Franco Aleman links to an excellent post by Fausta on Arturo Pérez-Reverte and just exactly how, well, small, puny, shriveled, limp, and pathetic a prick he is. More anti-Semitism out the wazoo here.

I am honestly convinced most Spaniards are mildly-to-virulently anti-Semitic, mostly not because they thought it up themselves but because Spanish culture is suspicious of Jews. It is. No denying it. Even the Catalans. Maybe especially the Catalans, what with the glorious tradition of Sant Vicenç Ferrer. I mean, they're paranoid enough about Protestants already, and Jews are like ten times as weird and unknown. It is not unusual for people who should know better to make cracks about Jews being unjustly wealthy or unduly influential or innate conspirators around here, and it is not at all rare for Americans to be asked how come they let the Jews run the banks and Wall Street and Hollywood and sometimes the government. Israel tends to receive the brunt of Spanish anti-Semitism; I would estimate that 90% of the Spanish population is hostile toward Israel, which leads them to be sympathetic to the Palestinians' propaganda version of their cause, which leads them to tolerate terrorism in Israel which they certainly wouldn't tolerate in Zarautz or Rentería. I assume that part of the reason for Spanish suspicion of Jews is that there have been extremely few of them here since the Inquisition got going around 1503 or so; there are only a few thousand Jews in Spain today and unfortunately several of the best-known, like the Koplowitz sisters, are in fact quite wealthy. This only adds to the stereotype, of course, since there are very few working-class Jews in Spain.