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Mass Migration (Invasion?) Flashpoint
The biggest news of the week is the ongoing Moroccan invasion of Ceuta, Spain. Ceuta is not on the European mainland but on the North African continent. Most recent estimates put about 60,000 migrants having crossed into Spain's North African territory, and the footage of the invasion is catching worldwide attention.
Given footage of Morocco's Royal Gendarmerie standing by while truckloads of men unload and rush the border, and the lack of any apparent effort by Morocco to prevent or control the situation, the situation seems to have been coordinated with Pedro Sanchez describing the situation as an "attack."
Amid the outrage on Twitter, old tweets resurfaced from Yair Netanyahu calling on Arabs and Muslims to invade Ceuta in 2019:
Spain's left-wing government has been extremely hostile to Israel since 2020, with Netanyahu saying in April that Spain will "pay an immediate price" after Spain denied port to cargo ships containing weaponry for Israel.
Spanish diplomats and political commentators have begun alleging the support of Israel in facilitating the Moroccan "migrant" crisis. Morocco is an ally of Israel and the United States after having signed the Abraham Accords in 2020.
Although on the face this may seems like a stretch, Israeli government officials and the Israeli Foreign Ministry sent out tweets congratulating Morocco for its "Throne Day":
And from the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs:
It is quite these officials heap praise on Morroco on that day of all days. Other Israeli officials were more direct in tacitly supporting the attack as a punitive measure against Spain for their opposition to Israel's wars. Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations tweeted:
And Ben Gvir tweeted:
Aside from the veiled threats and gloating coming from Israel in response to this migrant invasion of Spain, what was most surprising to learn was that this exact situation was proposed and supported by the American Enterprise Institute thinktank earlier this year. Michael Rubin, a Jewish Zionist who was a lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote on March 12, 2026 in an article tilted Madrid Bashes Israel, but Spain Is the Colonial Power:
You might say, ok that's interesting but it's not like it's an endorsement of what happened yesterday, except Michael Rubin wrote a follow-up article on March 16 2026 titled Morocco Should Send a New Green March into Ceuta and Melilla:
With Yair Netanyahu's threat to "fund NGOs in your country calling you to give away Ceuta and Melilla", Michael Rubin as a Zionist operative in the American NGO apparatus has done exactly that.
Gates of Toledo
Both Latin and Arabic sources record that Jews of the city "Opened the Gates of Toledo" in 711 to the Arabs that conquered the city and ultimately began Al-Andalus. Although this comparison is being widely made on Twitter, I think Israeli and American motives here would the multi-fold:
While the first motive is the clearest with the most immediate tradeoff, I expect greater expressions of solidarity between Israel and European nationalist and even nativist movements, with Islam as the targeted common enemy.
Edit: Telegraph reports Morocco ‘facilitated migrant crossings’ into Spain, noting that "Western intelligence sources" believe the crisis was facilitated by Morocco as "diplomatic punishment" for its diplomacy with Algeria.
The article notes that it was the single biggest day of migrant arrivals in the history of the EU, at least 5xing the highest number of arrivals in a single day at the height of the Greek migrant crisis.
Therefore, it stands to reason diplomatic scheming on the part of Morocco and its allies created the crisis, rather than an organic migration of people who heard about last month's court decision in Spain.
My thoughts on this turn in two main directions right now:
This is one of the most important issues in the world, if not the single-most. There is an infinite supply of "asylum" seekers ready come to the first-world from the third. It can overwhelm governments, social services, law and order, middle class citizens, the basic functioning of society. It will fundamentally transform the West, which would mean the end of the kinds of lives we are all used to living.
It will not be allowed to happen.
I think there are a lot of well-meaning Westerners who are abetting this destruction. I think this is functionally identical to mainstream Democrat policies, such as the huge border surge that happened under Biden. I think there are a lot of posters here who endorse these outcomes, or who would allow them to happen out of a fear that the alternatives are worse. I think I have a lot of friends who think that e.g. this might be bad, but also it's more important that we stop Donald Trump or pay attention to train policy.
I really want to gently implore a lot of people to take a serious look at Ceuta and consider how to stop this. I think this is the result of policies that are totally mainstream, certainly endorsed by the leftist government currently running Spain. Because if moderates and leftists can't answer this problem, the result won't be simply more Donald Trumps. It will be people far, far more extreme taking power to do whatever they feel is necessary. It will involve a lot of turmoil and suffering. And it can actually still be stopped.
I also want to say I think the Spanish right, from what I can see, is totally out to lunch. The Israel conspiracizing is very bad and very stupid. I have seen worse floating around online -- that this is actually a plot by the Washington-Rabat-Tel Aviv axis to take control of the Straits of Gibraltar. That Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are plotting to carve up and dismember Spain. That Israel and THE JEWS are behind this. (Again, this stuff has very good odds of seizing power if more mainstream parties refuse to do anything about it.)
I don't think Israel has anything serious to do with this. I think Israel politicians and personalities have a very disastrous talent for bad PR, like an entire country raised on Fox News norms of crying in the town square.
Likewise, Michael Rubin is a total nobody. The American Enterprise Institute has some prestige, but they are not actually on the levers of power anywhere. Washington is full of these kinds of institutes. The closest they get to power is generating novel theories for people with actual power to use as bargaining chips. So Spain says that it's not going to support NATO initiatives and Marco Rubio can respond, well, what if we said you're actually occupying Ceuta? And stuff in that vein.
What I'm starting to see however is a troubling tendency for the European Right to blame America for all its problems. It's America's fault. There's nothing we can do, we're just a small vassal state of the Great American Satan. I think it's a cry of impotence. If the problem were diagnosed as being the fault of Spain's government, there's a lot that could be done to solve this problem. But if it's America's fault, the right can continue its permanent exile because it has no real power, and therefore no real responsibility. An entire generation that wants to doomscroll forever. I think it's disgusting.
If there is any American money behind this at all, it is probably the same complex of unaccountable NGOs laundering money and political power that it has been over all the rest of the world. I don't believe that there is a secret government document titled, "Our Plan to Overwhelm Spain with Jew Power". Quantum of Solace was more realistic. It's not a serious proposal. And thinking along those lines will alienate exactly the allies Spain needs to solve its problems.
This reminds me of the Iran War, which is a whole other conversation I don't want to really get into on this thread. But in addition to all the reasonable positions both sides (yes, I think some of the criticisms made of my arguments that I disagree with are still sane), I think there is a lot of really bad conspiracizing. Total internet nonsense. Iran is emerging stronger than ever, it's going to invade Kuwait soon, the American navy is at the bottom of the sea. It's like something half-intelligible cobbled together by AI. I bring this up to suggest that I'm noticing a trend.
Yeah, no. You can make reasonable argument for the conspiracy being located in Brussels, instead of Washington or Tel Aviv, but an argument that there is no conspiracy, and this is just an issue with the local government is more insane then the conspiracy theories you were sneering at. None of what's happening in Europe has the characteristics of local governments bumbling around randomly, and all the characteristics of a single ideology spreading throughout the elites of the entire European continent, or even the West writ large.
Yeah, instead there's probably a public non-government book (or several) that was written and read by people at the tops of government and corporate power, which may not involve "Jew Power" but definitely has something to say about replacing the native European population, and was never declared official (or even secret) policy, because these people aren't retarded.
I wasn't sneering at all and meant everything I said very earnestly. Please consider that I mean what I say and with the best wishes for Europe and the right when you read the following:
What on earth are you talking about? "The local government?" The "local" government" is the sovereign government of Spain, a country currently managed by left-wing politicians who deliberately supported what is happening. "Bumbling around randomly"? Doesn't have the characteristics of a "single ideology"? What on earth are you talking about?
I know that power in practice is far more complicated than just, "the local government," that Spain is often at the mercy of larger and more powerful sovereign organizations, but come on.
Yes, the people "at the tops of government and corporate power" who want to replace the population of Spain are in fact involved in running the government of Spain! Good grief. Why do you need a conspiracy at all to explain anything at all? It's not a secret, there are powerful politicians putting their names and faces to what is happening, smiling.
Having written all that, I can kind of squint and imagine that what you're saying is that the center of this Open Borders cult is not in Spain. So it's much more than just a Spanish problem. But that still doesn't really address my point: It is also a Spanish problem! The Spanish people actually have significant power to stop this. And they will squander that power if they chase conspiracy theories about the Americans and the Jews. You can fire the Prime Minister and you can impeach the Judges but you can't just sit around waiting for the fall of Rome.
Yes, as opposed to larger political entities like the European Union.
Does have all the overarching characteristics of a single ideology (I may have accidently a word). You know how Spain "is managed by left-wing politicians who deliberately supported what is happening"? Turns out it's not just Spain, but every single western country. Even ones putting on a show of being "right wing". That's why it's "overarching". I don't think that's a difficult concept to understand.
Because everyone is calling me a conspiracy theorist when I complain about it?
Sure, I don't disagree with that at all.
Look, I agree that trying to do something is better than whinging about the powers that be, but I think it's dishonest to deny that there are, in fact powers that be, that will put significant resources into preventing any of this happening. If the Spanish people organize, the entire media apparatus will immediately call them Nazis, dig for any and all dirt that can be dug out, and promote anyone who opposes you. The EU will compel social media companies to throttle your, especially leading up to elections. If by any chance you do win, and start implementing stricter immigration policy, and especially if you start impeaching judges, you will get the Poland-Hungary treatment, and your country can kiss all that sweet EU cash goodbye, and will be fined on top of that.
Again, I don't like whinging any more than you do, but we should not pretend that the challenge is limited to
localnational politics.I don't really disagree with any of this per se, and we're more or less on the same side with respect to the threat of migration. There are definitely larger matters at play than just the politics of the government of Spain. But conspiracy theories about the Israelis and the Americans -- and that's what they are, totally unsupported conspiracy theories -- will waste the efforts of the European and Spanish right. It feels like watching Lee prepare for Pickett's Charge, it's totally all wrong, it's going to fail disastrously. And the fantasy itself that America is behind it all will sap what political will remains, because it's a message that says there's little to be done except to keep watching the TV and hope for the best. This is in fact what I think the major problem is: Europe is losing the will to power, and will accept any fantasy that explains why it's correct for them to have done so.
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