White lies.

Lies denied.

[José] Blanco claimed that Lebanese civilians were an objective of the Israeli bombings...

However, the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has said that he is not worried about the situation [scil., Blanco's claims]. ... The Prime Minister added that when someone had a criticism of Spain they should not be called Anti-Spanish, and if someone has a difference of opinion with Israel, there is no reason to call them anti-Semite, and doing so was lamentable.

Zapatero said he thought it was normal that there were contradictory declarations given what was going on.

Sr. Blanco is not voicing an opinion -- an opinion is a belief held with confidence without recourse to proof. In many languages there is a special grammatical mood, the subjunctive, identifying such discourse as indefinite.

Sr. Blanco is not presenting his claims as opinion but as fact, which they are not. When the facts are misrepresented they are either mistakes or lies, depending on the intent of the mispresentation. It is our opinion that Sr. Blanco has misrepresented the facts with a purpose, to invent another fabulous "Jeningrad" that shields Hizballah behind natural sympathies for the victims -- and to calumniate Israel.

Like France's miscalculation in the aftermath of UNSCR 1441, Spain thinks to rack up Islamite protection points on the cheap by pretending to a friendly difference of opinion with Israel. Everyone in Riyadh and Tehran knows precisely what Sr. Blanco has said, but Spain clumsily tries to smooth down Israel -- and America -- with "misunderstandings have to be overcome" back-channel platitudes. Let's be clear. Sr. Blanco has not been misunderstood.

Oh, come on, Mr. Olmert, everyone has an opinion.

Unlike Sr. Blanco crafting fantasies into press releases from the safety of a leather upholstered highbacks in the PSOE cocktail lounge, here is an opinion formed on the ground and held at risk. That is to say, an opinion of some worth.

DGB

Ain't them Spanish folks some classy bunch. Tryin' to get human rights recognition for great apes, makin' monkey noises at black soccer players, I guess that's high class. Like to see some of these folks doing the monkey noises in my neighborhood, they might get a serious case of lead poisoning, or an old shool shankin' and beatin'. Now just bein' plain ol' Jew hatin'.

They might not want to do that loudly in the States, Jews here do own guns, some of them even did serve in the Armed Forces.

Spain's getting stupid, are y'all decent folks in Spain gonna let this stand? Or are y'all extinct?

Speak up, or y'all will wake up in al-Andalus.