was a reprisal for Spanish participation in the Iraq war, initially sold the notion of a ceasefire to the Spanish public by pointing to the fact that the ETA had not committed any acts of violence since 2003.

Zapatero did not argue for talks on the basis of the justness of the Basque cause. He did not explain that the Basques are an indigenous European nationality with some of the oldest ethnic and cultural ties to the land. He did not don a Basque beret and stand smiling with supporters. And he certainly did not make a case that the Spanish government should 'hold talks' with the independence group regardless of prevailing circumstance.

Zapatero's position vis-à-vis the Basques is telling given that Basque entitlement to their land seems to be very clear-cut; the main factor that bars Basque statehood today is not the legitimacy of the claim, but current political and national configurations.

The situation in Israel is quite different to the one in Spain and, when it comes to Israel, so is Zapatero's behavior.

The dispute between Israel and the Palestinians is entangled in a complex set of claims about rights, legitimacy, and necessity. The argument used to support Palestinian claims -- that they were living and working in Israel before the state was established -- is used just as frequently and forcefully to support Jewish claims about right to the land. So, whatever might be considered the possible solution, the dispute itself is deeply complex. And that is why Zapatero's behavior seems so bizarre.

It was only eight days after Hezbollah ignited a war with Israel when, on July 19, 2006, Zapatero sported an Arab kaffiyeh and stood smiling with pro-Palestinian supporters as they snapped photos. Gilad Shalit had been captured by Gaza terrorists less than four weeks earlier in an unprovoked attack that came amidst relative calm. And two Israeli Arab children had been killed by Hezbollah rocket fire only two days before.

Yet Zapatero still saw it fit to show his support for the general Arab cause by placing on himself the textile symbol of 'armed struggle' (known to the armed strugglers as 'jihad') against Israel.

But even more strange, though certainly more subtle, was the Zapatero-led call for a new European initiative to finally bring Israel and the Palestinians to peace.

The plan was announced by France and Spain one day after a Sderot woman was killed by Palestinian rocket fire. Zapatero stood with European allies telling Israel that it must stop shooting, as it was being shot, and that a ceasefire must be declared immediately.

It is unlikely that Zapatero himself has noticed the discrepancy between how he behaves towards Palestinian violence that occurs in the name of an 'occupation' and Basque violence that occurs in the same name. It is difficult to understand why he should so prefer the Palestinian's recondite claims to the Basque's clearer ones as a grounds for engagement and negotiation.

But looking at Israel through a two-way mirror of this type is not new amongst European leaders, and neither is pointing out the trend.

Perhaps, then, the real point is that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, or maybe his foreign ministry Tzipi Livni, should don a black Basque beret just days after an ETA bombing and make very serious calls for an immediate Spanish return to the ceasefire, in the way of establishing an independent Basque state.

Or maybe Israel should take Zapatero's political cue, but cast aside the theatrics, and understand the potential benefit to both Israel and the Basques of taking up the cause of Basque independence.