Spain sends two A330 planes to Israel a day after Portugal evacuated Spaniards

@DefAviation ES 10·11·2023 · 12:28 0

Spain has an Armed Forces that are a source of pride, but we cannot say the same about the politicians who give the orders.

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The mistake made with the evacuation of Afghanistan has been repeated

Two years ago I pointed out here the mistake made by Pedro Sánchez's government in the evacuation of Afghanistan. As you will remember, then two A400M Atlas were sent three days after the government announced the start of the evacuation, a fact that demonstrated the government's astonishing calmness and lack of foresight in the face of a serious crisis. This delay made the already dangerous mission of the Spanish rescue teams difficult, formed by members of the Special Operations Group (GEO) of the National Corps, as well as the protection force of the planes sent, made up of soldiers from the Air Deployment Support Squadron (EADA) of the Spanish Air Force.

The Polish evacuation from Israel began last Sunday

Two days ago I told you here about the Polish evacuation of Israel, pointing out that the Polish government sent three planes last Sunday, October 8: two C-130E Hercules and a Boeing 737-800 . I also warned then that given the cancellation of flights to Israel, the Spanish government foisted the problem on the airlines. All this with hundreds of Spanish tourists trapped in Israel.

Spaniards evacuated by Portugal denounce that the government "abandoned them to their fate"

Yesterday the newspaper El Mundo pointed out that Portugal evacuated to several Spanish tourists from Israel. The newspaper points out that the evacuated Spaniards declared: "We will be eternally grateful to Portugal", whose government has acted impeccably, and affirmed that the government of Spain "abandoned them to their fate". Was the government too busy seeing how to fulfill the wishes of the fugitive Puigdemont to deal with the Spaniards trapped in Israel? In short, as a Spaniard I can only feel ashamed and thank our Portuguese brothers from the bottom of my heart. As we often say in Spain, "fortunately we have Portugal left."

Portugal began its evacuation on the night of Monday to Tuesday

The Portuguese Ministry of Defense announced its evacuation mission last Sunday afternoon, and as reported by the Portuguese Air Force the following day, a C-130H Hercules from Squadron 501 flew to Israel on the afternoon of Monday, October 9, to make an airlift with Cyprus. This Monday, October 9, the complaints from Spaniards were already published in Israel for the abandonment of its government, but it was not until after the embarrassment of seeing Portugal evacuating our compatriots, when the Pedro Sánchez government finally decided to do something, three days later for Poland to launch its evacuation operation.

The Spanish government launched its evacuation operation after the news published

This morning, the Ministry of Defense announced the return to Torrejón, Madrid, of the first A330 from the 452 Squadron of the 45th Air Force Group of the Spanish Air Force sent to Israel. The government did not report the start of this rescue operation. This first plane has returned with 200 Spaniards, citizens of the European Union and third countries residing in Spain, who were stuck in Israel since the cancellation of commercial flights last Saturday. Some have had to wait four days to be evacuated.

Likewise, in its message this morning, published at 07:11 CET, the Ministry of Defense stated: "The second military plane has just taken off from Torrejón to Tel Aviv to evacuate the rest of the Spaniards who have seen their commercial flights cancelled." Judging by what was published by the Ministry of Defense, the Spanish evacuation has occurred after the news of the Spaniards evacuated by Portugal was published.

TVE hides the evacuation of Spaniards by Portugal

It should also be added that according to the TVE Libre Platform, yesterday Televisión Española, controlled by the government, hid the evacuation of Spaniards by Portugal. In addition to doing things late, they do not even have the detail to show a minimum of gratitude and recognize the merit that Portugal has had in evacuating Spaniards with an older plane and with less capacity than the Spanish planes.