{"id":52235,"date":"2026-07-08T20:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/52235\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:33:09","slug":"carlos-gimenez-quits-friends-of-spain-caucus-citing-madrids-treatment-of-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/52235\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Gim\u00e9nez quits Friends of Spain Caucus, citing Madrid\u2019s treatment of Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Carlos Gim\u00e9nez has stepped down as co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Spain Caucus<\/a>, citing Madrid\u2019s escalating friction with Israel.<\/p>\n

Gim\u00e9nez, a Miami Republican who represents Florida\u2019s 28th Congressional District, attributed his departure to what he called Spain\u2019s \u201cpolitical posturing over moral clarity\u201d in its dealings with the Jewish state under Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n

In a Wednesday letter<\/a> addressed to S\u00e1nchez, Gim\u00e9nez laid out several grievances. He said Spain\u2019s government has waged an \u201cescalating, hostile crusade\u201d against Israel at a moment when the country \u201cfaces existential threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other terrorist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He accused Madrid of normalizing rhetoric that \u201ccrosses the line from legitimate policy disagreement into raw antisemitism,\u201d which he said enables movements seeking to \u201cexterminate\u201d Jewish people.<\/p>\n

Gim\u00e9nez also decried what he called Spain\u2019s \u201cunprecedented and shameful decree\u201d barring members of the Israel Defense Force (IDF<\/a>) and Israel officials from entering Spanish territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTo bar the brave men and women of the IDF \u2014 who are fighting on the front lines against the very radical Islamic terrorism that threatens all of Western Europe \u2014 while your political apparatus simultaneously legitimizes terrorist networks and accommodationist policies, is a betrayal of Western values,\u201d he wrote, perhaps referring to Spain\u2019s recognition of a Palestinian state<\/a> and S\u00e1nchez\u2019s equating Israel with Russia and Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreating democratic soldiers as personae non gratae while rewarding the architects of terror is an insult to the United States and our shared strategic interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited Spain\u2019s October arms embargo<\/a> on Israel and its March closures<\/a> of airspaces and ports<\/a> to allied defense transports, arguing those steps have placed the country \u201cfirmly on the wrong side of the global fight for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gim\u00e9nez said that while he hopes Spain will eventually return to \u201ca foreign policy rooted in the defense of Western allies and moral clarity against terrorism,\u201d he can no longer be part of a caucus meant to celebrate America\u2019s friendship with Spain while Madrid, in his view, undermines democratic principles.<\/p>\n

His break with the caucus lands amid a broader deterioration in U.S.-Spain relations. President Donald Trump told reporters at a NATO summit in Ankara this week that Spain is a \u201cwasted cause<\/a>\u201d and floated ending trade with the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez, meanwhile, insisted U.S.-Spain relations remain \u201cvery positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump previously threatened Madrid over trade after Spain refused<\/a> to let American aircraft use its bases during strikes on Iran and after it declined to meet NATO defense-spending targets.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez has been among Europe\u2019s most outspoken critics of Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, where deaths have topped 73,000<\/a>, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.<\/p>\n

Israel launched a war on the narrow strip of land, which abuts the Mediterranean Sea, after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing an estimated 1,200 people and kidnapping hundreds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spain has also denounced a newly passed Israeli law allowing capital punishment for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, with S\u00e1nchez calling it an \u201casymmetrical measure\u201d and \u201canother step toward apartheid<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those tensions have accompanied a documented rise in antisemitic offenses in Spain, with the country\u2019s Interior Ministry reporting an 86% jump<\/a> in such cases last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Carlos Gim\u00e9nez has stepped down as co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Spain Caucus, citing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[668,22463,22464,22465,32,82,205,17],"class_list":["post-52235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-antisemitism","tag-carlos-gimenez","tag-congressional-friends-of-spain-caucus","tag-friends-of-spain-caucus","tag-israel","tag-madrid","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}