This title of Jonathan Tobin's latest column is exactly the way Hitler and the Nazis started thinking when their economy went downhill. But now we have social media, and that spreads the poisonous lies against Jews even faster than Hitler did.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To antisemites, Israel and the Jews are the reason for everything.
Blaming the Jews for a crisis in a Spanish enclave in Morocco shows how “genocide” blood libels spread. Meanwhile, Europeans face a real problem: Muslim immigration.
"The least surprising aspect of last week’s astonishing spectacle in a
Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa was who was blamed for it.
Within hours of a crisis caused by as many as 60,000 Moroccan citizens
swarming into the port of Ceuta, a technically autonomous city that
belongs to Spain, Jew-haters on the right and the left, in addition to
social-media accounts around the world, began spreading the claim that the entire thing was a plot hatched in Jerusalem.
"Antisemites
in the 21st century, just like the ones who perpetrated the Holocaust
in the 20th century and persecuted Jews for two millennia before that,
have the same belief system. When it comes to the world’s problems, no
matter what the question, the answer always lies with the Jews. This
particular set of conspiracy theories about Morocco and Spain was
quickly debunked and dismissed as nonsense by all but the most extreme
and paranoid Israel-haters. But the exercise was nevertheless
illuminating.
The same lies and liars
"That’s because
we have seen the same sort of ill-informed thinking, dubious
dot-connecting, obvious prejudice and online algorithms at work in the
34 months since the horrifying atrocities of the Hamas-led Palestinian
Arab assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In that time, the same
lying activists and influencers spread blood libels about Israel
committing “genocide” and being an “apartheid” state. They have been put
to use to create a narrative by which the side that actually intends to
commit genocide—the Palestinians—was depicted as the innocent victims
of the war that followed and the Israeli victims of Oct. 7 were painted
as genocidal monsters.
"The fact that a left-wing activist and inveterate Israel-basher like actor Javier Bardem would promote
the notion that Israel had hatched a plot to somehow induce tens of
thousands of Moroccans to push their way into Spanish Ceuta without
legal permission makes sense only if you see the whole world through the
lens of Jewish conspiracy.
"His reasoning, if we can dignify it
with that term, is rooted in the fact that the Spanish government led by
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is the most anti-Israel in Europe, and
given the hate for the Jewish state on the continent, that’s really
saying something. Anything that embarrasses Sánchez or points out his
hypocrisy must have an Israeli origin. Fellow leftist Ana Kasparian,
co-host of the far-left “The Young Turks” podcast, agreed.
"The
same kind of motivation led American podcasters and antisemitic
conspiracy theorists Candace Owens and Alex Jones to chime in, backing
up claims about the Israeli origin of the incident. They pointed to a
seven-year-old tweet
by Yair Netanyahu, the 35-year-old son of the Israeli prime minister,
when he pointed out and poked fun at the Spanish government’s hypocrisy
in opposing the right of Jews to live in their ancient homeland while
claiming that parts of Africa were integral to the Spanish republic.
"And to show how far the rot has spread, they were joined in pointing to that tweet by Sean Davis, CEO and founder of The Federalist (where I used to be a senior contributor), in claiming
that the younger Netanyahu was guilty of encouraging Moroccans to
invade “Spain.” Davis, who was once supportive of Israel, is now so
twisted by his opposition to the war on Iran and his support for Vice
President JD Vance’s refusal to disavow the antisemitism of his
friend—former Fox News host Tucker Carlson—that he, too, thinks that the Jewish state is somehow behind events in North Africa. Later, he also blasted Israel as somehow not caring about the Islamicization of Europe, which is nonsense.
"This
is a time when opposition to Israel has become the organizing principle
of the ascendant left wing of the Democratic Party, and is serving a
similar role on the less powerful but very noisy far right. Both
factions and their foreign counterparts are therefore unsurprisingly
resorting to the traditional tropes of antisemitism. In this way, they
both see, as their medieval and 20th-century totalitarian forebears did,
the Jews and now their state as the scapegoat and the secret key to
understanding all the woes of the world.
A centuries-old conflict
"That this would be the way so many people reacted to the news from Ceuta is both appalling and ironic.
"Ceuta
has been a source of tension between Spain and the Moroccan people for
centuries, with the latter claiming that one of the last vestiges of
Madrid’s African empire (along with the separate enclave of Melilla 140
miles to the East) belongs to them.
"In the centuries after Islamic
invaders were finally expelled from their last principalities on the
Iberian Peninsula in 1492, both Portugal and Spain waged wars to
maintain their hold on the parts of the North African coast closest to
their nations. Spain controlled part of Morocco from the late 16th
century on. They fought a bloody war—known to history as the Rif War—to
suppress anti-colonial Moroccan forces in the 1920s and were on the
verge of losing it until France, which itself controlled even more of
that country as part of its then vast colonial empire, joined forces
with them to suppress the rebels.
"It was from Spanish-controlled
Morocco, including Ceuta, that Gen. Francisco Franco launched his
rebellion against the country’s republican government in 1936. That
began the Spanish Civil War, which his right-wing Catholic and fascist
forces won with the assistance of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. After
the Second World War, Spain lost most of its Moroccan colony, as well as
the Saharan possession, to its south after Franco’s death in 1975. They
managed to hold onto Ceuta and Melilla. But Morocco still claims
sovereignty over both and considers Spanish rule there to be an
anachronistic vestige of a bygone era of European imperialism.
"The
policies of the current leftist government of Spain have, in principle,
been welcoming to immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
That has continued even as other Europeans, like the Italian government
led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have sought to end the flood of
migrants that is altering the culture and identity of their nations.
Indeed, in a shot fired over the bow of Sanchez’s government, Meloni claimed
that what happened in Ceuta was both “shocking” and “striking evidence”
that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a direct threat to Europe’s
border security.
"She’s right about that, though as the Moroccans
who swarmed into Ceuta soon learned, there was nothing for them in the
enclave and no easy path to get into Spain, where they had hoped to find
jobs and a more prosperous life than that available to them in their
native land.
What happened to the anti-imperialists?
"But
though Sánchez, like most other European leftists, has encouraged the
swamping of Europe by millions of mostly Muslim migrants from the Third
World, even he has been adamant in reasserting that Ceuta is an integral
part of Spain. The spectacle of that many Moroccans overrunning the
border into Ceuta caused him to fly there and assert that Spain will not
give it up—and that all the illegal immigrants must go back where they
came from.
"We don’t know what set off the rush into Ceuta, though as The New York Times reported,
Moroccan authorities at the border appear to have let it happen rather
than stop it. But the assumption that somehow Israel must be behind it
as part of an effort to undermine Sanchez is far-fetched.
"Morocco
signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in September 2020, and its
government has treated the remnant of the once numerous Jewish community
there well. The regime led by King Mohammed VI has diplomatic and
security ties with Israel. And that makes it suspect in the eyes of
anti-Israel fanatics. You have to be a devotee of antisemitic conspiracy
theories to believe that this makes it an Israeli puppet.
"Morocco
has its own agenda with respect to Ceuta and Melilla, which it
occasionally deploys to deflect domestic criticism against the
government. You would think that those who claim to be against
imperialism and colonialism would normally be expected to support
Morocco’s claims. Yet in a world in which the only thing that matters is
whether you are part of the international crusade to destroy the Jewish
state, Spanish sovereignty over these enclaves—like the illegal
occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkey—cannot be criticized or exposed
by stunts like last week’s incident.
Israeli schadenfreude
"It’s
true that Israelis and friends of Israel have engaged in some
schadenfreude over Sánchez’s discomfort. Danny Danon, Israel’s
ambassador to the United Nations, did just that when he wrote on X that
“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.”
"Danon’s barb was spot-on, even if some argue
that Israelis should refrain from comments in the hope of not
alienating the right-wing Spanish parties hoping that events in Ceuta
will help defeat Sánchez in elections in 2027 and bring to power a
government that is more sympathetic to the Jewish state.
"The
notion that anything Danon said now or Yair Netanyahu commented on
nearly a decade ago serves as proof of an Israeli conspiracy says more
about those obsessed with the Jews as the puppet masters of world events
than it does about anything Jerusalem does.
"But as mad as all the
conspiracy-mongering about Israel and Ceuta may be, it illustrates what
is driving commentary about Israel. Much like the big lies about famine
or “genocide” in Gaza or the equally libelous claims about Israel being
an apartheid state, the allegations about it being behind the ancient
dispute between Morocco and Spain don’t have to be true for vast numbers
of people to believe it or for false claims to spread like wildfire on
the internet.
How antisemitism spreads
"A detailed report
about the Ceuta border crisis published by the Combat Antisemitism
Movement explained how this worked. Some 173 high-impact posts published
on X in the 72 hours following the July 30 incident that spread lies
about Israel being behind it had a reach of 103.1 million accounts, and
accumulated 57.5 million views and 1.9 million “Likes.” What’s more,
these were not the work of isolated lunatics but of monetized
influencers, backed up by celebrities like Bardem and faux experts like
the antisemitic Kenneth Roth, the Israel-obsessed former head of Human
Rights Watch.
"While this is just one fake story, the “genocide”
blood libels that are believed, as if it were revealed Divine truth by
millions of Americans on the left and the far right, were produced in
the same way with the same bogus sources and magnified by professional
hate-mongers.
"What makes this big lie even worse is that Ceuta
points to a broader European problem—unchecked Muslim immigration from
the Third World—that has materially altered the politics of many
countries on the continent. The red-green alliance of Marxists and
Islamists driving the post-Oct. 7 global surge in antisemitism is rooted
in that development that journalist Douglas Murray wrote about in his
prescient 2017 book, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.
"Rather
than focus on threats to the West that the question of the preservation
of Europe presents, instead the world seeks a Jewish or Israeli
explanation for something that has nothing to do with them. That they do
so is neither an innocent mistake nor the result of a misunderstanding.
It is pure, unadulterated prejudice put forward by unabashed bigots
like Owens and Jones, as well as those posing as defenders of human
rights like Bardem and Roth. And it filters into the thoughts of more
mainstream figures like Davis, who ought to know better, though he seems
to have been drawn by the likes of Carlson into a conspiratorial rabbit
hole.
"This makes it clear that the argument Americans are having
about Israel isn’t really about the merits of a war on Iran or what the
best policy is for combating Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s genocidal
terrorist proxies. The discussion about “genocide” or the fabrications
about Israel manipulating America are examples of the kind of
antisemitism that ought to be confined to the fever swamps of the far
right and left in the same way people should treat the conspiracy
theories about Ceuta. Instead, they are now mainstreamed by the media
and embraced by powerful and loud voices that are having an impact on
both our discourse and elections."
----------------
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS, a columnist for Newsweek
and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American
political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle
East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think
Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin
Daily” program, available on all major audio platforms and on YouTube.
Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief
political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger.
He has won 60-plus awards for his columns, commentary, art criticism
and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on
politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history
at Columbia University.
.jpg)