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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026

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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:

Dear Arabs and Muslims. Want to free occupied Arab Islamic lands? Here’s a good start!

Let’s make a deal, we won’t fund NGOs in your country calling you to give away Ceuta and Melilla, and you will stop funding NGOs in our country that calls us to give away Judea and Samaria

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":

To the Kingdom of Morocco, its leadership and its people, we extend our warmest congratulations on the occasion of the Glorious Throne Day.

And from the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs:

Congratulations to King Mohammed VI of Morocco as he marks the 27th anniversary of his accession to the throne. Under his leadership we are working to further cement the ties between our two countries.

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:

Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy.

Maybe before it continues lecturing us, it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa.

And Ben Gvir tweeted:

My congratulations to the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, for his profound commitment to welcoming immigration and "human diversity."
As someone who demonstrates great concern for Hamas and the residents of Gaza, I call on you to translate words into actions: open the doors of Spain and grant refuge to the residents of Gaza who seek to emigrate. This is an excellent opportunity to contribute a little more to Spain's "human diversity."

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:

President Donald Trump ended his first term by recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, righting a historical wrong that had chaffed Morocco for decades. As Spain turns against the West and doubles down on anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio should right another historical wrong and formally recognize Ceuta and Melilla as occupied Moroccan territory. Sánchez will not do the right thing voluntarily, but perhaps his legacy nevertheless can become the end of Spanish imperialism in Africa.

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 Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez embracing the language of decolonization, Mohammed VI should reclaim the spirit of the Green March to finalize the expulsion of Spanish colonists from Moroccan soil. Ceuta and Melilla might be relatively tiny towns, but they represent illegitimate beach heads and are home to approximately 170,000 Spanish settlers. They are a weak spot for European security since African migrants regularly rush the fence to claim asylum.

Moroccans should gather, send bulldozers to the border, and then enter Ceuta and Melilla unarmed to raise the flag. Sánchez and the Spanish press bleat, but they have no grounds to act. Nor, for that matter, would NATO, even if Moroccan forces entered the towns to restore order and organize the dispatch of settlers across the Strait of Gibraltar and back to Spain.

...

Sánchez should do the right thing: make good on his anti-colonial rhetoric, and end Spain’s occupation in Africa. Meanwhile, authorities in Cádiz should begin preparations to receive displaced Spanish settlers, whether Madrid acquiesces or not.

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:

  • Weaken, likely collapse left-wing Spanish government that has been the biggest European thorn in Israel's side.
  • Animate European Nationalism against Islam.
  • In doing so, aim for higher coupling between Israel and European Nationalist movements, posturing both as opposing the same threat.

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.

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.

this is actually a plot by the Washington-Rabat-Tel Aviv axis to take control of the Straits of Gibraltar

How Britain has fallen. Such a sad state of affairs... and yes, I'm sure in this conspiracy they fall under "Washington's vassal", but my point is that if there's one place they shouldn't, it's the Falklands. If there's two places, the second is Gibraltar.