I’m wondering whether I should admit this in public, given the nefarious role some people assign to me as a Jew, but I’ve just come back from a few days in Barcelona.
That’s Barcelona as in Spain (well, to avoid anger from the locals I should say Barcelona in Catalonia). And Spain as in the country which was invaded by an influx of some 69,000 illegal migrants last week. It wasn’t the Spanish mainland which was invaded, of course, but Ceuta and neighbouring Melilla on the north African coast – separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar.
You’ll have seen the chaotic, appalling scenes on TV. At one point there were more migrants in Ceuta than residents who live there. And yet still there are those who deny that Europe and the UK face a migrant crisis, and who continue to argue for varying forms of open borders. But those arguments are for another piece. I’m more concerned here with the explanations offered by some people as to what – and who – was behind the invasion of Ceuta.
Have a guess.
Ok, I’ll give you a clue. It’s a four-letter word. First letter J. Third letter W. The second letter is a vowel. The last letter is S.
I know, it’s a difficult one, isn’t it? Final clue: it’s the same word – the same people – who are blamed for everything.
I was indeed in Spain. But honestly – although who will believe me? – I really had nothing to do with the migrant invasion. I was too busy eating Catalan food to have time to coordinate 69,000 migrants off the north African coast.
But according to the "The Jews did it” crowd, it really was The Jews. The Ceuta invasion supposedly stems from a 2019 social media post by Yair Netenyahu (son of Bibi). Candace Owen, for example (she’s the conspiracist being sued by the Macrons for insisting that Bridget Macron is a bloke ) pointed to Netanyahu’s post saying that Israel would not fund “NGOs in [Spain] calling you to give away Ceuta and Melilla, and [Spain] will stop funding NGOs in our country that call us to give away Judea and Samaria.” A different poster wrote that, “This entire charade was orchestrated by Zionists to teach Spain a lesson and set an example for other nations if they don’t get in line.”
If you can’t follow any of the logic in that last paragraph, let me assure you that the real worry would be if you could follow it.
A Spanish fellow conspiracist, Ana Alcalde – who now styles herself as “Gaza Barbie” after taking part in one of the Gaza flotillas – posted that it was all part of “a plan to take down a progressive government like the one of [Spanish Prime Minister] Pedro Sanchez.” She has since added Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump to the invasion plan. And Alex Jones, the notorious US far-right poster asserted that “Israel launched an Islamic invasion of Spain” because the US was “backing Netanyahu’s plan to launch an Islamic invasion of Spain from Morocco.” Aha. Now it all makes sense. If, that is, you are a lunatic driven round the bend by Jew hate.
Others have pointed to a piece in March by Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in DC, in which he highlighted the hypocrisy of the current Spanish government’s anti-colonial rhetoric – while maintaining north African colonies. Rubin said Morocco should cross unarmed into Ceuta and Melilla and raise the Moroccan flag. Rubin is a Jew – and that is enough for the "The Jews did it” to blame the invasion of 69,000 migrants on The Jews.
You do sometimes have to admire the ingenuity of the antisemites. How can anyone not love the idea of 69,000 illegal migrants in Morocco reading an article by a senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and deciding to turn his satire into reality? It’s a genius way of shoehorning The Jews into the Ceuta invasion.
Then there is Morocco’s excellent military and intelligence relationship with Israel, which has added to the frisson. Morocco doesn’t wish all Jews dead, so that proves it must be in cahoots with Israel to invade Spain. Obviously.
If The Jews are all powerful, something seems to have gone badly wrong. Most of the migrants have been pushed back, and the Spanish government remains in power. Perhaps I left Barcelona too early.
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