The footage of 6,000 Moroccans pouring into Ceuta, Spain did not go ignored by Israel’s government, which has watched Spain lecture the Jewish state for years over Gaza and its Palestinian population.
“Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, wrote on X.
Danon’s pointed comment came after diplomatic relations have deteriorated over the past two years based on Spain’s ongoing criticism of the IDF’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Four months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu booted Spain from a multinational facility, called the Civil-Military Coordination Center, operating near the Israel-Gaza border.
Reacting to Israel’s almost-giddy reaction to Spain, AFR host Jenna Ellis called that a diplomatic blunder for a country isolated from much of the world.
“I think that's a serious strategic mistake that doesn't help the current political posture of Israel,” Ellis told her audience and show guest Auron MacIntrye.
MacIntyre, a vocal critic of close U.S. ties to Netanyahu, pointed out that Israel is now accused of instigating the immigration crisis as punishment for Spain’s criticism of Israel.
The supposed evidence for that is a controversial social media post by Yai Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son. The post, which mocked Spain’s proximity to Arabs and Muslims, was from 2019 but that time gap hasn’t stopped critics from seeing Israeli fingerprints after the Moroccan crisis.
“While I don't think that Israel is directly responsible in this particular incident for Muslim migrants coming into Spanish territories,” MacIntyre said, “when you talk like that, you cannot be surprised when people ultimately then decide that you're to blame for this.”
Ellis, who shared that she and MacIntyre disagree over Israel and theology, said she agreed with him that Israel is not helping itself politically.
“We can make a distinction between supporting Israel as a nation,” she said. “We should also be able to criticize some of the decisions there and also the influencers.”
